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Safety groups praise sentence guidelines
Page 22
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• by Steve Banner
Safety experts have welcomed new sentencing guidelines that mean that drivers who cause death by falling asleep at the wheel are likely to be jailed. Announced by Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, at the Court of Appeal, they also cover deaths caused by people using mobile phones while driving.
Under the guidelines falling asleep or using a phone will be viewed as an aggravating factor justifying a custodial sentence rather than something that can be pleaded in mitigation.
A driver with an impeccable record who nodded off for a few seconds and killed another roaduser might expect a nine-month prison sentence. However, a case where there are aggravating factors—using a mobile phone while speeding or being over the drink drive limit, and killing somebody—should attract a sentence of at least six, and possibly up to 10, years.
"It is ludicrous that until now drivers who have killed on the road have been able to cite their own risk-taking as part of their defence," says chief executive, Mary Williams. "These new guidelines send a clear message to drivers that taking such risks on the road is totally unacceptable.
"The government must now respond to this decision by increasing the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving to 14 years, so that for once the punishment will fit the crime."
We support the declsion," says a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). "Saying that you were using a phone—or that you fell asleep—is no excuse for causing a fatal accident.
"Around 10% of accidents occur because drivers are too tired to be behind the wheel."
"We should be more aware of our responsibility to be fit to drive when we get behind the wheel—and that includes not being tired," says Dr Paul Jackson of AWAKE, which specialises in helping firms combat employee fatigue.
He hopes that Lord Woolf's announcement will be taken into account by employers, and prompt them to avoid drawing up delivery schedules that result in drivers becoming too tired. "Some hauliers talk a good fight, until there is a prospect of goods not being delivered on time," he remarks.
"If employers manage occupational road risk properly, then they should not have people an the road who are unfit to drive through tiredness," says RoSPA.