Gallacher v H. M. Advocate
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 18 January 1963 |
| Date | 18 January 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 7. |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
HIGH COURT.
Lord Patrick. Lord Mackintosh. Lord Strachan.
Statutory Offences—Road Traffic Acts—Driving under the influence of drink or drugs—Evidence—Competency—Medical examination—Duty of police—Road Traffic Act, 1960 (8 and 9 Eliz. II, cap. 16), sec. 6 (1).
A driver was tried upon an indictment which contained two charges. The first was that he caused the death of two people by reckless driving, and the second that, when driving the motor car on the occasion in question, he was unfit to drive through the influence of drink or drugs. After the accused had been apprehended, a doctor was summoned to the police station to examine him on behalf of the police. The doctor explained to the driver his rights in regard to medical examination and the driver consented to be examined by her. The doctor then carried out an examination of the driver, although, at that stage, he had been neither cautioned nor charged, nor had any charge been preferred against him. The doctor found him to be under the influence of drink to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of a motor vehicle. Thereafter the driver was cautioned and charged by the police with contraventions of sections 1 (1) and 6 (1) of the Road Traffic Act, 1960. At the trial the doctor gave evidence of her examination of the driver and her opinion as to his fitness to drive. He was convicted on both charges.
Held that, there being nothing to prevent the driver being cautioned and charged before being asked to consent to medical examination or to render the caution and charge purposeless, the doctor's evidence was incompetent and should not have been admitted and conviction on the second charge quashed, but that in regard to the first charge, as the Judge had properly directed the jury, that in their consideration, they must leave out of account the fact that there was evidence that the driver was under the influence of drink or drugs, the conviction under that charge should stand.
Reid v. Nixon, 1948 J. C. 68, applied.
Dunstan Edward Gallacher was charged on indictment at the instance of Her Majesty's Advocate that on 18th June 1962 on the Stirling to Carlisle road, Chapelhall, Lanarkshire, about half a mile north of the junction with the Glasgow to Edinburgh road (1) he did cause the death of two persons by the driving of a motor car recklessly and at a speed and in a manner dangerous to the public, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, including the nature, condition and use of the road, and the amount of traffic which was actually at the time or which might reasonably have been expected to be on the road, and by causing the said motor car to collide with another motor car contrary to section 1 (1) of the Road Traffic Act, 1960,1 and (2) he was, when...
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