ADUK Archive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7654430.stm

This made me sick I was only holiday when I first heard and they also said he had no insurance but that was later dropped.

Its attitude that its ok to drive a 2 ton vehicle like a prize idiot twice the legal limit its just makes me sick that there are people the same age as me. If I know I am going to weding I make arrangements so I don't drive.

Even with this sentence, the media report is suggesting that the sentence is too light. Minimum three and a half years in gaol, and the end of a fantastic career is a pretty tough sentence. However, he would probably have got gaol time for any death by dangerous conviction, and there are three 'aggravating' factors here: falling asleep, drunk driving and two deaths. These are probably more significant than the two mitigating factors, remorse and guilty plea.

Stressed D, what sentence would you have expected? If this sentence is OTT, perhaps the judge thought the high profile of the defendant would send a strong deterrent message, and gave the toughest sentence he thought would stand up.

Other factors:

1. I ask myself what the probability is that I would have managed to get out of the way of an out of control vehicle on what surely must have been a near empty motorway. It depends how much warning there was that the Range Rover was driving erratically.

2. I wonder how the children were secured in the Previa? Interesting that two children died, but 4 others in the vehicle survived.

3. What was the barrier situation? Did the Previa cross onto the opposite carriageway? It appears that there was no edge of carriageway barrier - since the report suggests that the Previa went off the edge of the carriageway and down an embankment.

Factors against him from new sentencing guidelines:-



The consumption of alcohol prior to driving will make an offence more serious.

The seriousness of [the] offence…will generally be greater where more than one person is killed

Greatly excessive speed

Speed inappropriate for the prevailing road and weather conditions

Aggressive driving (evidence says he was ‘driving like an idiot’)

Driving when knowingly deprived of rest or sleep. (He claims he fell asleep).

No contributory actions from driver of other car.

No apparent lack of driving experience.

Good driving record is no longer necessarily a mitigating factor.


On the plus side:-

One third reduction in sentence for early guilty plea is mandatory.

Remorse should be taken into account by the court when sentencing

(I can't see any evidence that the fact he is professional football player is relevant to sentence).


The new guidelines (and new maximum sentence of 14 years) should see sentences rise significantly for CDBDD and this mightn't be too harsh relative to this.

StressedDave wrote:You base things on .....

Fully understand that, I listed what I think are the main legitimate sentencing factors in this case.

ETA Post crossed with more specific version from MGF. No reason to suspect inappropriate speed in this case.

I think in these cases the sentence is almost irrelevant. Harsher sentences won't bring people back or make what happened ok.

All those involved will live with what happened for ever, and that's worse than anything a court can impose.

If you have any faith at all in humanity, you'd have to say that the fact that people died is more of a deterent than whether the driver went to jail.

waremark wrote:

StressedDave wrote:You base things on .....

ETA Post crossed with more specific version from MGF. No reason to suspect inappropriate speed in this case.

'No reason to suspect inappropraite speed'???? Except witness who saw the vehicle shortly b4 impact claimed he was travleing at, at least 90mph the police officier who investigated the crash said he was suprised by the speed and the level of dribk involed (He was more than twice the limit) also I read someone he did not see the vehicle and did not have time to slow down as he was asleep due to drinking and only having 2 hours of sleep.

StressedDave wrote:

MGF wrote:Factors against him from new sentencing guidelines:-

I've been away from it for 5 years now (yay!), so I wasn't up to date on the new guidelines. When I was working, it was incredibly rare to see even a 50% sentence for a guilty plea...

jbsportstech wrote:'No reason to suspect inappropraite speed'???? Except witness who saw the vehicle shortly b4 impact claimed he was travleing at, at least 90mph the police officier who investigated the crash said he was suprised by the speed and the level of dribk involed (He was more than twice the limit) also I read someone he did not see the vehicle and did not have time to slow down as he was asleep due to drinking and only having 2 hours of sleep.

The investigating officer can't have been in the job long to be surprised by 90 mph on a motorway and double the drink-drive limit... of course these days the investigating officer is a CID suit rather than a traffic officer.

I think he is mentioning the speed inrelation to the fact that the cars he hit where stationary and he was doing about 90mph.

Might be worth reading more than just the beeb snippet on the case before commenting on aspects of it as it just shows your lack of knowledge in the particular instance.

jbsportstech wrote:Might be worth reading more than just the beeb snippet on the case before commenting on aspects of it as it just shows your lack of knowledge in the particular instance.

Do you have a link to a more detailed account? My understanding was that the Previa wasn't stationary when it was hit, but that's based on reading the BBC news articles so may not be accurate...

I'm also not sure I'd class his driving as "like an idiot" leading up to the crash, but again that's based on the CCTV footage on the beeb site so may be missing some bits...

Chris

I have followed this one and read various accounts and the all point to bad driving aswell excess alchol :

this story states he was seen swerving:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... -20601993/

here one showing the toyota and stating he had no insurance whihc was probably dropped sue to the seriousness of the other charges.

I think 7 years is a fair enough sentence...given that he was driving under the influence of alcohol AND fell asleep! Plus, who ever gets the maximum sentence of 14 years? I've never heard of anyone getting that long a sentence.

IMHO, for the most serious driving offences, the maximum sentence should be life. What does anyone else think?

Dave's 12 year example was an offence of immeasurably greater culpability than today's 7 year one. In the 12 year case the defendant was deliberately using his vehicle as a battering ram, in todays case the footballer took the very stupid decision to drive after drinking and when tired but had no intention of causing harm to anyone. Any other information given is consistent with the attempt to drive drunk and tired - and the allegations would be more likely to be exaggerated in the press than otherwise.