Road safety charity Brake took to parliament yesterday to kick off its new Roads To Justice campaign with a thought-provoking display. The main aim of the campaign is introduce stricter charges and sentences handed to criminal drivers.
A mangled Audi that had been split in half from the result of a fatal crash was on display by the parents of Joseph Brown-Lartey. He died at the scene at the age of 25 after the car was stricken by Addil Haroon who was travelling at speeds of 80mph in a residential area.
Mr Haroon was 18 at the time and he was jailed for six years on a count of death by dangerous driving. Before the fatal incident he had posted picture on social media of him travelling at 142mph with the caption "Leeds to Rochdale 11 mins catch me". The father of Mr Brown-Lartey described the sentence as being "kicked in the teeth twice" and urged for stronger sentences to be dealt out to offenders.
He's not the only one - a survey conducted by Brake found 66% of people feel a minimum of 10 years in prison should be given when a driver kills by dangerous driving. Nine out of 10 people asked feel drivers who kill whilst under the influence of drink or drugs should be charged with manslaughter.
Brake is now calling on the government to review the guidelines for charging and sentencing criminal drivers and so far over 7,000 people have signed a petition arranged by Brake just a hew days ago.
Gary Rae, director of campaigns for Brake, said: "Drivers who kill while taking illegal risks are too often labelled 'careless' in the eyes of the law, and then given insultingly low sentences when their actions can only be described as dangerous and destructive."