If you cause a death because you were checking your phone while driving then the rest of your life could be forfeit under new plans.
The government plans to strengthen sentencing guidelines to raise the limit of imprisonment for dangerous drivers who kill from 14 years to a lifetime, reports The Telegraph.
Ministers want to ensure that reckless drivers should be given a “punishment that fits the crime”.
The new plans come after several high-profile cases where drivers distracted by phones have killed children.
In October lorry driver Tomasz Kroker, 30, was jailed for 10 years for killing a woman and her three children while distracted by his phone.
He failed to stop and ploughed into a stationary car at 50mph. Tracy Houghton, 45, her sons, Ethan, 13, and Josh, 11, and her stepdaughter, Aimee Goldsmith, 11 all died in the tragic crash.
Judge Maura McGowan took a very dim view of Tomasz’s fatal use of a phone behind the wheel saying he, “might as well have had his eyes closed”.
In 2015 122 people were sentenced for causing death by dangerous driving.
As well as making using a phone while driving even more serious for people who kill the government want to create a new offence for causing serious injury, with a maximum sentence of three years.
Let’s hope these stronger laws discourage people from using their phone while driving and save lives so no family has to go through what Tracy Houghton’s has suffered.
