A Spectator's Notebook
THE 1958 parliamentary re- turns for offences relating to motor vehicles is as de- pressing a document as I have seen for a long time, with its revelation that the number of offences and alleged offences topped the million mark for the first time. Some of the information given is puzzling. In the break-down of what happened to the 1,918 cases of driving while disqualified, for example, I see that nine of the cases were dealt with by nothing more serious than a written police warning. Why? Surely every case of this kind should be brought to court? If there are extenuating circumstances the court can take them into consideration. And I cannot believe that a fine is an effective way of preventing disqualified drivers from continuing to drive: yet over a
quarter of drivers convicted on this charge were dealt with by fines only. There is (or ought to be) a distinction between a man who commits a motoring offence, even if it is a serious one such as dangerous or reckless driving, and the driver who, although disqualified, takes out his car; and though I do not believe that imprisonment is a suitable penalty for any type of motoring offence, it does seem ap- propriate for deliberate defiance of the law— to drive when disqualified is, in a sense, contempt of court.
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