By western Sydney reporter George Roberts
ABC Radio, Australia
"She was seven times over the legal blood alcohol limit and had a baby in the back of the car. We don't have a name for her, but it should be pretty easy to find out who she is with a case like that..."
It was my first time reporting from the courts and that was the mission the Chief of Staff sent me on.
Liverpool Local Court in Sydney's west was packed, and it was my job to find one woman whose case was newsworthy for two reasons:
Firstly, driving a car with such an astronomically high level of alcohol in her blood stream was astounding; secondly, the danger to the baby gave the case an added level of interest and raised so many questions.
Who would put a child at such risk? What mother would be so negligent?
I set about trying to find the woman among the many young mothers who lined the lobby of the courthouse.
I asked at the registry, I asked lawyers and security guards and pretty much anyone who looked like they might know what was going on in court that day.
Soon there was a team of journalists from various outlets all clubbing together to find out which woman we were after and which court she would turn up in.
"Just ask the prosecutor," said the chief of staff on duty that day.
"There can't be too many people with seven times the legal alcohol limit and a baby in the back of the car."
I agreed. It should have been easy, but I had already approached the prosecutors in all four court rooms and the conversations were almost exactly the same.
"Excuse me, sir/madam, I'm sorry to bother you but I'm George from the ABC and I'm trying to find this case except I don't have a name...."
I would then explain the details, expecting there could only be one such case.
But prosecutor after prosecutor pointed to piles of files and replied, "See those, they're ALL drink driving offences, it could be any one of those."
I was amazed and so were the other reporters, but we needed to find this case.
It was just after ten in the morning and there was only one option.
We split up and sat through case after case of driving offences of various kinds, apprehended violence orders and domestic violence orders.
Apart from a woman who sold a pony that did not exist, the rest of the day was alarmingly monotonous.
Eventually by about 4pm we had narrowed it down and all the reporters gathered in the one court room to observe the case.
It was not what we had expected.
A Cambodian refugee in her 50's was seen swerving across three lanes on the wrong side of the Hume Highway, as her baby granddaughter sat in the back seat.
The woman's daughter translated, telling the court that her mother had been drinking because she had been recovering from a broken leg and had forgotten her painkillers. She had heard her daughter was in hospital and got in the car after "a small cup of wine."
When Police eventually managed to pull her over, she struggled to blow into the breathalyser to record a reading, either because she was too drunk or because she did not understand.
After multiple attempts she registered the enormous blood alcohol reading of 0.386 per cent.
Back at the station she was unable to give a proper breath test into the official machine so she was charged and later pleaded guilty to refusing to give a breath test.
That charge carries the same penalty as a high range drink driving offence and she was ultimately fined $3,000 and banned from driving for three years.
This case was fascinating to a bunch of young journalists who were expecting a young foolish mother to be standing before the court and not a 52-year-old grandmother who had fled Pol Pot's regime for a better life in Australia.
What really struck me though was just how many drink driving cases were being heard in that court that day.
Across New South Wales last year 23,210 people faced court for drink driving and 5,695 of those were in western Sydney.
I'm in no way advocating drink driving, but consider this: Unless you are swerving across lanes of traffic, then getting caught for drink driving is unlucky.
It is a matter of probability.
I have only been pulled over and breath-tested four times in my life and never blown a reading.
But I drive almost every day, so if I drank and drove every day, then I would only have been caught four times in my 12 years as a driver.
On that basis, it is fair to extrapolate that the 23,210 people caught may only represent a fraction of the people that risk drink driving every year, every week, every day.
Next week, that court and many like it will be packed with cases again. Despite the billboards and the ad campaigns, people continue to risk their lives and the lives of others by getting behind the wheel drunk.
You share the road with them.
email George Roberts on: westernsydneynews@gmail.com.
ABC Radio, Australia
"She was seven times over the legal blood alcohol limit and had a baby in the back of the car. We don't have a name for her, but it should be pretty easy to find out who she is with a case like that..."
It was my first time reporting from the courts and that was the mission the Chief of Staff sent me on.
Liverpool Local Court in Sydney's west was packed, and it was my job to find one woman whose case was newsworthy for two reasons:
Firstly, driving a car with such an astronomically high level of alcohol in her blood stream was astounding; secondly, the danger to the baby gave the case an added level of interest and raised so many questions.
Who would put a child at such risk? What mother would be so negligent?
I set about trying to find the woman among the many young mothers who lined the lobby of the courthouse.
I asked at the registry, I asked lawyers and security guards and pretty much anyone who looked like they might know what was going on in court that day.
Soon there was a team of journalists from various outlets all clubbing together to find out which woman we were after and which court she would turn up in.
"Just ask the prosecutor," said the chief of staff on duty that day.
"There can't be too many people with seven times the legal alcohol limit and a baby in the back of the car."
I agreed. It should have been easy, but I had already approached the prosecutors in all four court rooms and the conversations were almost exactly the same.
"Excuse me, sir/madam, I'm sorry to bother you but I'm George from the ABC and I'm trying to find this case except I don't have a name...."
I would then explain the details, expecting there could only be one such case.
But prosecutor after prosecutor pointed to piles of files and replied, "See those, they're ALL drink driving offences, it could be any one of those."
I was amazed and so were the other reporters, but we needed to find this case.
It was just after ten in the morning and there was only one option.
We split up and sat through case after case of driving offences of various kinds, apprehended violence orders and domestic violence orders.
Apart from a woman who sold a pony that did not exist, the rest of the day was alarmingly monotonous.
Eventually by about 4pm we had narrowed it down and all the reporters gathered in the one court room to observe the case.
It was not what we had expected.
A Cambodian refugee in her 50's was seen swerving across three lanes on the wrong side of the Hume Highway, as her baby granddaughter sat in the back seat.
The woman's daughter translated, telling the court that her mother had been drinking because she had been recovering from a broken leg and had forgotten her painkillers. She had heard her daughter was in hospital and got in the car after "a small cup of wine."
When Police eventually managed to pull her over, she struggled to blow into the breathalyser to record a reading, either because she was too drunk or because she did not understand.
After multiple attempts she registered the enormous blood alcohol reading of 0.386 per cent.
Back at the station she was unable to give a proper breath test into the official machine so she was charged and later pleaded guilty to refusing to give a breath test.
That charge carries the same penalty as a high range drink driving offence and she was ultimately fined $3,000 and banned from driving for three years.
This case was fascinating to a bunch of young journalists who were expecting a young foolish mother to be standing before the court and not a 52-year-old grandmother who had fled Pol Pot's regime for a better life in Australia.
What really struck me though was just how many drink driving cases were being heard in that court that day.
Across New South Wales last year 23,210 people faced court for drink driving and 5,695 of those were in western Sydney.
I'm in no way advocating drink driving, but consider this: Unless you are swerving across lanes of traffic, then getting caught for drink driving is unlucky.
It is a matter of probability.
I have only been pulled over and breath-tested four times in my life and never blown a reading.
But I drive almost every day, so if I drank and drove every day, then I would only have been caught four times in my 12 years as a driver.
On that basis, it is fair to extrapolate that the 23,210 people caught may only represent a fraction of the people that risk drink driving every year, every week, every day.
Next week, that court and many like it will be packed with cases again. Despite the billboards and the ad campaigns, people continue to risk their lives and the lives of others by getting behind the wheel drunk.
You share the road with them.
email George Roberts on: westernsydneynews@gmail.com.
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