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Jail terms for killer drivers
Ministers plan longer bans and imprisonment
Joanna Walters
Britain's motorists face an unprecedented crackdown on bad driving under government plans to cut road accidents and reduce the cost of treating accident victims. Under draconian new laws, drivers face jail terms for 'gross speeding', the permanent seizure of their vehicles for repeat offences and spells working in hospital casualty units as part of their sentences. Drink drivers who kill also face stiffer punishment and will automatically go to prison for at least one year. Their victims and families will receive help under a new 'Victims Charter' that will also include bereaved relatives of victims of other crimes such as murder. Ministers have signalled they are determined to tackle the 'needless carnage' that claims 3,400 lives and injures more than 40,000 people in a million crashes on British roads each year. They want to meet a 10-year target of cutting deaths by 40 per cent and halving child fatalities. Among the proposals being considered are: · automatic three-year bans - possibly for life - and minimum one-year jail terms for causing death by dangerous driving or drink-driving; · maximum jail terms for dangerous driving increased from two to five years; automatic three-year bans; · minimum bans for drink-driving increased from a year to at least 18 months. A new two-year ban for drivers twice caught over the limit and compulsory re-sit of the driving test; · unlimited fines for careless driving plus mandatory retraining; new penalty of 'short sharp' vehicle confiscation for repeat offenders; · speeding fine doubled to maximum £5,000; jail terms, community service and bans for 'gross' speeding as well as increased penalty points. Ministers hope to avoid serious opposition to the proposals by including the new penalties in a long-expected shake-up of sentencing in the drive against violent crime and repeat offenders. Victims of road crashes will come under a 'Victims Charter' that aims to give more support to the bereaved and injured who find their lives devastated by crime. The new charter had previously been planned to cater for victims of violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and assault but will now be widened after lobbying by road safety campaigners. Previous crackdowns on the failure to use seat-belts and on drink driving led to improvements in road-safety but the reductions in road deaths have slowed. Ministers and police have pinpointed speeding and careless driving as areas that require greater scrutiny. The new laws were criticised by pro-motoring groups and road safety campaigners last night. Zoe Stow, chairman of road safety charity RoadPeace, said tougher penalties were good 'in principle' but speeding motorists and drivers who had causedfatal crashes were often 'getting away' with paltry fines. She called on the Government to jail more killer drivers and charge those currently arrested for causing death by dangerous driving with manslaughter, punishable by life in prison. But Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Founda tion warned against an 'overemphasis' on speed and on jailing drivers who made a simple mistake and caused a crash but had no intention to kill and were not reckless. Lichfield Conservative MP Michael Fabricant said: 'The motorist is being demonised. I do not see why drivers should be regarded as somehow irresponsible for wanting to get from A to B - the average motorist is no more evil than the average pedestrian and this is symptomatic of the nanny state.' He called for the speed limit on motorways to be increased to 80mph. The Government is likely to introduce a White Paper on tougher sentencing for a range of crimes in July. Senior sources said there was still a chance that road penalties would have a dedicated Bill leading to legislation but it was more likely that new measures would come in a wider crackdown on crime. David Kidney, Labour MP for Stafford and chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety, said: 'The Government is keen to make a big push on law and order. Any efforts that can reduce the number of deaths on our roads are fully justified and in tune with the public's mood.'
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