RECENTLY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA, a car crashed into a shop on South Road, Edwardstown. Significant damage was done to both the car and the shop, but neither the driver nor anyone else was injured.

So I was rather amazed to hear that the driver had been issued with a fine for “fail to give way”.

Despite trawling through numerous websites and verbose documents, I was unable to find a penalty or demerit point penalty for the offence of “fail to give way” but I have the feeling it is in the order of $435 (including the ludicrous “victims of crime” levy) and the loss of three demerit points (in other states, the best I have been able to ascertain is $272 in Victoria, $365 in Queensland and $150 in WA, all with the loss of three demerit points).

So can some genius tell me what was achieved by levying a fine on the offending driver? The offence had been committed and was clearly not intentional. So will a fine deter the driver from making a similar mistake in future? I doubt it. Especially if trashing the car, paying an insurance excess and going through the embarrassment and inconvenience isn’t a sufficient deterrent.

No, the only outcome of fining the driver is to increase state funds by $400-odd. I could almost understand it if the money went to the poor, innocent shopkeeper.