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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser

17 July 2008

I’ve been a member of the Parliamentary Road Safety Group for nearly ten years now and we’ve been working with other like-minded groups campaigning for safer roads, better laws and more consideration for the victims of traffic accidents and their families.

There have been far too many road accidents in our patch in recent years and too many of them cause serous injuries and death. All of these fatalities are tragic but when the victim is a child – the impact hits home even harder and the effect on families and friends is incalculable.

Readers will remember the tragic story of young Jessica Leigh who was run over and killed by a car at the Tower Hamlets cross roads in 2002. Her family and friends campaigned tirelessly with me to highlight deficiencies in our traffic laws and I was able to take their ‘Justice for Jessica’ petition to the Prime Minister, give them access to Ministers and introduce them to the Home Affairs Select Committee. Our representations, along with the efforts of other MPs convinced Ministers of the need to create a new offence of ‘causing death by careless driving’ which is now part of the 2006 Road Safety Act.

This week, at long last, the Sentencing Guidelines Council have completed their deliberations and the new offence is one step closer to becoming enforceable. Judges and magistrates have been given a clear message that driving offences that result in death are serious offences and should receive appropriate sentences.

In addition, lengthy custodial sentences have been recommended for cases involving prolonged, persistent and deliberate bad driving or where drivers are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

But driver behaviour is only one of the contributory factors that lead to road traffic accidents. Surface condition, speed limits, sightlines, road markings and alignment all have an influence. That’s why the families and friends of young Samantha Horne and David Wilson, who were killed in separate road accidents on the A258 have been campaigning with me for road improvements.

The A258 Group have done an excellent job with their petition campaign and their fund raising events and when I chaired their most recent public meeting in Deal it was very clear that support for their cause was widespread in the community.

I’ve made representations to Kent County Council on their behalf and after presenting their petition to the Prime Minister’s Office the Roads Minister, Jim Fitzgerald wrote to me confirming that the Highways Agency was setting up an official Working Party to make a study of the Dover to Deal road and come forward with recommendations for improvements.

The working Party is said to be making good progress and hopefully they will present KCC with a package of meaningful and practical recommendation which can be implemented without too much delay.

The new tougher sentences and the road improvements will come too late for the families and friends of Jessica, Samantha and David but the new measures will save lives and their campaigning efforts will be rewarded by the knowledge that they did not die in vain.