Road safety issues are getting serious every day and apart from accidents caused by road issues, ministers are looking into the issue of killer drivers. After strong criticism in a new report by road safety foundation, MPs and officials are seriously pondering on the road safety issue. MPs want new rules for drivers who kill innocent people on the road. They are calling for a manslaughter charge which will hand killer drivers with a long prison sentences. Under current rules, there is a maximum sentence of 14 years if the driver is found guilty of death by dangerous driving. However, MPs say that this sentence is not enough and they have called for some serious changes to be made in the motoring offences review due in 2015.
The MP for Reading West, Mr Alok Sharma presented a case in which a driver was driving a stolen car although being disqualified due to alcoholic driving. He was driving while consuming two and half times more than the legal limit. He hit and killed two cyclists and was given only 10 years in prison. Sharma asked for tough sentences for these kinds of drivers.
Gareth Johnson, MP for Dartford, Kent said: “Will Sharma join me in requesting that the Crown Prosecution Service considers charging with manslaughter far more often, rather than charging with death by dangerous driving?”
“If a person causes someone’s death by behaving in a grossly negligent or reckless manner anywhere else in society, they’re charged with manslaughter,” he said. “If that happens on the road, they are not.”
MP for Policing, Victims and criminal Justice, Mike Penning also agreed to this call and said that he understands the reasons behind longer sentences, but it will take time to implement. “It is a question of whether the driver intended to go and do what they did. That is why the CPS tends to hold back from prosecuting for murder or manslaughter.”
Let see what would be the outcome of this call at the end, because every UK citizen wants their roads to be safe and secure.
