Nine in 10 People In Our Region Want Criminal Drivers Who Kill Charged With Manslaughter

A study to mark the launch of Huddersfield based road safety charity Brake’s new “ROADS TO JUSTICE” campaign shows there is huge support for strengthening both the charges and sentences faced by criminal drivers.

94% of people questioned in our region agreed that if someone causes a fatal crash when they get behind the wheel after drinking or taking drugs, they should be charged with manslaughter. That carries a possible life sentence. At present people can either be charged with causing death by dangerous driving or causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs. Sentences for those charges range between 26 weeks and 14 years, though sentences at the higher end of the range are rarely handed out.

The study also reveals most people back much tougher sentences for all criminal drivers who kill. Almost two thirds (61%) of those questioned think those convicted should be jailed for at least 10 years. A third of people asked said the sentence for killing someone in a crash should be at least 15 years and one in 10 (11%) think killer drivers should be jailed for life. At present almost half of drivers convicted of killing are not jailed at all. The average prison sentence for a driver who has killed someone is less than four years.

Brake is now calling on the government to immediately review guidelines for both charging and sentencing criminal drivers. 

This new campaign is being backed by a number of recently bereaved families who feel they have not had justice for their loved ones. Dawn and Ian Brown-Lartey lost their son Joseph when a speeding driver ran a red light at more than 80 miles an hour. Today for the very first time, the car Joseph was driving, which was cut in two by the collision, is being put on public display (with support and help from Greater Manchester Police) and brought to the House of Commons.

Joseph Brown-Lartey died as his vehicle was split in half by a car driven by 18 year old Addil Haroon in Rochdale in 2014 who was later jailed for six years.

Joseph’s parents, Ian and Dawn Brown-Lartey, said: “We will never get over the loss of our beautiful son Joseph, who had his whole life ahead of him. Hearing that his killer will serve half of a six-year sentence was a further slap in the face to us and our family. The law needs to change so that sentences for causing death by dangerous driving reflect the crime. We can’t bring Joseph back, but what we can do is campaign in his name to stop other families going through what we are. Joseph’s car was split in two. The emergency services said it was the worst road crash they had ever seen. We want people to see that devastation first hand in the hope of educating young drivers but also to hit home with the government the importance of our campaign”

The campaign is being supported by Lorraine Allaway from Long Preston near Skipton whose husband Robert was killed by a drink driver while riding his motorbike in the Yorkshire dales. Andrew Crook was two and a half times over the alcohol limit and on the wrong side of the road when he hit Robert. He was jailed for four years and six months, so will be out in two and a half years.

Lorraine Allaway said: “I vowed on the day Mr Crook was sentenced that I would campaign to get the law changed regarding sentencing of drivers who kill vulnerable road users in Robert's (Bob's) name. I know it won’t change the sentence Mr Crook got but hopefully it will save another family from going through the devastation caused by the loss of a loved one in this way.”

Gary Rae, director of communications and campaigns for Brake, the road safety charity, said: “There are too many families, like the Brown-Lartey’s, and the Allaway’s, who suffer the double trauma of losing a loved one in a sudden and violent way, and then witness the judicial system turning its back on them. That’s why we’re launching our Roads to Justice campaign, which calls on government to get tough on criminal drivers who kill or seriously injure others. We believe the public are behind us, judging from our survey results. People we work with tell us they are left feeling betrayed by the use of inappropriately-termed charges and lenient sentences. Drivers who kill while taking illegal risks are too often labelled ‘careless’ in the eyes of the law, and then given insultingly low sentences when their actions can only be described as dangerous and destructive.”

Brake’s survey also revealed overwhelming support for a charge of dangerous driving and not careless driving to be handed out when someone is seriously injured or killed in a crash. 85% of people questioned agreed a charge of dangerous driving should be brought.

In 2014 176 people were charged with “causing death by dangerous driving” and 205 were charged with “causing death by careless driving”. Brake would argue that all careless driving is dangerous, as if you are not giving your full attention to the road and the task, you are more likely to crash and that crash could be fatal.