Call to seize all DUI drivers’ vehicles
Northern Territory News, Page: 1. Thursday, 16 October, 2008
ROAD safety experts last night called for the cars of ALL drink drivers to be confiscated.
The Automobile Association of the NT said vehicles should be impounded immediately the driver was arrested and held until a magistrate decided what to do with them.
It said the seizure rule should apply to all drunk drivers, not just repeat offenders.
The AANT spoke out as the Territory headed for a record number of road deaths.
With more than two months left of the year, the road toll stands at 64 just nine deaths short of the highest recorded number of fatalities in 1996.
AANT president Bob Bradley said speed was the biggest factor in most deaths this year, but over the years half of fatal road crashes were caused by alcohol.
He said that at any one time 1-2 per cent of Territory motorists were driving while over the legal blood alcohol limit.
“Seventy people were killed or injured in the Port Arthur massacre, and that resulted in the government taking away a lot of guns,” he said. “We’re calling for the government to take away the privilege and the weapon of drink drivers.” Mr Bradley said that a confiscation law wouldn’t affect most Territorians.
“But we’re trying to find a new way of getting through to drink drivers,” he said.
The Territory Opposition has written to Transport Minister Delia Lawrie proposing a watered-down version of the AANT proposal that would see repeat high-level drink drivers having cars confiscated.
The government has rejected the call before, saying that women and children would be the ones penalised in remote communities when family cars were confiscated.
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