Calls for criminal drivers who kill to be charged with manslaughter
A Yorkshire widow is calling for tougher driving sentences after her husband was killed after being knocked of his bike.
Calls are being made to the government to immediately review guidelines for both charging and sentencing criminal drivers.
A new study from road charity Brake found large support to create harsher penalties for drivers who kill.
In the Yorkshire and the Humber:
- 9 in 10 want criminal drivers who kill to be charged with manslaughter - 61% of people believe drivers who kill should be jailed for a minimum of 10 years - 85% of people think drivers who kill while breaking laws should be charged with dangerous and not careless driving
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 are rarely handed out.
The average prison sentence for a driver who has killed someone is less than four years.
Lorraine Allaway is one of those backing the campaign. Her husband Bob was killed last summer after being knocked off his motorbike.
The driver who killed Bob was two and a half times over the limit. Earlier this year he was sentenced to 4 years, 8 months - but is likely to serve half that.
Lorraine told Radio Aire the jail term is not a sentence, but a laugh: "You just can't believe that these people are getting away with it. They go back to normal life, being with their families and the people that are left behind are left with a life sentence."
"If they are drunk/drug drivers or mobile phone users that have killed, they should lose their license for life."
"I hate the thought that somebody else is going to get the news that their loved one had died - and at the end of the day the person that killed them is only going to serve four years, maybe five - and then out of that they'll serve half of it because of the way the law is at the moment."
Gary Rae, from Brake, says: "There are too many families who suffer the double trauma of losing a loved one and then withness the judicial system turning its back on them."
In 2014 176 people were charged with causing "death by dangerous driving" and 205 were charged with "causing death by careless driving".
Lorraine is currently hosting an online petition to call on the government to change the laws surrounding driving that kills. You can support the petition by click here.