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Last Chance Driver?

Peter Meakin, Head of Seven’s News and Current Affairs, is challenging a charge of dangerous driving in a Sydney courtroom this week.

He has previously pleaded guilty to the charge of drink driving after an arrest last year. It’s the sort of subject matter we’re used to seeing on Today Tonight, moralising from on high about repeat offenders.

But Meakin had pleaded not guilty to driving a vehicle recklessly or in a dangerous manner and disobeying a request or sign to stop for a breath test.

What’s really interesting in his defence is that Meakin claims he was not doing a runner from NSW Police. No, not at all. Meakin was merely accelerating to find “the nearest, safest location” to pull over.

What the?

The bounds of creative responses have rarely been so wondrously adopted as this.

But what’s really ironic is that tomorrow night Seven unleashes its new reality show, Last Chance Learners, in which people who have failed their driving tests become our entertainment. Expect to see lots of mocking tones, bumps, stacks and accidents in largely controlled situations.

But, as Meakin has demonstrated, the real story out the on the roads is no laughing matter.

– The author has previously appeared on A Current Affair.

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