This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/06/killer-drivers-biggest-stranger-danger-life-sentences
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Killer drivers are the biggest stranger danger – they should have life sentences Killer drivers are the biggest stranger danger – they should have life sentences | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| For someone we love to die suddenly, as a result of a traumatic injury, is one of the worst things that can happen to any of us, and belongs in a category of personal disasters from which some people struggle to recover at all. Bereavements are life-changing events, and letting go of the people we are attached to is always hard. | For someone we love to die suddenly, as a result of a traumatic injury, is one of the worst things that can happen to any of us, and belongs in a category of personal disasters from which some people struggle to recover at all. Bereavements are life-changing events, and letting go of the people we are attached to is always hard. |
| But when these goodbyes are forced on us, and especially if the person killed is young or someone we depend on, the distress can be overwhelming. Read Cathy Rentzenbrink’s heart-rending memoir The Last Act of Love if you don’t believe me. Her beloved younger brother was left in a permanent vegetative state by a hit-and-run driver, and she was overwhelmed by grief before and after his feeding tube was withdrawn. | But when these goodbyes are forced on us, and especially if the person killed is young or someone we depend on, the distress can be overwhelming. Read Cathy Rentzenbrink’s heart-rending memoir The Last Act of Love if you don’t believe me. Her beloved younger brother was left in a permanent vegetative state by a hit-and-run driver, and she was overwhelmed by grief before and after his feeding tube was withdrawn. |
| This is why the government’s proposals to increase sentences for dangerous and careless drivers are not only sound but long overdue. As justice minister Sam Gyimah said at the weekend: “Killer drivers ruin lives.” Yes, they do. | This is why the government’s proposals to increase sentences for dangerous and careless drivers are not only sound but long overdue. As justice minister Sam Gyimah said at the weekend: “Killer drivers ruin lives.” Yes, they do. |
| The truth is that the police, Crown Prosecution Service and criminal justice system have been failing the victims of road crime for years, along with MPs who have failed to increase penalties for drivers using mobile phones even as the gruesome toll of deaths and injuries has mounted (and even as they found time last year to vote 342-74 in favour of a ban on smoking in cars with children in them – a law that led to just one fine being imposed in 12 months ). | The truth is that the police, Crown Prosecution Service and criminal justice system have been failing the victims of road crime for years, along with MPs who have failed to increase penalties for drivers using mobile phones even as the gruesome toll of deaths and injuries has mounted (and even as they found time last year to vote 342-74 in favour of a ban on smoking in cars with children in them – a law that led to just one fine being imposed in 12 months ). |
| Christopher Gard, convicted six times for using a phone at the wheel before being jailed for nine years after killing a cyclist, Lee Martin, last year, is far from being the only law-breaking driver waved on his way by magistrates with a slap on the wrist and few points on his licence. Asked by the BBC in September about plans to double the number of penalty points received by drivers using phones from three to six, Martin’s brother Darrell said: “If you can’t live by a few rules that are not going to make you into a killer, then can you not drive, please? Because it’s not much to ask.” | Christopher Gard, convicted six times for using a phone at the wheel before being jailed for nine years after killing a cyclist, Lee Martin, last year, is far from being the only law-breaking driver waved on his way by magistrates with a slap on the wrist and few points on his licence. Asked by the BBC in September about plans to double the number of penalty points received by drivers using phones from three to six, Martin’s brother Darrell said: “If you can’t live by a few rules that are not going to make you into a killer, then can you not drive, please? Because it’s not much to ask.” |
| But “Can you not drive, please?” is a question that in 21st-century Britain seems to be extraordinarily hard to ask. When I’ve written about cars, roads and air pollution before, I’ve been careful to caveat any calls for fewer journeys or fewer cars, to acknowledge that driving isn’t always a luxury and in some places and at some times is the only way to get around. Not wishing to be dismissed as illiberal or ignorant, in my urban elite Oyster-card bubble, I made a point of mentioning that I use cabs and hire cars. Hey, I even used to own one, and once got three points on my licence for speeding. | But “Can you not drive, please?” is a question that in 21st-century Britain seems to be extraordinarily hard to ask. When I’ve written about cars, roads and air pollution before, I’ve been careful to caveat any calls for fewer journeys or fewer cars, to acknowledge that driving isn’t always a luxury and in some places and at some times is the only way to get around. Not wishing to be dismissed as illiberal or ignorant, in my urban elite Oyster-card bubble, I made a point of mentioning that I use cabs and hire cars. Hey, I even used to own one, and once got three points on my licence for speeding. |
| My fear of cars is rational, as fears go, and vastly more rational than, say, the fear of child abduction | My fear of cars is rational, as fears go, and vastly more rational than, say, the fear of child abduction |
| But the fact is that my fear of cars – which I mostly encounter these days from the pavement as a pedestrian – is rational, as fears go, and vastly more rational than, say, the fear of child abduction, which leads police to issue warnings via primary schools from time to time, usually in a note to parents saying something like: “There has been an incident in the local area. Please talk to your child about ‘stranger danger.’” | But the fact is that my fear of cars – which I mostly encounter these days from the pavement as a pedestrian – is rational, as fears go, and vastly more rational than, say, the fear of child abduction, which leads police to issue warnings via primary schools from time to time, usually in a note to parents saying something like: “There has been an incident in the local area. Please talk to your child about ‘stranger danger.’” |
| Don’t get me wrong. I understand why the police do this and support them. How could they not, once such a perceived threat has been reported? But where are the warnings about the driver in the SUV seen texting on the main road, or the lorry taking corners too quickly? Particularly alarming, once you start to notice these things, is that you don’t even have to be in the road to be at risk. There are no official figures for the number of people knocked down on pavements, but it happens. Twice in the past month motor vehicles have mounted kerbs on roads I walk along every day. One of these incidents involved a bus, and made the news. You can see pictures of it, a number 52 crashed into the wall beside the zebra crossing I use on the way to school with my kids. | Don’t get me wrong. I understand why the police do this and support them. How could they not, once such a perceived threat has been reported? But where are the warnings about the driver in the SUV seen texting on the main road, or the lorry taking corners too quickly? Particularly alarming, once you start to notice these things, is that you don’t even have to be in the road to be at risk. There are no official figures for the number of people knocked down on pavements, but it happens. Twice in the past month motor vehicles have mounted kerbs on roads I walk along every day. One of these incidents involved a bus, and made the news. You can see pictures of it, a number 52 crashed into the wall beside the zebra crossing I use on the way to school with my kids. |
| Road are dangerous places. Just think about the people you know who have been killed or injured in car crashes compared with the number who have been in plane crashes or caught up in terrorist incidents or other violence. Although deaths on British roads have almost halved this century, with 1,732 road deaths in 2015, down from 3,409 in 2000, vulnerable road users including children, old people and cyclists are disproportionately at risk. | Road are dangerous places. Just think about the people you know who have been killed or injured in car crashes compared with the number who have been in plane crashes or caught up in terrorist incidents or other violence. Although deaths on British roads have almost halved this century, with 1,732 road deaths in 2015, down from 3,409 in 2000, vulnerable road users including children, old people and cyclists are disproportionately at risk. |
| Would sending more people to prison make us safer? Presumably to some extent, if deterrence works at all. But since prisons are full, not to mention dangerous and dysfunctional, the proposed life sentences must be a last resort for extreme cases, such as when a repeat offender kills several people because they are driving too fast (again). In the meantime, a campaign highlighting the risks of driving while on the phone is urgently needed, along with a much stronger emphasis on safety in driver education, enforcement of existing laws and longer driving bans for those caught breaking them. | Would sending more people to prison make us safer? Presumably to some extent, if deterrence works at all. But since prisons are full, not to mention dangerous and dysfunctional, the proposed life sentences must be a last resort for extreme cases, such as when a repeat offender kills several people because they are driving too fast (again). In the meantime, a campaign highlighting the risks of driving while on the phone is urgently needed, along with a much stronger emphasis on safety in driver education, enforcement of existing laws and longer driving bans for those caught breaking them. |
| Texting at the wheel isn’t the only reason people crash cars. But the tragedies that have resulted from this criminally selfish behaviour could serve as a wake-up call. As long ago as 1925, F Scott Fitzgerald perceived the sociopathic potential of driving. The climactic episode of his classic novel The Great Gatsby is a hit-and-run. | Texting at the wheel isn’t the only reason people crash cars. But the tragedies that have resulted from this criminally selfish behaviour could serve as a wake-up call. As long ago as 1925, F Scott Fitzgerald perceived the sociopathic potential of driving. The climactic episode of his classic novel The Great Gatsby is a hit-and-run. |
| Rentzenbrink takes a remarkably forgiving attitude to the driver who killed her brother. Not everyone believes harsher punishments are the answer. But many victims of road crime have been deeply disappointed by police and the courts. And it is on their account, as well as our own, that the government’s consultation on longer sentences should be welcomed. | Rentzenbrink takes a remarkably forgiving attitude to the driver who killed her brother. Not everyone believes harsher punishments are the answer. But many victims of road crime have been deeply disappointed by police and the courts. And it is on their account, as well as our own, that the government’s consultation on longer sentences should be welcomed. |