Manslaughter call on drink-drivers who kill
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• Drink-drivers should face the immediate, automatic suspension of their licences and those who cause fatal crashes should be charged with manslaugher, the House of Commons has heard.
Stafford MP David Kidney launched a parliamentary debate on road safety last week before presenting Transport Minister Glenda Jackson with a 10,000-name petition calling for: immediate licence suspensions for drink-drivers: more charges of manslaughter in appropriate cases; longer prison sentences; a reduced drink-drive limit of 50mg/100m1; and more roadside breath tests by police.
Kidney sparked the debate after two of his constituents were killed last year in a crash caused by lorry driver John Barker, who was three-times over the alcohol limit. Barker was jailed for six years.
Ten people are killed each week by drunks behind the wheel, says Kidney. "It is wrong that these drivers should be at liberty to drive their vehicles between those deaths and the time they appear in court, often many months later," he adds.
Kidney accepts that his proposals would require changes in the law, but suggests that pressure from European Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock to introduce a 50mg EC drinkdrive limit will give MPs the opportunity to push through his other proposals.