Lawyer critical of drink driving reporting

[tigertim20]

from newstalk ZB
A lawyer who specialises in criminal drink driving cases is critical of suggestions that friends and associates of drunk drivers should be held accountable.

Bay of Plenty Coroner Wallace Bain says that of the 32,000 drunk driving charges handed down every year, 7000 are repeat offenders.

He suggests legislation would make those who fail to intervene with drinkers getting behind the wheel more responsible.

But barrister Karen Harding says you can't expect people to be accountable for others.

"It's not really effective. There is judgement issues. Some people still don't realise a person might be over the limit," she says.

Ms Harding says it's time for the justice system to be more proactive with first offenders, to see if they have a problem with alcohol.

By Nicola Grigg

going to agree with the lawyer on this one for two reasons
1) if you are with your mate who is drinking, you probably are drinking too, so why would your judgementbe any better than theirs
and
2) most of the problems prevalent in our society currently, stem from the inability, or unwillingness, to accept personal responsibility for ones own actions. Such a legislative move would only promote such poor attitudes.

[Winston001]

Agreed Tim. Generally the law does not impose positive requirements to act. You can stand back and watch an assault, a robbery, or a stranger dying of injuries. The exception is the requirement for caregivers to provide the necessaries of life for their children/elderly.

[Usarka]

I agree too.

BUT.

Should people who know about child abuse and do nothing be held to account? If so, why the different principle?

[Haggis2]

Be very hard to enforce and prove through the courts. How about just providing effective deterrants to stop offending in the first place? And even harsher deterrants for reoffending

[tigertim20]

I agree too.

BUT.

Should people who know about child abuse and do nothing be held to account? If so, why the different principle?

You are now talking about a seperate issue.
people who SEE child abuse are not responsible for the person doing the hitting/harm.

Doing nothing about it once you realise whats going on is something else altogether.

[Bikemad]

easy really.............zero tolerance..........no grey area there