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A a l "x'_ M f n f < ul | Said Trying It Out. * "The reason is not hard to find," continued Mr. Macaulay. "It is the human factor. The Middle Road was built as a foolproof hlghway.i and they are going out there to| try it out. Despite all that is be-- ing done, drunken drivers are be-- hind the wheels where they have | no reason to be." \ The new amendment tightened the + act in one respect by giving the Minister or Magistrate power to | g | cancel both the license ar;g the per-' i | mit in cases where the old act per-- op"onal Clause Renders 'minpd the cancellation of one or Proposal Valueless, He | the other. § . But in the new section dealing Tells House | with the impounding of motor hi iien ommc vehicles, the members disagreed on | a section that proposed to impound CITES EXPERT FINDING vehicles driven by an employee of the owner, in event the employee was convicted of driving while i i drunk or of other offenses. A num-- MCQUQS*OH Aw.'fs Achon ber, the Premier included, held the bY Ottawa Before He proposal went too far and in effect Tiaht R lati penalized the innocent owner in-- '9 ens egu ations stead of the guilty party. [ smemmmmmsemsmmmenmm mssn Law clerks of the Government | 4 s | were instructed to redraft the sec-- Blood tests, to determine """ tion and to report it to the House amount of aiconol consumed by a| |today for adoption. .It was empha-- driver suspected or accused of hc-! |sized. ho"'e\'cl'r. that the cl;angfi hi s must not relieve owners 0 A ing drunk' while in rpargo of & | liability under all cireumstances, by motor vehicle, were rejected yester-- !hmh the Government and Opposi-- day by the Ontario Government, in \tion Leaders. Legislature debate on the Highwayl Traffic Amendment Act, as being} unproved in efficacy. [ Dr. Harold Weish (Cons., East Hastings), by sponsoring an amend-- ment declaring in effect that blood tests of alcoholic content be held to -- be prima facie evidence in prosecu-- tions, threw open a wide debate on -- the drunk driver problem. | Hon. Leopold Macaulay, Conserva-- tive House Leader, told the Govern-- ment: '"We have got to grapple withl this problem. But I think you are rejecting a good opportunity if ,\'oul do not at this session bring down something definite to curb drunken drivers." Result Held Uncertain. Dr. Welsh's amendment was sec-- onded by George Challies (Cons., | Grenville--Dundas). In addition to| the main provision, it held a clause ; that would make it only optional| for suspects to submit to test. This| feature, Premier Hepburn declarfld.! made it valueless. Furthermore, he pointed out, he held a memo from the Department of Health which claimed the result of tests was un-- certain. Early in the debate, Hon. T. B. McQuesten, Minister of Highways, emphasized that he was not satis-- » fied with the sections of the act bearing on drunkenness, and that he had refrained from drafting tighter regulations until the Federal Government had finished redrafting the Criminal Code on that very sub-- ject. This the Government at Ot-- tawa proposed to do in the current session. Mr. Macaulay admitted there| would be more value to the blood test proposal if public opinion got f * behind it. But, he emphasized, the y death rate in motor vehicle acci-- dents had increased by 28 per cent so far this year. Despite efforts % of the Department of Highways, he said, the accident rate was going up. He had been told, he added, that $ the Middle Road, built for safety, had experienced a rate of accidents ; in excess of those on the old single | lane highways. Mr. McQuesten{ shook his head. * en a