Drink and drug driving

Drink and drug driving continues to occupy much of the Panel’s time and it is a serious social problem. It has always been difficult for insurance companies to prove a person was driving under the influence because that is an imprecise term and people never remember quantities of alcohol and drugs they have consumed. Insurance companies are also hampered by restriction imposed by legislation using the result of breath and blood tests in various States. However, sometimes insurance companies can find the vital evidence in surprising places as the above story based on a real case study demonstrates.

Steve fancied himself as a ‘chick magnet’. Every Friday night he would take himself down to the local watering hole to down a beer or ten before making his way to the dance-floor to “brighten the lives of the local hopefuls” as he put it. One night he followed his usual practice, polishing off half a dozen ‘crownies’ and with his new-found confidence introduced himself to Sally and immediately impressed her with his own unique version of the soft-shoe-shuffle. After sharing a couple of vodkas and orange with her, he whisked her off into the night in his new Peugeot 306. She was very impressed with his style until she discovered his gazing longingly at her instead of the road in front of him, when he slammed into the back of a slow-moving Subaru Forrester which, coincidently, was driven by one of Sally’s many former boyfriends.

In the circumstances, both Steve and Sally did a ‘runner’ and by the time the police found them in yet another bar, more than two hours had passed and several more Vodkas and orange had passed between them in the course of activities which remained unclear. The breath tests revealed Steve had a reading of .13. The results were challenged by Steve’s lawyer as being unreliable in establishing Steve’s pre-accident consumption because of the time that had passed.

In the course of making his enquiries, the company’s investigator, Fred Plodd, visited the hotel where the young lovers met and in the course of downing a ‘crownie’ himself, engaged in casual conversation with Rosie, the barmaid, who remembered Steve well as one of the ‘smarmy creeps’ who tries to chat her up each Friday night. She also remembered seeing him polish off the six ‘crownies’ that night which, she believed he consumed in what was a world record time. She also observed him staggering unsteadily from the hotel propping up a young lady of dubious reputation not long afterwards.

When presented with this evidence, Steve decided he had better cut his losses. From that time, Steve and Sally took up ten-pin bowling on a Friday night, and developed quite a pleasant relationship, which was a change for both of them.