The Drunken Driver
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836402800313 |
| Published date | 01 July 1964 |
| Date | 01 July 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Drunken Driver
THE offence of driving amotor vehicle on a road whilst
unfit to drive through drink or a drug, to give it its correct
title, is an offence which never fails to provide a talking point
in any company in which the subject is raised.
The
increase
in the
number
of motor vehicles and the wider franchise of
car ownership today has brought the matter into greater
prominence than before the war.
It
is unfortunately a fact that, as things stand at present,
it is probably the least satisfactory form of trial in the courts.
There
are a
number
of reasons for this. Firstly, it is tried in
the criminal courts according to criminal procedure, which,
although it favours the accused, frequently involves as
defendants persons of perfectly good character and often of a
social level quite unconnected with what might be described
as the "criminal classes", and even an acquittal can cost a
defendant well over a hundred pounds in legal costs.
Secondly, the case involves opinion evidence on
both
sides, always unsatisfactory even when applied to experts, and
thirdly it is a case in which personal prejudices and experi-
ences affect practically everyone involved in the trial, since
the majority of people in court
and
particularly the
jury
are
both
drinkers and motorists.
The
position has been further complicated by certain
changes in procedure over the last three years which have
caused uncertainty among practitioners and the courts.
Although recent statistics are being quoted to show
that
drink
is only a minor cause of accidents, this offence is still a grave
social nuisance and
must
seriously add to the hazards already
present on the roads. One
must
also take into account the
number
of undetected cases which reach their journey's
end
without mishap more by good luck
than
good management,
and
it is doubtful whether the public fully appreciates this
fact.
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