Magistrate to the son of a prominent lawyer-politician.

First of all let us say that it is entirely possible that the magistrate had no idea that Jessie DeCouto was Ann Cartwright DeCouto's son. Most people seem to have assumed that he did know but that may well not be the fact. It may be that Mr. Will Francis simply had sympathy for a young man on his first major traffic charge. Whatever the situation, justice has to be seen to be done and fairness requires that sentences be handed down on the merits of the case only.

Of course the public perception will be that the sentence shows favouritism and that a well-connected young white man has been treated more leniently than young black men are treated. That may be the perception despite the fact that Mr. Francis is black.

This case is complicated because Mr. DeCouto was riding an unlicensed and uninsured cycle without a helmet. That does smack of some willful flouting of the law by someone who said he needs his cycle to run errands.

The basic problem, as we see it, is not this particular sentence, but the law.

There is a general perception that drunk drivers are always fined and suspended from all vehicles for at least a year. That is the way it was and that is what the public has come to expect.

In recent months, magistrates, particularly the Senior Magistrate, have begun to exercise discretion in whether or not people are allowed to continue to use some vehicles. It is said that Chief Justice Austin Ward took a hard look at the law and told magistrates they could exercise discretion to ban drivers from specific vehicles.

The result has been confusion for the public... a bus driver convicted of drunk driving was allowed to drive the bus and a firefighter truck driver was allowed to continue driving a truck. The problem is that the exceptions seem to the public in general to be dangerous and unwarranted.

We think that the public expectation of a stiff fine and a blanket disqualification for drunk driving is correct and sensible in a Country which does not want the dangers of drunk drivers added to already chaotic roads.

There are indications that the great majority of serious road accidents are connected to alcohol.

The Senior Magistrate has quite correctly said in the past: "Impaired driving is one of the greatest causes of injury and death.'' The sensible thing now is for magistrates to agree among themselves to go back to a blanket driving ban for drunk driving convictions. The public is not happy about these sentences at all.