Call for tougher ‘hit-and-run’ laws debated

APOLICE and Crime Commissioner in the Westcountry has welcomed parliamentary debate around the sentencing of those involved in fatal road collisions.

A petition for tougher laws governing death by dangerous driving was debated in Westminster during this week’s national Road Safety Week.

The debate was sparked by two e-petitions, one of which followed the death of 31-year-old Ryan Saltern in 2019 at St Teath, in Cornwall.

Wayne Shilling, 39, of St Teath, was driving home from a carnival in St

Teath in July, 2019, when he collided with Mr Saltern, who was lying on the road and later died.

Shilling was last year given a fourmonth suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to failing to stop and failing to report an accident. He was also disqualified from driving for 12 months, given an evening curfew for four months and ordered to pay a £207 victim surcharge and prosecution costs.

A petition started by Ryan’s family, which received more than 167,000 signatures, called for tougher punishments for driving offences regarding a “failure to stop, call 999 and render aid on scene until further help arrives”.

Currently, ‘hit-and-run’ drivers face a maximum sentence of six months where there is no other evidence of careless or dangerous driving. Mr Saltern’s family are calling for a minimum ten-year sentence with a maximum life sentence, a so-called Ryan’s Law.

Transport minister Andrew Stephenson told the debate in Parliament

on Monday: “We agree there may be something wrong with the law as it stands.”

He added: “As the next step, the Department is considering conducting a call for evidence on parts of the Road Traffic Act. Although details are still being worked on, I expect this will include failures to stop and report as an offence.”

Alison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and national APCC lead for road safety, commissioned a road safety survey last year which was completed by more than 66,000 people – 81% of whom believed road offences required more enforcement.

She said: “The debate in parliament was a really important one and it was great to see so much positive support for both petitions. We know the public want to see tougher enforcement taken against road offences, but – more than this – we need to save lives that are being needlessly lost. Every life lost to a road traffic collision is both devastating and avoidable.”