HL Deb 20 July 1967 vol 285 cc361-3

2.41 p.m.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the driver of a car along a motorway, who draws out of the stream of traffic and stops his car on the hard shoulder, because he feels the onset of a heart attack, or is too exhausted to continue driving, becomes guilty of an offence, and is liable to prosecution.]

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, the Motorways Traffic Regulations provide that a driver may stop on account of illness or any other emergency. A driver who stopped because of a heart attack would thus be unlikely to be found guilty of an offence. It is, of course, for the courts to decide whether a given case constituted an emergency; generally speaking, however, tiredness has not been regarded as such. To accept it as justification for stopping could result in widespread and indiscriminate parking alongside motorways.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, while thanking my noble friend for that reply, may I ask whether he would not agree that a breakdown of the human machine on the motorway is far more dangerous to life than breakdown of a motor engine; and, without necessarily requiring any change in the existing law, could not the police be advised, in these circumstances, to consider the statements of a car driver with the utmost sympathy and understanding, especially when corroborated by medical evidence, so that the time of the courts is not taken up by ill-advised proceedings?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, naturally before making a charge the police take all factors into account, but, clearly, in the case of tiredness a driver should get off the road as soon as possible. I think I am right in saying that on the M.1 the longest distance between one point and another at which one can get off the road is some fourteen miles, and the average distance is three miles. Therefore a driver who feels that he should get off the road to have a rest should be able to do it without any difficulty.

LORD SOMERS

My Lords, would the noble Lord not agree that a driver who was feeling excessively tired would almost invariably drive dangerously? Therefore it would be far more sensible from the point of view of the safety of the public if he were to pull up on to the hard shoulder.

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, if a driver is so tired that he is a danger to the public, then clearly he should not be driving on the motorway.

LORD GRIMSTON OF WESTBURY

My Lords, does the noble Lord recollect a case which received a good deal of publicity a few years ago, when a surgeon who had been operating was driving back along a motorway? He felt extremely sleepy and, realising that it was dangerous to go on, he pulled on to the side of the road. He was picked up by the police and was prosecuted, but the court refused to convict. Is that not a case to which attention might be drawn for future guidance?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, I am quite sure that if the court came to that view, it did so after taking all the evidence into account.

LORD CHESHAM

My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that there is general acceptance of the view that stopping on the hard shoulder is a very dangerous practice? It is most unlikely that anything other than a genuine reason would be accepted, and lighthearted reasons should not be accepted.

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, the noble Lord may be quite accurate in saying that if we were to take a too lenient view of what a person might describe as "tiredness" our motorways would be littered with vehicles, the drivers of which had stopped to admire the scenery and would make tiredness an excuse. I think this is a matter which we should leave to the police and to the courts.