Road safety campaigners have welcomed the news that killer drivers are being given tougher sentences.
New figures from the Ministry of Justice show that last year 60 per cent of drivers convicted of causing death on the roads of England and Wales were given immediate custodial sentences, a six per cent increase over 2013. Furthermore, the average jail term rose to four years from three-and-a-half years for the same period.
This is due in part to the revival in the use of the more serious ‘causing death by dangerous driving charge’, which had been in steady decline for some years but saw 176 prosecutions last year compared to just 144 in 2013. In contrast, prosecutions for the lesser charge of ‘causing death by careless driving’ dropped from 234 cases to just 205.
Prosecutions for motoring offences were up by 4.5 per cent in 2014, with a 26 per cent leap in speeding prosecutions largely to blame. On the other hand, prosecutions for drink driving, careless driving, and using a mobile phone while driving all saw a decrease.
The news was received warmly by Julie Townsend, Deputy Chief Executive of road safety charity Brake, who said, “Drivers who have killed while taking illegal risks have too often been labelled ‘careless' in the eyes of the law, and given insultingly low sentences, when their actions can only be described as dangerous and destructive. It is encouraging that we are starting to see this trend being reversed, with more offenders being appropriately charged with causing a death by dangerous driving, and receiving tougher sentences that better reflect the consequences of their actions.”
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