Life sentence option for drivers who kill

While I agree with Mr Noden (Viewpoint, February 25) that there is much that this and previous governments could have done to improve road safety, I feel obliged to comment on his criticism of Mrs May and her campaign for increasing sentences for dangerous drivers who kill.

Having lost our daughter, Bryony, in 2015 to a drink-drug driver, we have communicated on a number of occasions with Mrs May on this matter.

Neither we nor Mrs May have ever remotely suggested that a 30-year-old be locked up for 40 years.

What is being sought, is that judges have a life sentence option for the severest of cases.

At present, the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years, but with a discount for pleading

1/3 guilty at the first opportunity and automatic release (yes automatic – not ‘time off for good behaviour’) halfway through the remaining 2/3, an offender who ploughed into a bus stop killing five schoolchildren could only be imprisoned for a maximum four years, eight months, i.e. less than one year per life taken.

They would then serve an equal period ‘on licence’, which could result in being recalled to prison if they offended again or broke their licence terms.

By contrast, a life sentence is given with a ‘minimum tariff’.

The offender must serve this minimum tariff before being considered for parole and is then subject to licence conditions and potential recall to prison at any point during their lifetime if they reoffend.

Not unreasonable, given that they have killed an innocent person.

The proposed change would allow a judge to give a life sentence with a five or six-year minimum tariff, which would result in the offender being imprisoned for a longer period that the current misleading ‘14-year maximum’.

MARK HOLLANDS

Cox Green