Letting someone drive when you know it’s not allowed
More and more people in the Netherlands drive a car while under the influence. More often than not, this happens while any co-drivers are aware of the driver’s condition, agreeing that someone is driving with resources behind their backs. If you hold those people accountable for this, then an arrest would result in a multiple – and therefore more extensive – punishment than is currently the case. But do you think that would be a good development? Time for a statement.
Drivers driving under the influence of alcohol or other substances are a growing problem. 2.6 percent of drivers drive under the influence of alcohol at the weekend, which is almost double compared to 2017. At the same time, the number of fatal traffic accidents is rising and four out of five drivers consider the chance of being caught for drink-driving to be nil. It is therefore clear that something has to change.
More campaigns, more checks, higher penalties: these are all three ways to reduce the number of drink drivers again. One way to bring about higher penalties would be to make (adult) co-drivers of drink drivers complicit. If someone is caught and the co-driver is aware of the fact that the driver is under the influence, not one but several fines will be handed out.
Since everyone knows that drunk driving is illegal and dangerous, that would certainly not be entirely unreasonable. Still: it is now the case that the driver of a car is responsible for how and under what circumstances the car is driven, so the measure (holding the co-driver jointly responsible) would require a fairly fundamental shift in perspective. In addition, it is a lot of work to prove that a co-driver knew that the driver had been drinking.
Cause
However, the suggestion does not just come out of the blue. A similar offense in the category of ‘letting someone drive while you know they are not allowed to do so’ took place in Groningen in 2021 with a tragic outcome. A mother let her then eighteen-year-old son, who was in the process of getting his driver’s license, take a drive, during which the young man hit a four-year-old child. The child did not survive the collision, the driver was prosecuted. Now it was announced last week that the Public Prosecution Service will also prosecute the mother who let her son drive.
Freelance journalist Chris Klomp then suggested via Twitter that the same course of action could be applicable to co-drivers of drunk drivers. Although this would still be difficult from a legal point of view, it is a potentially interesting weapon against the increasing number of people who drive under the influence or allow themselves to be driven by an intoxicated person. Getting into a car with someone who has been drinking would entail more risks (getting multiple fines or other punishments), making it less attractive. Should there therefore be a change in the law to make it possible to punish co-drivers?
We would like to see the reasons to substantiate the following statement in the comments:
Drink driver’s co-driver is also to blame
You can add explanations and arguments in the comments. As always, your opinion does not have to be someone else’s. We should all be on AutoWeek.nl because we have a thing for cars, so be kind to each other and try not to get too carried away.
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