A ban must mean a ban

Jan Woodward was, in her own words: “just a normal single mam who had never sat and thought about driving bans” until 23 May 2006 when her daughter Kelly was killed by a drunk driver.

The man responsible for killing Kelly was sentenced to 4½ years in prison and given a driving ban of five years. But the ban began at the same time as the prison sentence so that the five year ban was only six months longer than the prison sentence. Jan Woodward’s campaign is to make the driving ban follow after the prison sentence. For more see Kellycamapign or sign the petition

The problem with making the ban begin after the prison sentence is that a prison sentence of 4½ years might only last 2¼ years because of parole and any prisoner may be transferred to an open access prison in the last two years of their sentence. So after only three months the prisoner could be driving. If the person was remanded in custody s/he might have already served three months before sentence and so could be out driving within days.

I think the courts should expressly state that that the driving ban should continue for a defined period after the prison sentence is completed.

Kelly was a car passenger of a drunk driver, Rachel was the passenger of an unlicensed driver, Bill was a cyclist, and Amy was a pedestrian knocked down by a speeding drunk driver

Their killers might not have intended to kill them, but how culpable are the drivers?