By JOLENE OGLE
“I should know the law at 52”: That was the response from one of 18 drink driving defendants who appeared in Noosa Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
But this time, many of the defendants had attended the voluntary Safe Driving Awareness Program run by Road Trauma Services at Drysdale Funerals, last Tuesday.
The impact of the program was clear with numerous defendants reporting the two-and-a-half hour lecture, which features real life trauma stories, had opened their eyes.
A Doonan man, 52, who pleaded guilty to driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.124 per cent said he found the program “interesting”.
“I learnt I had better slow down and be more responsible for my actions,” he said.
“It made me think about other innocent parties on the road. It doesn’t take much for something to go wrong.”
A certificate was issued to those who attended the Safe Driving Awareness program, and Magistrate Simon Young took the course attendance into consideration when sentencing along with other factors including an early plea of guilty, traffic history and a person’s circumstances.
The 52-year-old Doonan man, who faced a 10-month disqualification, was disqualified from diving for six months and fined $500.
A 20-year-old Noosa Heads woman, who pleaded guilty to driving with a BAC of 0.062 per cent, also attended the Safe Driving Awareness course and said the lecture “opened her eyes”.
She was fined $250 and disqualified from driving for one month.
