Clause 20 - Causing death by careless, or inconsiderate, driving
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
11:30 am
Rosemary McKenna (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, Labour)
Yes—and that is exactly the point that we are trying to make. There must be the right to give a custodial sentence in such cases, and for the courts to be able to apply the appropriate sentence. It is stated in the North report, for example, that
“we find the concept of a road traffic offence in which the sentencing court is obliged to disregard the fact that a death has occurred as wholly anomalous.”
That opinion is repeated regularly throughout all thed¤background information that RoadPeace campaigners have given us.
I shall move on to my last point, which I hope the Minister will deal with when he responds. SCID asked me to raise one other issue with him. It relates to a case that Mrs. Melnik recently attended to support another family, a member of which had been seriously injured in a road traffic accident. Although the person did not die, they suffered serious head injuries, and family members felt that they had lost that person as a result. Will the Minister take that issue into account both now and during later stages in our consideration of the Bill? With that, I congratulate him on the legislation and hope that proceedings on it reach a speedy conclusion.