EMERGENCIES/SPECIAL REASONS

A number of motoring offences carry either obligatory endorsement of penalty points on the driving licence or alternatively obligatory disqualification. Such penalties can only be avoided if the driver in question can argue what is known as special reasons. One of the scenarios where special reasons can be found is when there is what is known as an emergency situation.

The purpose of this article is to look at some of the cases relating to what is considered to be an emergency and what is not.

Firstly, there are a number of cases which state that a sudden medical emergency can justify driving. However, the driver will need to demonstrate that there was no alternative but for them to drive and that they had explored every reasonable alternative before driving. The obvious question that often arises in such circumstances is why was an ambulance not called! Therefore the emergency must be real and not manufactured. The courts are also reluctant to find an emergency if they felt that the situation could have been foreseen.

In the case of Baines the defendant drove whilst in drink to assist his elderly mother who was stranded at night without petrol. This was held not to be a special reason because the defendant had taken no steps to explore other avenues of rescue which may have been available to his mother. In another case a driver was telephoned by their wife who was away on holiday saying that she had forgotten some blood pressure tablets. The defendant (who at this stage had been drinking) then drove to her in order to take the tablets. The court refused to find special reasons on the basis that the emergency services could have been telephoned by the defendant to assist with the situation.

The same principle continues to apply even where the emergency is said to be non medical, so for example where a defendant had been waiting for his flight at the airport and was telephoned by his wife to say that his daughter had failed to turn up at school. It was held not to be an emergency when he drove to the school without considering alternative methods of transport available to him.

One case where special reasons were found was the case of DPP –v- Knight. In this case a mum had left her daughter at home with a babysitter. She drove to her local pub and consumed some cider. Prior to this she had received a number of threatening telephone calls. During the course of the evening she had checked with the babysitter and no further calls had been received. However, when she phoned the house at 11.00pm the babysitter informed her that a number of threatening calls had been received and the caller had threatened to come to the house with a knife. The babysitter informs the mother that she was extremely frightened and asked the mother to come home immediately. At this stage the mum was over the limit as she had consumed a number of pints of cider. However rather than driving immediately the mother attempted to call a taxi albeit unsuccessfully. She then went to another public house to try and speak to some friends who might have been able to take her home. After this failed she felt that her only option was to drive home in her own car and on the way home she was subsequently stopped by the police. In this case the court was persuaded that there was a clear example in emergency causing a person to drive who otherwise had no intention to do so.

Finally, in the case of DPP –v- Enston a female blackmailed a male into driving when over the prescribed limit by threatening to report him for rape if he did not do so. The court did find special reasons in these circumstances on the basis that the driver was in the middle of a personal emergency.