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Government review of dangerous driving sentencing currently underway

Recent Commons debate came about off the back of a petition signed by over 100,000 people

A government minister has said that a review of sentencing for dangerous driving offences is currently underway and that there will be a public phase of this ‘soon’. The comments came during a House of Commons debate resulting from a petition launched by the fiancées of two cyclists killed by a drunk driver last year.  

Alok Sharma, the Conservative MP for Reading West, is pushing for a change in sentencing laws in the wake of a case involving two of his constituents, cyclists John Morland and Kris Jarvis, who were killed as a result of the dangerous driving of Alexander Walter last year.

The two men’s fiancées, Tracey Fidler and Hayley Lindsay, started an e-petition calling for a change so that a dangerous driver receives a maximum sentence of 14 years for each person they kill, with the sentences to be served consecutively, not concurrently. It had attracted over 102,000 signatures when it closed in March.

- PM calls for "in-depth" review of sentences for causing death by dangerous driving

Speaking yesterday, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Andrew Selous, confirmed that a review of sentencing was currently underway and said that he hoped it would move to a public phase ‘soon’. He said that the government would do ‘everything possible to attract the widest public attention’ when this time came.

Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick also suggested that the language used to refer to such incidents needed to be addressed.

“In the fire service, in which I served, we used to talk about RTAs — road traffic accidents. They are now classified by the police and the fire service as RTCs — road traffic collisions. That language is important, because the majority of crashes, collisions and incidents have an avoidable cause: people drinking, taking drugs, speeding and using mobile phones. We are talking about deliberate decisions by human beings — drivers — that impact on innocent victims. In that sense, these are not accidents.”

A number of other MPs spoke on the issue and Fidler told Get Reading that she was pleased that so many had come out in support: “They all agreed with us. It kind of means everything to us. We needed to get justice for Kris and John and we needed to do something for others in this situation.”

Sharma said:

“I am delighted to hear from the Minister that there will be a review outcome soon; I hope that that means before the end of this calendar year. I am delighted that it will be widely publicised, and I am pleased that it will require legislation, because that will give all of us the chance to debate these matters again in detail.

“He is absolutely right that judges decide sentences, but he has also made the important point that the framework for that is set by Parliament. That is what we are here to do, listening to the wishes of our constituents across the country.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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6 comments

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Airzound | 8 years ago
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Fuck all will happen. The problem is getting the police or CPS to actually PROPERLY investigate/prosecute in the first place. Most of them see victim is a cyclist and think pesky cyclists they probably brought it on themselves NFA. Then if a case miraculously gets to court then we have all that is mentioned above. Cyclists lives are cheap and in reality the criminal justice system and politicians DGAF about cyclists. Pesky cyclists they are a menace.

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brixton hatter | 8 years ago
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Good news…but we need a review of the whole way the justice system (police, CPS, courts etc) treats road accident victims, not just dangerous driving.

Strict liability now.

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ChairRDRF | 8 years ago
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As mentioned above with regard to Martin Porter's case, we need to be looking at all the cases which don't even get the CPS to prosecute.

There are also those where the police don't get the case to the CPS even where a death has occurred - the most obvious being the case of Michael Mason, killed in London when run down from behind (see: http://rdrf.org.uk/2014/12/30/the-michael-mason-case-law-enforcement-and...
http://rdrf.org.uk/2015/03/20/the-michael-mason-case-a-national-scandal-...) - don't forget to make a donation to the Cyclists' Defence Fund which needs money to carry on fighting this case.

The problem with the parliamentary debate is mainly that most cases where you may hurt or killed (never mind getting a unpleasant near miss which can put off a novice) will involve "Careless" as opposed to "Dangerous" driving. And then attention is largely on deaths as opposed to the much greater number of Serious Injuries, let alone the far greater number of Slight Injuries.

The crucial point is to have a deterrent effect. I'm afraid I don't think that increasing the length of a prison sentence for the small minority of cases of rule/law breaking driving which threatens cyclists (and others) - don't forget this is for drunk driving which killed two people -will have a beneficial effect.

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Housecathst | 8 years ago
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The issue is that nearly impossible to get a guilty verdict out of a jury of motorists.

Drink driving is the only thing which a fellow motorist will look at think "yeah, you shouldn't do that" speeding, mobile phone use, putting your makeup on, eating breakfast are all things that the great motoring unwashed don't see a problem with regardless of how many people you kill doing it.

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vonhelmet replied to Housecathst | 8 years ago
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Housecathst wrote:

The issue is that nearly impossible to get a guilty verdict out of a jury of motorists.

Drink driving is the only thing which a fellow motorist will look at think "yeah, you shouldn't do that" speeding, mobile phone use, putting your makeup on, eating breakfast are all things that the great motoring unwashed don't see a problem with regardless of how many people you kill doing it.

Indeed. Though I'm sure someone would cry foul if you put them up in front of a jury of 12 non-motorists...

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armb | 8 years ago
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It would help if the CPS didn't refuse to prosecute in cases where there was clear evidence but no actual injury, or allow motorists to blame cyclists for being on the road:
https://twitter.com/MartinPorter6/status/644799121455489024
https://twitter.com/MartinPorter6/status/644795935118229504

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