Australian authorities do not mess around when it comes to traffic offences. They have banned one offender with a bad record from driving for 1 000 years. Do we need this kind of zero tolerance in SA?
Banned for several lifetimes
An Australian man has broken so many traffic laws that he has been banned from driving for 1 000 years.
According to an Australian newspaper, Raymond Morgan has appeared in a New South Wales court 30 times for driving while disqualified. Magistrate Paul Falzon jailed Morgan for 18 months and banned him from driving until December 2999 for driving while disqualified. The ban was extended until December 30 3001 this week after Morgan was caught driving an unregistered car. He was initially stopped because the car’s taillights were not working.
“He’s here again for exactly the same reason he’s appeared before,” Falzon said. “I’d say he has the longest disqualification period of anyone alive in NSW. What aggravates this offence is the continual display of effrontery … the guy just doesn’t want to get it through his head that he can’t drive.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s seven lifetimes. One has to be speechless, surely.”
Falzon said Morgan had also appeared before him for driving a car with no brakes or windscreen.
Coupons for cars
An American man tried to buy a car with 200 coupons cut out of a newspaper and was annoyed when he was turned away.
Chris Sheilds from Maine was hoping to get a 2002 limited edition Toyota Sequoia worth about R300 000. The dealership had given coupons in local newspapers offering about R2 000 off the vehicle. Sheilds collected about R300 000 worth of coupons and tried to buy the vehicle.
Sheilds said he thought he could buy the car with the coupons because the ad did not stipulate customers were limited to one coupon per car.
But dealership owner Jim Boyle said Sheilds could not expect to buy a car with the coupons. “The ad ran as it was supposed to run, and there was nothing misleading or deceptive about it. No reasonable person could possibly expect to piggyback coupons like that and walk away with a new car,” the dealer said.
Mad dash through the station
A Japanese man was arrested after he drove his car through a train station while chasing a woman.
Masafumi Saito drove his car up about 20 m of stairs and down another passage. He was charged with wilful destruction of property after his vehicle struck a handrail at the station in Yamagata.
Police said Saito had shouted at a young woman passing by the station. The woman did not respond and Saito drove behind her into the station. No one was injured.