Please Read This

[Si Hunt]

This is Cerys Edwards:



She was left brain-damaged, paralysed and unable to breathe without a ventilator by a speeding teenage son of a millionaire. He served just six months in prison for inflicting the catastrophic injuries on the then one-year old.

Her family have campaigned to the government for harsher sentences for speeding motorists. But the Ministry of Justice had told the family that it did not change driving laws recently because it was not “affordable” and added that increased sentences would now be too expensive for the rapidly increasing prison population.

But quite clearly this is nonsense - because if drivers know the potential risk of severe penalties from reckless driving there will be fewer offences. The government's economics also ignores the enormous financial cost of caring for the victims of such driving, either by the NHS or insurance, which ultimately we all pay for through increased taxes and insurance premiums.

Cerys Father said: “How many signatures do we have to get and how many more people should suffer injuries caused by dangerous drivers before somebody listens and changes the law?”

If you want to help, you can! After I signed the initial petition, I got an e-mail from the family asking for more help. If you think we should have harsher sentences for speeding drivers, then please help by doing one of the following:

- Log on to CerysEdwards.co.uk and sign the petition

- E-mail Claire Ward, the Government Minister concerned with this at general.queries@justice.gsi.gov.uk and ask for more to be done

- Write to your local MP (who you can contact at www.writetothem.com) and ask the same

Don't you think it's shocking that someone who can do this serves less than 6 months in jail as punishment?

Even if you just do the first one, it will only take a minute. But if you want to do more, please write to Ward or your local MP as well!

Thanks!

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

I've signed. On a related subject, it's always bothered me that you can have a speed limit of 30-40 mph in towns and villages with pavements, but a limit of 70 in forested and countryside areas with no pavements and few embankments on which to walk. One day, if it hasn't happened already, some boy racer's going to come speeding round a sharp bend and ruin their no-claims bonus by ploughing into a deer; or someone's livelihood by carving up a flock of escaped sheep; or a rambler's life. That's why I've done it. Too late for Cerys, but you never know...

[Martin Penny]

I signed it. I'm becoming increasingly frustrated at how many drivers are breaking the speed limit on my way to work, I drive down quite a lot of narrow, country roads with a 30mph speed limit, and there's always some idiot who comes zooming past going well beyond that.

Some moron sped round a corner today and had to break because he nearly hit a woman walking her dog.

[Si Hunt]

They got Claire Ward's e-mail wrong, it's now been corrected. The correct one to use if you wish to write is general.queries@justice.gsi.gov.uk

Si.

[SiHart]

I thought it was a really tragic story, so I signed the petition too.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

Thanks Si!

Si.

[MinaHarker]

I signed it. I'm becoming increasingly frustrated at how many drivers are breaking the speed limit on my way to work, I drive down quite a lot of narrow, country roads with a 30mph speed limit, and there's always some idiot who comes zooming past going well beyond that.

Some moron sped round a corner today and had to break because he nearly hit a woman walking her dog.

I get beeped and yelled at occasionally, by people who want me to break the 50mph limit on a local dual carriageway. Apart from the fact that I do not think going above 50 on that road is safe (esp not on my little motorbike), there are speed cameras all along there too! I'm not risking life, limb and my licence for some berk who won't obey the law.

[Andrew Curnow]

Actually I think the dual carriageway limit is 70 isn't it, but even so I take your point.

Our village has a 30 mile limit, as you'd expect, but then the road immediately outside, which is a pretty basic road that's not really wide enough for two vehicles in some places, is the standard 60 - so we get more than the occasional car whizzing along at 60 and then coming into the village still at that speed.

[Si Hunt]

I'm actually not a fan of this "let's lower the speed limit as much as possible" theory - yes, they'd be less accidents if we had blanket 20mph residential zones, but there'd be less accidents still if no-one drove at all. You have to draw the line somewhere. It's just not possible to drive along at 20mph - in fact, it evokes such frustration at taking so long to get anywhere that it probably provokes more careless driving and accidents than at 30mph.

However, I have no patience with anyone who breaks the limit once it's been set - if you have a limit, then pedestrians can be aware of how fast cars are travelling and take the neccessary precaution. If drivers are then going to break the limit, they stand no chance. And I don't get - I simply don't get - why you get lesser punishment if you kill someone using a car. It's a weapon like a knife or a gun. If you step into a car drunk or when you can't drive, it should be treated the same as if you went out with a gun and killed someone that way.

Si.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I think one of the problems is the badge of honour idiots like Clarkson give to speeding.

Stop prosecuting speeding motorists and start catching real criminals. Problem is a speeding motorist can be as deadly as Harold Shipman at an old peoples home.

[Alex]

Actually I think the dual carriageway limit is 70 isn't it, but even so I take your point.

I always thought that was the case, but there are some dual carriageways in Surrey which have been reduced to 50. And also some country lanes that are incredibly dangerous and can only fit one car that are 70. Tis really ridiculous, but that applies to so many of the things local councils do.

The story above is a really tragic one, and I've signed the petition, and just hope enough people do so that the government is forced to something about this state of affairs.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Of course the technology exists and has done for a while to eradicate speeding motorists virtually overnight ...

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2009...NEWS/907089996

Is there a Government which has the nerve though? You can almost hear Porsche drivers moaning about how their car will now go no faster than a Micra.

[MinaHarker]

Actually I think the dual carriageway limit is 70 isn't it, but even so I take your point.

Our village has a 30 mile limit, as you'd expect, but then the road immediately outside, which is a pretty basic road that's not really wide enough for two vehicles in some places, is the standard 60 - so we get more than the occasional car whizzing along at 60 and then coming into the village still at that speed.

This particular one has "50" signs along it.

[MinaHarker]

And I don't get - I simply don't get - why you get lesser punishment if you kill someone using a car. It's a weapon like a knife or a gun. If you step into a car drunk or when you can't drive, it should be treated the same as if you went out with a gun and killed someone that way.

Si.

That's exactly what I've been saying for years. If I went out on the street swinging a big knife round my head indiscriminately and then injured or killed someone I would be put in prison and quite right too. It's the same thing.

[Andrew Curnow]

This particular one has "50" signs along it. [and also Alex's post]

Ah, apologies, I didn't realise they ever did that. There's a little stretch in Launceston near here which could do with something like that - it is part of a larger d/c obviously, but this short section also basically joins part of the town with Tescos and is way too fast for a 'in town' road.

[Larry]

if I had a young son or daughter and some one did that to them and was let off with a slap on the wrists I would track them down and beat him so badly that he was left paralized and drinking his food through a straw for the rest of his lfe.

we are far to soft in this country on speeding/drunk drivers who leave inocent people either dead or paralized IMO you speed or drink and then kill some one you should be charged with murder and face a minimum of 15 years.

[Jason Thompson]

It's about time official bodies recognised that a car is a bloody dangerous thing, and handled irresponsibly can be lethal, and punished those who do so accordingly. As many have said, if I kill someone with a knife, a gun, a garden implement, a chemical poison, or my bare hands I would be sent down for years, possibly my whole life, and yet if I kill them with a car I might get off with a few months.

As a non-motorist, no doubt many motorists would deride my opinion as ill-founded, but I hate the way some motorists believe that traffic laws are no more than an inconvenience to be flouted whenever they become inconvenient, and the ones that have the sheer nerve to complain about speed cameras being no more than a way to fleece motorists really get my goat. Sorry, but if you don't exceed the limit you don't get a ticket and you don't pay any money, so stop complaining and abide by the damn law!

I hope this idiot, when he gets out, is introduced to the family, and gets to see first hand how his selfishness and stupidity has shattered so many lives. I would bet he'll find it a darn sight more difficult not to care when he's confronted with the actual sight of a tiny child in such a state because of him, rather than simply hearing about it from others in a court room.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I think one of the problems with cars is we're cocooned inside metal, and the fact there are other people out there. An awful kind of dehumanisation. "Hey I didn't do this to X, my car did".

And it is seen as somehow acceptable. You need to look no further than ...

http://current.com/items/89512110_fu...elebration.htm

But I know I've argued this point before over some peoples attitude which almost borders on gee, when people on their mobiles mow down and kill cyclists.