Law Change Needed

Everyone apart from Members of Parliament, knows that the motor vehicles laws are inadequate ...

Martin Newman Was Drunk, With Drug Traces

..... when it comes to dangerous driving resulting in death.

There are of course accidents, but some things such as driving while drunk, or impaired by drugs, should lead to murder charges, when innocent lives are lost as a result of these irresponsible actions.

This inadequacy in the law was highlighted yet again when Martin Newman of Croeserw, Neath Port Talbot, South Wales was sentenced for crashing head on in to another vehicle, injuring all the occupants, including killing two young children.

Newman had been taking taking drugs, and alcohol (cocaine, vodka and approx 10 cans of cider), until at 05:00 am, with only two hours sleep he had awoke and decided that he was too hungover and tired to work, and instead he chose to drive the three-hour journey back to Bridgend, in Wales.

He was travelling on the M4 motorway in his Ford Transit van, at 70mph, in a manner described by other motorists as 'haphazardly' and like an "idiot", (including using his phone, the last phone call ended just seven minutes before the fatal crash), before braking just two seconds before the impact with a family's Ford Fiesta, on the M4 between Cardiff and Newport.

CCTV footage showed his van swerving across lanes on the M4, from the Prince of Wales bridge, to the point where he crashed into the red Ford Fiesta, travelling at 57mph. He was found at the scene of the accident, crying, with blood on his hands and saying he "wished he was dead." He was arrested at the scene and was found to be twice over the drink driving limit and also to have traces of cocaine in his system.

The judge said: "This was the most serious level of dangerous driving ... I am satisfied, the most flagrant disregard of the rules of the road." before jailing Newman for nine years and four months. Judge Daniel Williams said some would find the sentence "inadequate", but he said only Parliament could change the law.

Newman, who had also admitted seriously injuring the children's mother, and drink and drug driving, will be expected to serve half his prison sentence in custody. He was also disqualified from driving for 14 years and eight months. The children's family expressed anger at the sentence, and said they would appeal for harsher punishment that reflected the loss of the two young children.

Sadly, this sort of senseless avoidable death occurs nearly every week .... they should be treated as what they are, manslaughter or murder.