Thetownend.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7888653.stm

He got sentenced the other day, 3 years for careless driving.

The family were on the news saying they would have liked a much longer term.

Although I can understand where their immediate frustration and anger comes from, I think three years is acceptable and the real sentence is having the 6 lives on your conscience. I doubt whether the family would really feel any better if he'd have got 30 years.

Should he have got longer?

I think he probably should have got more.Its a bit odd when you get a longer sentence for faking your own death and decieving an insurance company than you do for killing a whole family.I dont really get sentences and sentencing none of it makes sense to me.

agree yeovil. What makes it worse is if it was a year ago careless driving would of only bought a max 1 year prison term

I think it's right to take into account intent as well as the consequences, even if you were doing something wrong.

Careless Driving and killing 6 people should carry a lesser sentence than stabbing 3 people to death for example.

To be honest I'm not sure what there is to gain from putting him in prison for longer, as far as I know the bloke isn't a threat to others, it's not a very effective deterrent, and it's not as if by punishing him you're bringing back the dead family.

Tricky isnt it ben.

T'is a very difficult one this to say the least. Yes, the lorry driver will have to live with what happened for the rest of his life. Yes, sending him to prison for 10 years won't bring the family back. I do think though that people these days don't take enough responsibility for their own actions and they shoud do - especially when they're in charge of 40 tons of metal travelling at 50/60mph on a busy motorway. I don't think you can just say, "Oh well, there's no use crying over spilt milk" or words to that effect. I think he should have got quite a bit longer.

Was the lorry transporting milk then

His defense team reckon that the family's car may have just gone into the back of the other lorry a second before....

is this the case where the bloke was looking at the laptop?

sorry if im being naive

I believe so yes.

well the bloke was a twat and deserves a longer sentence then imo

why?

Sent down for three years, but the judge said "you will have to serve at least 18 months"

WTF. Killing 6 people, a whole family dead because he was using a laptop, in a 40 ton lorry
on a motorway.

None of you would be saying that was fair if it was your family.

how do you know? someone might really hate their family

Victims aren't exactly impartial when it comes to giving their opinions on punishment. The justice system should never be about dishing out retribution for people.

why shouldnt it?

Well I suppose partially it has to be, or at least seen to be. I guess I just don't like the idea.

It's a bit of a waste of time if that's all it's doing anyway, it doesn't actually achieve anything.

what kind of cock drives along looking at a laptop?!?

dangerous driving at its worst imo, especially in a 40 tonne lorry.

especially when luke mccormick got 7 years, its fuck all.

not that im condoning what mccormick did at all, as that was fucking stupid too.

Was the laptop thing proved then? If he was full on using it I'm surprised he only got the lesser driving offence.

Records show he was using it minutes before. Dont know what that proves tbh

Using a Lap Top cant be much different to using Sat Nav or something,unless he was playing WOW and attacking an enemey outpost or maybe posting on a highly entertaining LNT on here...

ok if it was members of your family would you be happy with it  >:(
no
but then again it wont bring them back
he should have got a min of 6 years and ban from driving for at lease 10 years

Well he won't be driving lorries ever again so I suppose the roads are 'safer' from that perspective. Not really sure what I think about the sentence length, other than my initial reaction was that it wasn't long. But then I do not know the facts of the case.

Got me thinking though, plenty of people do silly things to take their eye of the road all the time. To change the CD in the stereo, muck about with sat nav, read a text etc. and all on the motorway. People think nothing of it at the time, but if you piled into someone it could be you ending up in prison.

People don't think about that because they think they're paying enough attention and nothing will happen to them.

What I think is more interesting is the fact that recently, we've had a 21yr old waitress crash and kill someone and get sent down, this lorry driver crash and get sent down and the sentencing of "Lord" Ahmed coming for committing a similar sort of crime to the aformentioned.

Should he go to prison like the other two?

Going off topic,but i've read today that they are saying that peter sutcliffe is sane and well so can be let out.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4684906/Yorkshire-Ripper-Peter-Sutcliffe-fit-to-be-freed-from-Broadmoor.html

Makes me so angry when i read stuff like that.the monster should rot in jail.How the hell his lawer can look at himself in the mirror at night i really don't know.

Turn the light on?

Ive been away for two days..i can say this story was on my mind yesterday and probably gave me and other drivers a kick up the ass..a reminder how fine a line mistakes can be,a year ago i made the decision not to take my mobile with me when ime driving,i miss it at times but a driver i knew ploughed into a roadworks lorry killing himself instantly...he was textin,all lorry drivers make mistakes but this guy should have been more aware,the matrixes were on...i turn the awareness up a knotch when roadworks or warning signs are on,i learnt years ago its not speed that kills on motorways(all lorries are limited to 57mph) its distance,not alot of good will come out of this sad story..but i know it made me look at myself and other lorry drivers too.

i've seen loads of foreign truckers with their feet up on the dash boards, with cruise control on, watching dvds or using laptops whilst tearing up the middle lane of motorways.that cunt that killed the family was probably one of the sort i've mentioned.

Read in the metro today that a woman is getting done for dangerous driving because she was on a legal hands free kit when an accident happened (and people died).

Thing is, accidents do happen - obviously they shouldn't, but how can driving whilst talking on a hands free kit be classed as dangerous driving?

Because women don't have the ability to do more than 1 thing at once? When she was talking she probably forgot how to drive temporarily.

That makes no sense at all...