It’s right to give crash killers life

For too long we have failed to treat the criminals on our roads with the seriousness their recklessness deserves.

Now that wrong is to be put right with sentences to fit their crimes. Killer drivers will be given life.

This will not just be welcomed by the families of victims and road safety groups, but by everyone who wants our roads to be safer.

Those convicted of death by dangerous driving, or causing a death while impaired by drink or drugs, will soon face life behind bars.

They kill through a cavalier disregard for the lives of others and are no less guilty of manslaughter because their weapon was a car. Now those offences are to be treated alike.

The existing maximum sentence of 14 years is not enough, particularly as judges rarely imposed it.

Life sentences give the judiciary the discretionary powers they need to ensure the punishment really does match the severity of the crime.

And this newspaper also welcomes the new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving which will also carry a prison sentence.

It is ridiculous for the penalty to be a fine, no matter how serious the injuries caused.

As vehicles became safer so the number of fatalities on our roads came down – from 7,305 in 1930 to 1,792 last year.

But the British are not good at taking driving seriously. The breathalyser was introduced in 1966, but it took decades for drinking and driving to become socially unacceptable.

There have been some horrific accidents caused by using mobile phones at the wheel. But you only have to go out and about to see how many drivers still do it.

Boy racers might think it’s fun to burn up a motorway. But they are putting innocent lives at risk as well as their own.

These new sentences will act as a deterrent for all such appalling actions.

It is unlikely we will ever get road deaths down to zero. But anything that can reduce them, and the number of hearts needlessly broken because of them, should have full public support.