Petition for Suitable Punishment for Causing Death by Dangerous Driving

Petition for suitable punishment for death by dangerous driving in hit and run accidents

Abigail Craen a Birmingham University medical student died in a crash outside her halls of residence in Edgbaston. She was on a road crossing when she was hit by a Ford Mondeo. The car did not stop and passers-by called the emergency services.
Jaswinder Lakhvinder Singh, who sped off after knocking her down, was jailed for 18 months. He admitted to causing the death of 20-year-old Abi by dangerous driving. Singh only gave himself up to police after Abis mother Susan allowed newspapers to publish pictures of her daughter lying dead in hospital.

Abi was taken to hospital and tests showed she suffered irreversible brain injuries. She did the next day. The court heard Singh, from Birmingham, had previously been banned from the roads for 12 months for drink-driving. He admitted failing to report an accident, failing to stop and driving without insurance. Singh did not stop because he had no insurance. Singh was told he could serve only four months of his 18-month sentence. He was also banned from driving for four years.

There are plenty more examples of cases like this at the website of the road safety charity www.brake.org.uk. None of these sentences equate to what the law states to be suitable punishment. The advised maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years imprisonment, if over the limit for consumption of alcohol or drugs (section 1 RTA 1988). Under clause 20, when not under the influence, causing death by dangerous driving carries a maximum five year sentence, with failure to stop an aggravating factor. Section 170 requires accidents causing injury to be reported, and failure to do that carries a six month sentence. Under section 2 dangerous driving carries a maximum six month sentence.

We believe that even within the realms of the current law, the victims of hit and run accidents, and their families are too often not receiving the justice they deserve. Also the sentencing handed down to dangerous drivers is not deterrent enough to reduce the number of cases like these in the future. This can easily be achieved by encouraging courts to impose the power that they already have.

We also believe that in the case of Abigail, the sentence, which effectively equated to four months, trivialised the whole case. In particular the loss of life involved and the suffering for her family and friends were in no way compensated by the punishment given to the perpetrator. Thankfully the case has been referred to the court of appeal, and will hopefully result in justice finally being achieved. However the time and expense spent doing this could have been avoided by the imposing of a suitable punishment in the first place.