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Page 22
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Rikki Chequer, community manager of TruckNet UK, reports on some of the latest topics to be discussed by professional drivers.
Outright anger is the only way to describe the comments posted on TruckNet UK regarding Dean Ingram, Jamie Winter. a third youth (who cannot be named for legal reasons) and a judgethat seems to have lost all sense of proportion. These youths were responsible for the death of 68-year-old lorry driver Lawrence McCourt by throwing a concrete block through his windscreen while he was driving on the A45.
Judge Charles Wide feels a 40-month detention order on Ingram and one year on Winter is all a driver's life is worth. Drivers posting on TruckNet UK forums beg to differ. One says: They should be made to stand under a motorway bridge while we throw bricks at them as they try to avoid the rest of the non-law breaking TruckNet community driving their vehicles down said motorway on the limiter."
Another says: "We could have are-enactment of that nightwith them playing the part of the breeze block. That should give a much better ending to the incident."
Some members point out that the judge has let these two literally get away with murder, one stating: "This is outrageous. Is that what he thinks a human life is worth'?"
Drivers are so angry they are e-mailing the Home Secretary to press for the Crown Prosecution Service to review the sentencing. Most drivers agree the e-mails will achieve nothing but are an opportunity to vent anger there is a belief that as it was "only a lorry driver" no one in power will care.
As one driver puts it: "I wonder what they would have got had it been an ME' or some other waste of space who had been killed."
At this point in my column I normally move on to another subject, but this week I think my time will be better spent sending my e-mail to public.enquiries@homeoffice.gst.gov.uk and copying it to smithjj@parliament.uk and adding my voice to the calls for the offenders' sentences to be reviewed.