Crash justice
Sir: I cannot agree with R. A. Cline (16 June) that 'minor' motoring offences should be removed from the area of crime and the criminal courts. In saying that someone convicted of driving 'without due care and attention' should not be regarded as a criminal, the writer assumes that this offence (and the others) are committed from 'an error of judgment, a lapse, a momentary act of folly at the wheel of the car,' rather than wil- fully. Surely he must know that many a person convicted of careless driving has been guilty of the most flagrant disregard of the safety of others and is lucky to be saved from a more serious charge. Anyone who travels by car must constantly be aware of the amount of deliberate risk-taking and wilful breaking of speed limits and other rules of the road.
One of the most common stupidities is overtaking when the view ahead is not clear—how can it be said that this sort of wilful disregard for human life should be less condemned than, say, shoplifting or common assault? It is dangerous nonsense to blame the massacres on the roads, as R. A. Cline does, to The inevitable effect of congested numbers, frailer cars and the sheer amount of driving that is the habit of our times.' Such a view provides all too convenient an excuse for those who indulge wil- fully and knowingly in bad anti-social and danger- ous use of the roads. The new Road Traffic Bill makes a start with drunken drivers, but they are not the only offenders where heavy sanctions, backed by vigorous detection methods, are needed. Far from removing from the calendar of crimes motoring offences. we should be pressing for a strengthening of the criminal law to deal with them.
Gordon J. Barrie Faculty of Law, PO Box 363, The University of
Birmingham, Birmingham 15
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