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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Hit-and-run victim's family calls for tougher sentencing
The family of a hit and run victim killed following a collision with a drink driver have launched a petition calling for a review of sentences for driving offences.
Graham Ruecroft was cycling near Wallingford, Oxfordshire, on June 4 last year when he was hit by a dark coloured Kia, driven by Maria Sutton, who was over the legal limit for alcohol.
The family of Ruecroft have expressed dismay at the maximum penalty for dangerous driving, which currently stands at 14 years, and are hoping for justice when Sutton is sentenced next month.
Has the government's promised driving offences review been shelved?
Sutton failed to stop after the collision and Dr Ruecroft died of his injuries in hospital five days later.
Sutton was arrested on June 5 and pleaded guilty in December to perverting the course of justice by failing to stop. This month she pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention while being over the legal alcohol limit.
Dr Ruecroft’s brother, Malcolm, said he believes the maximum sentence of 14 years for the offence should be higher.
He told the Oxford Mail: “What Sutton did after the incident – she left him in the road to die – that is what has destroyed us the most. Now we need justice."
"When I came out of the court last week I felt flat but most all devastated it has taken so long to get to this point.
"Our family has been doing round trips of 500 miles to be there and that has been exhausting."
His 81-year-old father and sisters have attended the court hearings over the past nine months.
He said: “My father has been in tears. He has lost a son.”
In May 2014 Chris Grayling, former Justice Secretary, announced a review of motoring offences and penalties, but 20 months later neither review has started. Cycling UK, the national cycling charity (formerly CTC), has called sentencing for serious driving offences an “unfathomable mess”, with “miscarriages of justice and weak sentencing” common.
In the Government’s latest Road Safety Statement, published in December, current Justice Secretary, Michael Gove, to whom the petition is directed, renewed the Government’s intention to hold a review, but gave no indication of a time scale.
In 2013 the family of a couple killed while riding a tandem bicycle in Bristol appealed to then Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling to increase the 14 years maximum sentence. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, then personally wrote to Grayling asking him to review the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving.
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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16 comments
This appalling case is not the first involving a hit-and-run driver where the more serious charge of manslaughter looks to be more appropriate as the initial charge. If it can be demonstrated that any delay in notifying the emergency services had a significant impact on the victim's chances of survival.
Killing someone while drive while above drink limit should automatically result in maximum sentence and don't understand while it should be any penitence against that person.
Having said that I really struggle to understand how traffic laws are enforced in the UK. I didn't take the driving licence in the uk and I have 20 year of driving experience, I commute mainly by bicycle (5000km per year between commuting and weekend rides) and motor bike. I consider myself a careful and competent driver I even take my soon to school on a motor bike (5 min on residential road). My driving record was immaculate until I was sent on a driving awareness course (instead of going to court risking 3 to 9 points.) for riding my bike "without due care and attention". The alleged offence was to stop at a traffic light on a marked area (not a bike box) Another guy I know (a respected professional family man with kids) also got three points on the licence for driving his scooter "without due care and attention" allegedly for failing to visibly slowing down when passing a green light. Another guy attending the driving course with me was there for having one of the tyres semi deflated. He claimed that he just had small puncture and as the tyre was deflating slowly he didn't notice. I am inclined to believe it but again for the law "driving without due care and attention!
I am not arguing with the law but it seems that on paper me my friend and the lady in the article are all on the same level. I am sorry but I don't feel this is he case.
It seems that minor and more serious offences are all mixed up in the same pot with no differentiation. For a Instance even talking on a mobile phone is drive without due care and attention while in my view this is a very serious offence. Passing a cyclist dangerously close is not an offence while it could be a deadly manoeuvre!
In my country leaving some one to die on the road (even if you were not responsible for he accident) it is a penal offense and you do time in jail. Talk on the phone and they take your license away. Drink and drive and they take the license away.
Here it seems there is this catch it all definition which cover the most minor offenses till the most serious. The problem is that this diverts resources from more serious problems on the road.
Oh my god! She set up a petition, to blame the poor man she killed, when she was drink driving???! Fucking idiot, excuse my french! And so utterly heartless.
There's not a lot of point requiring drivers to carry mandatory insurance if they can drive away from the scene of a collision with relative impunity.
the rates of "running" after a hit and run are, I believe, quite a bit higher here in the UK than in many more civilised parts of the world. The Swiss, for example, wouldn't dream of doing it.
A 14 year sentence seems like a very long time to me, and would be an enormously significant deterrent. Not lax at all.
She won't get that long though, having pleaded guilty. But if she is currently being remanded in custody, then a substantial prison sentence seems almost inevitable.
It isn't the lax prison sentencing that is the problem in my view. I am doubtful that this actually makes much difference, beyond a certain point. It is the lax driving ban that is the problem. I would wager my mortgage on this driver NOT getting a lifetime ban - I can't think of a single case where a killer driver has actually been given a lifetime driving ban. The review should focus on the pitifully short driving bans, and the way this reinforces that driving is a right and not a privilege.
low conviction rates are the real problem.
But yes driving bans, I wouyld like to see a comparison between killer drivers getting a licence again, and people who have shot someone getting a shotgun licence.
A lifetime driving ban has been given before:
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Death-crash-driver-jailed-banned-life/st...
And should be given more often. Perhaps the judges, CPS need to be reminded of this example. Families and friends of the victims need to know this.
That will be this lady then https://www.change.org/p/public-make-it-law-for-a-cyclist-to-wear-a-helmet
Disgraceful
Being mown down by a drunk driver who fled the scene may have been the root cause of the fatality.
Let's hope the judge sees this before sentancing!
I'm hoping for maximum jail time on all counts.
Difficult to believe that a drunk driver would set up a petition blaming the cyclist she killed. Not only showing no remorse but attempting to shift the blame.
14 years would be a long sentence for someone who admitted blame and took responsibility, but being so heartless and crass to set up a petition blaming the person you've just killed is showing that you really aren't a member of the human race and should be incarcerated until you've learnt that other people matter too. 14 years would be too short.
Dear Laura Laker - I don't wish to seem pedantic, but the article appears to say that the Kia was being driven by a woman who was herself being driven by Maria Sutton. I'm sure that wasn't the case.
So so sorry to hear this, sure I speak for all on passing sincerest condolences to family, friends and the wider community in general.
As ever we can only pray that yet another senseless loss can be given some value by urgent judicial review and the introduction of a punishment that becomes deterrant for those around us who refuse to behave.
Second degree murder, what possible good was ever going to come by operating such a vicious machine whilst intoxicated. No excuses where lives are taken or destroyed.
Petition signed of course, shame on government yet again.
Its been said before, but until a close family friend or a member of the family of an MP gets killed/injured in a similar incident, nothing is very likely to change.
I'm not holding out much hope for the sentencing: I'd bet that Ms Sutton *needs* her car to get to work etc., and so a ban would be unnecessarily cruel...
Well, at least she's been remanded in custody until May 19th, so a bit too long to be annual leave.
Also, being intoxicated meant that she didn't get to use her get-out-of-jail-free-card by saying that the sun was in her eyes, or that she blinked slowly and never saw the cyclist.
That she's been remanded, not bailed, is interesting...