This story tells how Paul Critchley, 29, drank four pints of beer and then drove at speeds of between 50 and 60mph in Northwich, before smashing into a pedestrian and leaving him brain-damaged for life.
Critchley had only been driving for a year after a previous conviction for dangerous driving.
Something occurred to me, though. You hear of people being arrested for driving more than quadruple the legal limit for alcohol. Yet Critchley was less than twice the limit. Looking at his photo he doesn’t look like someone who is a stranger to a few pints, or who would fall over if he sniffed a wine cork, so you can’t help wonder exactly what was going on in the peanut-sized ganglion that passes for a brain in his kind – particularly when you consider his previous form.
In a way, when people are prosecuted for drink-driving, there must be a masking effect which prevents some facts coming out.
For example, imagine that someone deliberately runs over a pedestrian – let’s say, someone they’ve had a spat with over something. If they are over the limit, might the zeal with which that is punished mask the true motive?
I’m not saying Critchley did what he did deliberately, but if he had previously been caught for driving dangerously – and given that being less than twice the legal limit doesn’t exactly send you into a coma – might there not be more to his actions than just being legally “drunk”? Could it be that he (and many others of similar kind) is psychologically unstable to begin with, and the alcohol simply enhances that?