TAKE CAR AND LOCK THEM UP

LET’S be clear. Repeat drink and drug drivers are criminals, not ordinary joes who had one too many and were unlucky.

But instead of the courts jailing them and instead of our state politicians growing a backbone and bringing in laws that make forfeiture of repeat offenders’ cars mandatory on the second offence, these people are slapped on the wrist.

Yesterday Southport magistrate John Costanzo seemingly saw red as a woman with a long history of drug and drink-driving offences appeared after being caught driving with cannabis and methamphetamine in her system. “What will it take to stop you?’’ he demanded, before commenting on “a disgraceful state of affairs’’ in which – he said – one in three or four drivers who came to the attention of police were drink or drug driving.

But the court then fined her $900 and disqualified her from driving for six months, despite a long record of previous offences. Similarly, an offender in another courtroom pleaded guilty to his eighth drink-driving charge and, despite a public expectation that repeat offenders are locked away, avoided jail.

An NRMA member survey some years back revealed 96 per cent of respondents believed vehicle impoundment was the way to stop serious serial offenders.

Politicians and soft commentators automatically use the argument that an offender’s family should not be punished through loss of a car. But what about the rights of victims and the public?

In a scathing article earlier this year in Sydney’s Telegraph, Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman and CEO Harold Scruby called for the courts to understand most deaths and serious injuries on the roads are not “accidents’’, but “caused by people who have broken the law, many of whom are recidivists’’. These drivers need to be stopped. It is unfortunate their families will also suffer if cars are seized, but the alternative is tragic loss of life and victims’ families being plunged into unending misery.