Jail for phone users who kill on the roads
DRIVERS who kill while using a mobile phone at the wheel are to be sent to jail under tough new sentencing guidelines issued to judges and magistrates by the Sentencing Guidelines Council...
Lengthy custodial sentences of up to a maximum of 14 years are recommended by the Council for cases involving prolonged, persistent and deliberate bad driving or where drivers are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.
The guidelines cover four offences:
- Causing death by dangerous driving
- Causing death by careless driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Causing death by careless driving
- Causing death by driving unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured drivers.
The latter two offences were introduced by the Road Safety Act 2006 and will come into force on a date to be announced.
The new advice says that if an offender was distracted by a hand-held mobile phone when the offence was committed it will be treated as ‘particularly serious’.
The guidelines state that reading or composing text messages over a period of time whilst at the wheel will be likely to result in an offence being in the higher level of seriousness and offenders should serve up to seven years in prison.
The tougher guidelines have been issued in the wake of public concern that some drivers involved in fatal road crashes are treated too leniently by the courts in the eyes of the public.
Full details at http://www.sentencingguidelines.gov.uk