At last, a motoring fine with bite.

Published by Matt Polaine | Filed under Cars

I’m not anti-car but I am anti UK car-culture. Wander around a crowded street with a loaded shotgun with the safety catch off, after having a few beers, slip and the gun goes off killing someone - you’re in trouble. Yes you have a shotgun licence, yes you have a clean record, yes it was ‘an accident’.

Um, hold on a minute. It wasn’t an accident, it was an incident. It was inevitable the gun was going to go off eventually, and the owner’s behaviour is entirely at fault. Just as driving a car while using a mobile phone or after drinking is exactly the same; licence, lethal weapon, carnage etc.

So why is it that the UK courts allow people who kill through dangerous driving to get away with some of the most pathetic sentences in Europe? Well partly because both judges and the courts believe that these ‘accidents’ were not avoidable. Our legal system isn’t part of the solution, it’s part of the problem.

If I decided to kill someone, the best way for me to do it is run them down. The sentence would be minor compared to a baseball bat ‘accident’.

Norway has a different approach with drivers who take the p*ss. Norwegian police stopped a 49 year old man in October last year near the airport in Southern Kristiansand. Tests showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.188, far above the country’s maximum of 0.02 percent.

The man pleady guilty, however unlike the UK where the fine is solely based on the crime, in Norway it is also based on the income and personal wealth. The unnamed driver earned £76,000 a year and had £24 million in assets.

The court gave him an 18-day suspended jail sentence and a £71,000 fine. He had to take a course on the dangers of driving while intoxicated. He was also banned from driving for two years. He had driven 400 metres and not injured anyone or damaged anything.

Similar drink driving scenario in the UK: ban for 20 months and fine of £375.

Melt off the face and hands of a young girl from being trapped in a burning car ignited by a drunk driver ploughing into that car and killing two of her friends at the same time, US courts in Texas: 7 years and $20,000.

Assuming the ‘living remains’ of the girl is a living death, that works out at 2 years 3 months 2 weeks per death and $6,666 each.

At some point in the future, global society will look back at this level of unnecessary carnage and wonder what on earth were the judges and courts doing?

From a cyclists’ perspective, it is the court and judges total lack of appropriate sentencing that is THE main reason why careless driving maims and kills. It’s too easy.