Drink/drug driving prevalent

City magistrate wants driving program introduced here

TOOWOOMBA had a prevalence of drink-drivers and drug-drivers coming before its courts, a magistrate new to the area had found.

Magistrate Catherine Pirie had spent the past 15 years on the bench at Southport Magistrates Court before transferring to Toowoomba’s courts last month.

During the sentence hearing of yet another drink-driver, Ms Pirie said since her time in Toowoomba she had noted the prevalence of drink-drivers and drug-drivers coming before the courts in the Garden City.

She lamented the fact that Toowoomba driving offenders did not have access to the Queensland Traffic Offender Program (QTOP) which was available on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and in Brisbane but not up on the Range.

The QTOP was a three-week course that gave offenders an insight into their offending and she had feedback from program participants who said they had wished they had done the program earlier.

“It (QTOP) should be taught to Year 12 students so they know of the dangers of drink and drug driving,” Ms Pirie told Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

She intended speaking with the Probation and Parole Service about such a program, she said.

Her comments came when sentencing Billy Wayne Drury who had pleaded guilty to driving with a breath/alcohol level of 0.065 in Chinchilla on the night of February 25 and to being caught driving the next day while under 24-hour licence suspension on the Warrego Hwy near Warra.

More seriously, before having those matters dealt with by the court, the 33-year-old had blown a breath/alcohol reading of 0.185 after being pulled over by police on Stenner St in Toowoomba about 1.55am, March 21.

The self-represented Drury told the court he had been subject to a lot of stressful issues at the time but had since sought medical and psychological counselling and that he had been sober since.

Ms Pirie noted Drury had a drink-driving offence last year and placed him on 12 months probation to include an appropriate drink-driving program and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for 15 months.