Fun_People Archive
4 Apr
Australian New Year

Date: Tue,  4 Apr 95 17:14:43 PDT
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Australian New Year

Forwarded-by: bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
Forwarded-by: David Boyce <dave@abyss.demon.co.uk>

"The court acknowledges that the five accused suffered the unluckiest
possible start to their new year," magistrate Andrew Johnson told
his Canberra court while passing sentence. "Under the circumstances,
you are all dismissed with a caution."

Robin Croft, representing all five defendants, earlier summarised
what took place on New Year's Eve. "My clients were celebrating
during the afternoon in Sydney, but were expected at a party in
Canberra that night. They set off on the 350-mile journey by car,
but, a few miles outside Sydney, driver number one was stopped for
speeding and dangerous driving, failed a breath test, and was booked.
Driver number two then took over, and was stopped half an hour later
for driving through a stop sign. He too was over the limit and
was booked."

"The third driver took the wheel for two hours but, when he was
stopped for failing to indicate a left turn, he also failed the
breath test. He was replaced by driver number four, a learner,
who had an uneventful drive until the car burst a tyre, four hours
after leaving Sydney. While they were changing the wheel, a
patrol car stopped and booked driver number four for parking without
lights. They made him take a breath test too, and he failed it.
The fifth man in the car thought he was safe, but he was wrong.
The police decided that, because he was in the passenger seat,
he was supervising the L-driver, so they breathalysed him and
he failed too. With no one left to drive, they had to abandon the
car by the roadside, and travel the last few miles by taxi. And when
they went next day to retrieve it, the windscreen was smashed,
all four tyres and the radio had been stolen, and someone had
urinated over the seats."

Sydney Morning Herald, 6/1/95

© 1995 Peter Langston