Book Reviews

BODIES OF EVIDENCE Medicine and the Politics of the English Inquest 1830-1926 Ian A Bumey (John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London, 2000, 176pp, ISBN 0801 86240-X; £31 .OO)

At a time when the coronial system is under attack in England and Wales as never before, this book is a timely reminder of the background against which the "medically centred inquest developed in the hands of Thomas Wakley and others in the 19th Century. The historian's perspective that Ian Burney brings to his subject ought to inform the present debate in England and Wales following the publication of the Inquiry into the retention of body parts at Alder Hay Children's Hospital, Liverpool, (http:Nwww. ricinquiry.aug.co.uk). Ian Burney's book should be read by every forensic pathologist, every procurator fiscal, every coroner and every Senior Investigating Officer who is a member of the Society. As public confidence in both pathologists and in the coronial system plummet towards a nadir and a new system of death investigation is being forged in the foundry of a nascent election campaign, so Ian Burney's book ought to be read by all interested parties. It would be even more so if the debate were being driven by appropriate consideration for the public good rather than largely by emotion.

Robert Forrest

A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD Drink-Drive, The Stated Cases Database on CD-ROM Lion Laboratories Ltd (Lion Laboratories Ltd, Barry, Wales, UK, Tel +44 (0)1446 721804, Fax +44 (0)1446 721 769, Email sales@lion-breath.com; £295.00 plus VAT)

As somebody who is completely computer illiterate, it was with some trepidation that I began to try to load on to (what I call) my sophisticated typewriter the CD Rom The Lion Legal database, Drink-Drive, the stated cases. Much to my amazement I had absolutely no difficulty - being guided by a step by step approach which appeared on my video- display unit. Once I had got the program up and running, I decided to test it by doing a search. Playing to my vanity, I entered my own name, and lo and behold, a list of over one hundred and sixty cases were suddenly on my screen and in each one of which I had appeared for the defence. I then tried a search on another topic, namely that of 'arrest', with equally excellent results. This database gives brief details (including a rksum6 of their facts and their ratio) of virtually all drinking and driving cases since the coming into force of the Transport Act 1981, which, for the first time, allowed the police to use evidential breathalysers. Previously all prosecutions had to be based on the results of an analysis of a body fluid. I say it contains 'virtually all drinking and driving cases' since there are no doubt some

early decisions which have escaped the attention of reporters and legal databases, such as Lexis, and cannot now be tracked down and read.

This computerised database is a must for anybody who wishes to represent those drivers who (to quote Lord Diplock [I]) 'take the view that it is more convenient to rely on being defended by a sufficiently ingenious lawyer than to take care never to drive with more than the permitted proportion of alcohol'. This CD with its search engine will supply nearly all the defences for which one could hope. I say 'nearly all' as fertile lawyers are still striving to find new ones! The one problem with citing precedents which are not recorded on paper is that the judiciary are being inundated with a horde of unreported cases and they are putting their foot down against their use, hence the very stringent comments of Laddie J. in Michael et al. v. Taylor Woodrow Development Ltd [2] deprecating such a practice.

Lion's Drink-Drive database has one drawback. With the coming into force of the Human Rights Act 1988, Lion have not provided any details of the many Commonwealth decisions on Human Rights' points which have been taken in drinking and driving cases in such places as Canada with its Charter of Rights. Nevertheless, it is a 'must' for those who wish to practice in this field of law.

References

1. Walker v Love11 [I9751 3 All ER 107 at p l l l 2. [2001] 2 WLR 224

Nigel Ley

THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER Eyewitness reliability in motor vehicle accident reconstruction and litigation Patrick J Robins (Lawyers and Judges, 2001, 148pp, index, ISBN 0913875 929; $30.00)

When Patrick J Robins was a child he spent hours throwing wads of paper into spiders' webs, although he soon realised that the spiders always reacted in the same way. When he reached man's estate he bacame a university psychologiest. After sixteen years Dr Robins left the groves of academe to devote himself to the professional reconstruction of motor vehicle accidents. He has set down some of his thoughts in permanent form.

Those who spend time in courts concerned with motor vehicle (or other) collisions well know that honest amateur witnesses give remarkable evidence. Motor vehicles involved in collisions, pace those witnesses, not infrequently leave the earth's surface and fly through the air. Vehicles travel at high speeds over long distances only inches apart. Often such vehicles - particularly when the witnesses are the drivers - stop 'dead', Newtonian physics notwithstanding. Dr Robins cites an ignorant, but not necessarily simple, witness describing a southbound car struck on the right rear wheel by an eastbound car, but

Science & Justice 2001; 41(2): 127-131