5,825 BACK CALL FOR LAW CHANGE

‘Sharlotte’s Law’ petition presented to Parliament

A 90-PAGE petition calling for a law change, after a six-year-old girl was killed in a horrific drug-and drink-driving collision, has been presented in Parliament.

Stoke-on-trent MP Jonathan Gullis formally presented the ‘Sharlotte’s Law’ petition – backed by 5,825 people – in the House of Commons Chamber.

St Anne’s Primary School pupil Sharlotte-sky Naglis, above, was killed by driver John Owen, then aged 45, on June 19, 2021, as she walked along the pavement on Endon Road with her dad, Kris Naglis, near their

Norton Green home. Owen, of The Square, Oakamoor, was speeding and had taken cocaine as well as being almost twice the drink-drive limit, using his mobile phone around the time of the crash. He was also not wearing a seatbelt. However, because Owen was in a coma for some time after the crash, blood samples that were taken could not be analysed without his consent. Sharlotte’s mother Claire Reynolds has been working with her MP, Mr Gullis, to campaign for a change in the law that would allow blood testing without consent.

Sharlotte’s Law – which would remove the current restrictions on police establishing whether drivers were over the limit or on substances in certain cases – has already been endorsed by the Campaign Against Drink Driving (CADD), Support and Care After Road Death and Injury (Scard), road safety charity Brake and Stoke-on-trent City Council. The campaign has also been backed by The Sentinel and Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams.

The petition, now in the Official Record, will be reviewed and considered by the Government. Mr Gullis said: “We need to change this loophole in the current law to prevent others going through this trauma which will live long in the memory of Sharlotte’s family and the wider community in Stokeon-trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke.”