Letter to the Editor
Mackay Daily Mercury
It was reported that a woman who was fined $700 for driving at nearly
180km/h and $1200 for having more than three times the legal blood
alcohol concentration (Daily Mercury 12 May 2005 p.18). What a joke!
Behaviour such as that is the type of terrorism we should be
concentrating on removing from our society. Unfortunately our traffic
laws fail to do that.
Under the Queensland law, this driver could have been given a maximum
fine of $2100 for driving under the influence. Compare that with the
maximum penalty for riding a bicycle without a bell, $1500.
Maybe our magistrates and politicians should use riding a bicycle
without a bell a benchmark in deciding what penalties should be imposed
for traffic offences. If something is ten times more dangerous than
riding a bicycle without a bell, then ten times the maximum penalty
should apply. I'd imagine that driving under the influence of alcohol
would then carry a penalty much closer to $200 000 than $2 000.
That may seem excessive, but ask the families of people whose loved ones
have been killed by drunk drivers how much their actions have cost them,
I'm sure $200 000 would be nowhere near the mark.
--
Peter McCallum
Mackay Qld AUSTRALIA