A leading criminal lawyer has defended the actions of some bystanders who stopped a drunk driver from driving away from a Daisy Hill shopping centre in his BMW.
The 65-year-old Springwood retiree was nearly six times the legal blood-alcohol limit before he was spotted by the other shoppers and reported to police.
Former President of the Queensland Law Society, Bill Potts says the bystanders did the right thing.
“I normally recommend that citizens don’t take the law into their own hands. However, in a case such as this the lives that these people saved could have well been their own. People who are drinking and driving at this kind of level are not only a danger to themselves but also to all of the public in general. So yes, this was an act of sense but , of course citizens have to be very careful themselves that they don’t endanger themselves or others.”
Mr Potts believes if the bystanders had called police before stopping the drunk man driving his car the result could have been lethal.
“The difficulty, of course, with drink driving is that by the time you’ve called police and by the time they react a fatal accident could have already occurred”.
The man told the Beenleigh Magistrates Court he felt ashamed and was going to sell his car.
He was disqualified from driving for six months and fined eight hundred dollars.
