Court cases of road crimes involving cyclists who have been killed or severely injured often end with incomprehensibly soft sentences for the offending driver. Sentences, in the eyes of cyclists, too often simply don’t seem to match the crime.

Recently, a driver was given a six-month suspended sentence, 200 hours of unpaid work and just a one-year ban for killing a cyclist who she’d had 11 seconds to see before ploughing into him. This is an all too familiar news report.

It’s not only the readers of these news stories who can’t fathom how bad drivers can be treated with such leniency. Victims are regularly left completely mystified as to how an incident that has caused so much suffering can end in such a paltry punishment.

One road crash victim, Sarah-Charlotte from Oswestry, who suffered severe leg injuries after she was hit while cycling, says:

You can get more for a minor theft conviction than for what the driver did to me. I simply don’t understand the logic in that.

Maximum sentences for driving offences are quite substantial. For example, an offender can be sentenced to 14 years in prison for causing death by dangerous driving, but actual sentences imposed seldom come anywhere close to the maximum. Minimum mandatory driving bans that judges have to impose are extremely short; a mere one to two years for offences involving death. And judges rarely disqualify drivers for much longer than the minimum – one to three years is the average ban for a causing death by driving offence.

Raising the maximum fines for driving offences, a plan announced by the Ministry of Justice this week, won’t have much impact on sentencing. Magistrates can already impose fines of up to £5,000 for certain motoring offences, yet average fines don’t come near the maximum. In 2013, the average fine for careless driving was just £160.

So what should be done? What changes could be made to ensure sentences are both effective and just? Sentences should punish and deter, while protecting the public. To start with, judges should be encouraged to impose more and longer driving bans – a real risk of losing your licence, potentially for a long time, would make people respect the law and the safety of others. Substantial driving bans are a deterrent to offenders but also protect everyone – cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists alike - by taking bad drivers off the road.

Driving bans and other sentencing options will be discussed by legal experts, road safety campaigners and road crash victims at a debate held by CTC, the national cycling charity, tomorrow, this Friday 13 June. Let us hear your views. Send us your questions and ideas for the panel of legal experts using the Twitter hashtag #CTCdebate, or in the comments below.



• Rhia Weston is the road safety campaign coordinator for the national cycling charity CTC