New Zealanders need to wake up to the idea that the right to use a car on the public roads comes with a responsibility to use it sensibly.

40 is good behaviour.

It’s nearly that good now. A few years ago a young bugger I knew got caught drink driving three times in five years. He was a shocker when he got a few on board & it was sheer luck that he never killed anyone. Offence three saw his license cancelled indefinitely…..”at the pleasure of the Secretary of Transport” was the wording from recollection.

At this stage he realised that in Barry Crump’s immortal words, he was “a fully paid up member of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the space of a few years he’d lost his missus, kids, house & finally his job. Finally he got his shit together & gave up the grog.

Then the fun started…he was a fully qualified plumber & drainlayer so he could get work but had to have a license. He had to apply to be considered for re application, he had to attend drug & alcohol counselling & had to make himself available to give a blood sample at any hour of the day or night for six months. One test was actually taken at his parents’ home at 11.30pm. At the end of this he had to do the full driving test same as he had at age 16.

He’s still on top of things but if “His Honour” is having a bad day when you are getting sentenced for drink driving offences your life ain’t going to be easy.

Peter – s65 of the Land Transport Act provides for indefinate disqualification of repeat drink drivers.

Hard to start the wheels and steer it with your wrists.

Sharia law has a few good points!

If you do not fulfil this duty resulting in death it is manslaughter.

Apparently the ‘Dangerous Driving Causing Death’ was introduced following the reluctance of some juries to convict for manslaughter.

The police use a ‘points’ system with ‘points’ being allocated for aggravating factors in a ‘Dangerous Driving Causing Death’. If over so many points they lay a manslaughter charge.

Surely the technology exists to have a person wear a ankle bracelet that would alert any passing motor car that the driver is banned. Would only activate if traveling over a certain speed (like 30km/h) and would direct the police to the car so they can check who the driver is.

That would mean he can’t be a passenger in a car or use public transport.

How about alcohol breath testers that don’t allow you to start your car if you fail them? For recidivist drunk drivers.

Who was the judge that gave him another slap on the wrist for conviction #41? He or she should be sacked and possibly put on trial if he or she didn’t use the maximum power of the law to prevent this fatality. The same goes for the judges that did next to nothing after conviction #40, #39, #38, #37 etc.

In any case the system needs to change to deal with cases like this.

Regardless, we wouldn’t tolerate a person who repeatedly got drunk and went round discharging a shotgun at random – but we seem to tolerate that type of behaviour if the weapon is a motor vehicle. Repeat drunk drivers may need help, but that doesn’t mean I should be exposed to the deadly consequences of their choices.

I think it would be more effective to tighten up vehicle sale and ownership laws – make it illegal to sell a car to somebody without a valid drivers licence. Vehicles are potentially very dangerous objects (more so than firearms) and they should be treated as such.

They break laws over and over and over again, get fines wiped and then judges are sympathetic towards them.
Harder judges may be a good start.

Maybe we need council controlled local ‘county’ prisons where these people can be put away for 90 days or so.

Or demerits to cater for different levels of offence.

And rather than a lifetime ban I suggest making it an indefinite ban until you can prove you have changed enough to be considered safe enough. It allows for people overcoming factors like unaddressed alcoholism.

Umm, it’s not that hard. I’m completely unsympathetic to the arsehole. These people aren’t poor unfortunate souls that humanity has abandoned, they’re nasty selfish and arrogant bastards who have been offered numerous chances and will never change. It’s a pity he didn’t kill himself in the crash.

The fact it was only “a matter of time” would have been apparent, probably, after the 2nd or 3rd driving conviction. He should have been disqualified for life early on, and when inevitably caught driving while disqualified locked up each time – each new offence should have a longer sentence until the fucker either learns, or is kept confined in jail and off the roads.