Rabu, 22 Desember 2010

Man Loses His License After Driving Barbie Car

By Saul Malpass


Maybe a headline you might see in the News of the world, this story is hundred per cent true. Paul Hutton who is 40 from Essex was caught driving a Barbie car whilst intoxicated. The father of four was disappointed he was caught behaving like this and described himself as being a 'right twit'. He had been caught drink driving before within the last ten years and for this reason he was slapped with a 3 year driving ban. Hutton was also handed a 12 month conditional sentence accompanied by an 85 fine.

The car designed for a 3 to 5 year old must have looked comical with a big 40 year old man driving it down the road. Hutton was surprised by the way the police reacted and demanded to breathalyse him for driving a child's toy but tried to understand and went on to say "I was very surprised to get done for drink-driving but I was a twit to say the least. I'm not unhappy with my punishment, just a little bit surprised."

Hutton from his past in the RAF was retraining as an electrical engineer which partly inspired him to create the masterpiece of the Barbie vehicle, having replaced the original wheels with bigger ones his project was complete. He built and designed it with his son who is currently doing a car mechanics course.

The car itself was a pink Barbie mobile with bigger wheels that had been built in by Hutton and his son. The vehicle is incredibly slow and can easily be outrun by a pedestrian and mobility scooters reach higher speeds, on this evidence it doesn't seem like the vehicle would be a hazard to anyone.

Chairman of the bench Neil Munson said: "This is most unusual." I have never seen the like of it in 15 years on the bench. "The vehicle is not even capable of doing the speed of a mobility scooter and could be outrun by a pedestrian." Taking this into account, we feel we can impose a sentence of a conditional discharge for a period of 12 months" The car is currently held by police but Mr Hutton said he would one day like it back, maybe not to drive drunk in it though.

Over half a million breathalyser tests are carried out in the UK each year and an average of 100,000 were found to be positive that's 1 in 5.




About the Author: