Licensed to Kill.
By Megan McPherson
The victims on this site weren't killed by nameless drivers. Each killer is a recycled recidivist drunk or drugged driver, and they have appeared in court numerous times. Prior to killing, the law has either let them back on the road, or they have driven without a valid licence.
New Zealand’s laws for recidivist drunk drivers are wholly inadequate and out-of-date. In many ways the law remains the drunk driver’s friend. Their victims come last.
New Zealand remains one of the few countries in the First World that continually returns drivers licences to repeat drunk or drugged drivers. The penalties for killing, crippling, and maiming other road users are shamefully light. They offer little incentive for repeat offenders to modify their potentially lethal habits. Instead, their sociopathic behaviour kills 50 New Zealanders each year, and they injure a further 700 (TV3 60 Minutes, reporter Rod Vaughn, March 19, 2007) .
There are drunk drivers who have lost their licences 20 times on New Zealand’s roads today. These offenders have been through the legal system time and time again; they know it well. It is highly likely they have driven drunk on a regular basis, only to be caught on atypical occasions.
It is evident that these individuals cannot be educated. The pervasive social marketing advertising campaigns portraying drunk driving have no cut-through with these people. These drivers consider the return of their driver’s licence as a right. New Zealand’s justice system confirms this expectation by continually rewarding these high-risk offenders by returning their licence to kill.
Does treatment work? Treatment programmes have a 10 per cent success rate for first time “graduates” (TV3 60 Minutes, reporter Rod Vaughn, March 19, 2007). Criminologist Greg Newbold recently stated that, in his experience, many alcoholic and drug addict offenders volunteer for treatment programmes in order to advance their case for parole, not because they are interested in others’ safety. We say these drivers must have their licences permanently revoked.
The legal test for manslaughter with a motor vehicle is so high that the vast majority of killer drivers receive lesser charges, and serve less than two years in prison. Most drunk drivers that kill in New Zealand can only be charged with excess breath alcohol causing death; they should be charged with manslaughter, or murder.
It is standard for drivers that kill to be sentenced for manslaughter in Australia, the UK, Europe and the US. The penalties in these countries are usually between five and 20 years. These counties are also far more progressive in their use of innovative measures, including the use of compulsory interlock devices, marked licence plates for repeat offenders, and more efficient police tracking systems. These counties also have higher regard for victims. It is common practice for victims, and their families, to successfully take civil cases against drunk drivers.
Contrast this to New Zealand where in 2007 we endured ACC’s five million dollar mass-media advertising campaign telling offenders that; “we have got you covered, no matter what.” It is indefensible for a tax-funded organisation, headed by a Minister with a drink-driving conviction, to send such an encouraging message to offenders who have no meaningful insight into their self-deceiving habits.
There is little difference between a terrorist walking into a shopping mall and wildly shooting into a crowd of innocent people, and a drunk-driver recklessly traversing the centre line on a public road. Their propensity to destroy human life is the same; their weapons of choice are equally destructive, and the end result for innocent victims is identical.
New Zealand should expect, and deserves, better than the current system which recycles hard-core recidivists. This view is reinforced by recent comments from coroners, judges, the police, victims’ families and community groups.
The need is clear: the community will not be safe until our laws for impaired driving are significantly strengthened. Early intervention, by way of addiction assessment and treatment, for first and second time offenders is needed. And for those who progress to three convictions, an enforced lifetime ban is required. If this ban is ignored, preventative detention measures are required. This should be reinforced with considerably tougher penalties for repeat offenders, including permanent confiscation of vehicles.
The Land Transport Act is too soft on impaired drivers that kill. Prosecutors must be able to successfully charge all drunk or drugged drivers with manslaughter and murder where they kill other road users. This means the current charge of excess alcohol causing death should be abolished.
A law change is not about penalising people for having a beer after work or sport.
It is about having effective criminal sanctions in place for the most dangerous 3,000 repeat hardcore offenders who are most likely to destroy the lives of others.
It is about making the roads civilised, safe places for law abiding New Zealanders.
It is about stopping these people holding road users hostage, and making more victims. Any one of us could be killed, injured or lose loved-ones to the actions of these offenders.
Life is too precious; let’s get these destructive killers off our roads.
Megan McPherson 2007
