Toughen law on 'lumatic drivers,' says judge

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC also wants the minimum age for drivers to be increased from 17 to 18 and for inexperienced motorists to be barred from using high-powered vehicles.

After recently dealing with a number of dangerous-driving cases, the judge accused a minority of mainly young male drivers of having "no regard for human life."

And he is supporting the Telegraph & Argus's Be Safe Not Sorry campaign, launched to cut the number of deaths on our district's roads.

The campaign has already been backed by West Yorkshire Police, the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

Judge Durham Hall told the T&A: "I have done a series of dangerous-driving cases recently where very young people, usually men aged between 18 and 20, have driven very badly and caused death or extreme injury.

"There just seems to be no way available of protecting the public from a minority of drivers who have no regard for human life.

"How many more cases must judges preside in before somebody gives serious attention to protecting the public from these menaces on our roads?

"We want someone to listen to our continual demands for some protection from these people and I am glad that the T&A has taken on this campaign to highlight some of the issues."

He said the sentences available in dangerous-driving cases did not make sense and needed to be addressed urgently. He said: "If you drive dangerously at the lower end of the scale and kill somebody the penalty has been increased to a maximum sentence of 14 years.

"However if you drive dangerously at the maximum end of the scale - that is, like a lunatic - and maim somebody seriously but they survive, the maximum penalty remains two years in prison. This does not make any sense to judges and gives us no scope to work around it." He said the sentencing powers get slashed further if the defendant pleads guilty: "If a defendant pleads guilty to the driving dangerously charge a judge has to give a third discount for a guilty plea, therefore a sentence of 15 to 18 months could be imposed for a dangerous driver who has maimed somebody. That is dreadful for the victims and their family."

He said the impact on victims and their families also needed to be taken more into account.

"There just is not enough awareness of the impact on victims and their families," he said. Seeing the person responsible punished for what they have done often helps the family come to terms with what has happened."

Last week Judge Durham Hall sentenced 22-year-old Sharaz Sarwar to 300 hours of community service and banned him from driving for five years after he pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving. In sentencing Sarwar, Judge Durham Hall said it was appalling that young people can just pass their driving test and be trusted with high-powered vehicles with almost inevitable consequences.

He said: "It may well be that to put a young male aged between 17 to 20 behind the wheel of a very powerful and potentially lethal piece of machinery is irresponsible. The age for driving should be increased to 18 at the very least and younger drivers should be limited in the engine size of cars they are permitted to drive."

He said he had seldom seen a dangerous-driving case involving a woman driver. "Statistics prove time and again that the main problem is young males," he said. "The difficulty for the Government is that they are unable to discriminate against a sex in legislation."

Judge Durham Hall said insurance companies have a big part to play. He said: "Insurers should make it virtually impossible for young men to drive these cars by making it vastly expensive to insure them.

"Other measures could include putting limits on when young people can drive on the roads, for example for getting to their employment only."

Brake, the national road safety charity, is using Road Safety Week next week to call for the introduction of a graduated driver-licensing system in the UK, which would place restrictions on newly-qualified drivers and allow them to develop their driving skills and experience gradually. Spokesman Dianne Ferreira said: "Traffic is the biggest accidental killer of young people in Britain."

But Frank Parkin, secretary of the Skipton branch of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: "I don't think raising the driving limit to 18 would have much of an effect. The key is that younger drivers need to receive more training and education in driving once they have passed their tests."

Philip Gwynne, of the West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, said from January to August this year a total of 70 people died in 64 major crashes on West Yorkshire's roads with the peak time for fatal smashes being Saturday night and Sunday morning.

He said: "Young male drivers and their passengers have emerged as the most likely victims of fatal road smashes through reckless and illegal driving.

"Of the 64 incidents only six of the vehicles at fault for the accidents were driven by women."

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