Drivers who kill could face life sentences under new legislation coming into effect on Tuesday (28 June).
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act will enable judges to hand down life sentences to drivers who cause death by dangerous driving, or by careless driving when under influence of drink or drugs
The current penalty for each offence is a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
The Government says it wants to ensure “punishments reflect the severity of crimes and the misery killer drivers leave in their wake”.
As reported by BBC News, Dominic Raab, justice secretary, said: “Too many lives have been lost to reckless behaviour behind the wheel, devastating families.”
The proposed law change was first announced in 2017. It will also create an offence of causing serious injury by careless driving, meaning those who inflict long-term or permanent injuries also face tougher sentences.
The legislation applies to offences in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, which has separate road safety laws.
If they are going to introduce a law of Causing Death by Dangerous Cycling, then surely there should be an equivalent one for pedestrians who knock off cyclists; Causing Death by Dangerous Walking. Unless this is just an anti-cyclist law to appease the husband of Kim Briggs. Mr Briggs has been doing the media rounds, spouting his mixture of fact and fiction, such as that no law applies to cyclists, when the man who collided with his wife was prosecuted for manslaughter.
In collisions between cyclists and pedestrians, it is more often the pedestrian at fault, and the chances of dying or being seriously injured would appear to be at least as high for the cyclist, if not higher than for the pedestrian.
Richard Burton, Gloucester
0
If only one could be sure that those administering the law in this country knew anything at all about the nature of road accidents. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and I fear for those unfortunate enough to contribute accidentally to a death. What possible benefit is there from locking some possibly perfectly normal person for life? I speak as one who is aware of having been very close to making such a contribution to a cyclist and a motor-cyclist on separate occasions, over the years and that there was precious little I could do about it either. This isn’t “justice”, it’s revenge.
On the other hand, I agree with Christina Young – it’s high time cyclists were put in their place. I am fed up with having to leap into the carriageway to avoid their furious and wanton driving on the footway …
Fraser Andrew, STIRLING
+2
Life sentences for killer drivers is very welcome and is long overdue. Why, however, has no similar law been brought in for killer cyclists? A new “death by dangerous cycling” law was promised some years ago after a woman was killed by a speeding cyclist riding illegally with no front brakes. The cyclist – Charlie Alliston even blamed the collision on the woman he had killed!
He was only jailed for 18 months having been convicted of “furious and wanton driving” – an ancient outdated law, because no law existed to charge him with the equivalent of “causing death by dangerous driving.”
Killer cyclists, e-scooter riders and car drivers must all be treated in the same way – a life jail sentence.
Christina Young
+7