Oxford player jailed for car crash death

sadly dave there are those that think our sentencing is too hard on the poor old criminal,and sod the victim.And until the sentence fits the crime i am sorry but the law of the land is an ass

you are amusing lambethgull

Not "one upmanship" Aussie, just putting my personal view as one who has spent most of his working life driving daily in some of the most congested and demanding traffic conditions in the Western World.

It's one thing to give some of one's attention to what is being carried on in a conversation when driving on rural, non motorway highways; but completely another thing to do so in those highly demanding and concentrated conditions.

Why do you think it is actually in contravention of The Traffic Commisioner for London's (i.e. The Metropolitan Police) Regulations for a PCV (bus) driver to even use a hands free system whilst driving a London bus?

Because it is a distraction, a distraction that could cost a pedestrian or cyclist their life my friend. Even talking to or being spoken to by passengers whilst the vehicle is in motion is prohibited and there are properly visible notices to make that point clear to the passengers on the vehicle. Bear that in mind before you consider point scoring and whingeing.

Lambeth, as has happened many times before, the deeper we have gone into a debate we learn there are many things we do agree on and there are some we may never ever agree on as long as we both live. It goes without saying that longer and more appropriate sentences should happen and if for no other reason, then so the family and loved ones of any victim can feel some sort of justice has been done.

That is so often not the case as we know and it should never be forgotten those who are left behind often feel they have been given a life sentence of their own to try and live the rest of their lives with.

I really do not know about road safety or punishments for offences in other countries and therefore until I get the time to do some research on the subject, I can’t really give you an answer to your question. But I can give you me views why I feel if punishments were just that, punishments, then real crime and crimes like the one we have been discussing on this thread and others in the past, would be greatly reduced.

I believe our difference in views is caused by the fact we grew up in a different generation and therefore see punishment in a completely different way from each other and just what effect it can have and the lessons it can teach and I do know when I was growing up you really did learn the hard way, right from wrong.

Most things we do in life require us to apply some sort of thought to it, when we don’t it’s often the case we end up with all sorts of troubles simply because we acted and never stopped to consider the consequences of what might happen.

Knowing the consequences of our actions and what might be the end result is very important in decision making and as a result there will be times you decide not to proceed with something because the consequences may end up just too severe.

Imagine you came across a very large glass box that had small flap built into it that you would be able to open and if you stretched a bit could reach the middle of the box. In the middle is £500 in notes held together by an elastic band and there are also 50 live and hungry looking rats inside the box.

Weighing things up you might decide that you could get you arm in and out in three seconds, grabbing the money and you might get lucky and the rats might take no notice of you, or at the very worst get bitten a few times and that may well we worth it to get that £500. Your decision to give it a go would have been based on the fact that you had come to the conclusion the consequences would not have been to bad for you and so you go ahead and steal the money.

Now let’s say you come across the box again only this time sat next to the £500 is a very hungry looking crocodile with his mouth wide open, the consequences of putting your arm in that box are a whole lot different now as you know it won’t be a bite you have to worry about, its if you will have an arm left should you decide to try and get that £500.

The chances are you won’t even try to get the money, you will know the price may be just to high and a price you are not prepared to pay and if punishments were made based on this idea, then I firmly believe crime rates really would go down.

Yes I know when you had to make this decision you were of sound mind, emotionally stable and not drunk or under the influence of drugs and I can hear someone know saying a drunk person is not capable of making good and sound decisions and that is why they get in their cars and drive them when they are not fit to drive.

But why do they drive when they are drunk? Is it because they feel they won’t get caught and if they do it will only be a fine and a one year ban from driving? While they will never give it a thought they could kill someone, they may will feel the risk is worth taking because at the very worst the consequences are really not that bad at all.

Now you take me, most know I don’t drink very often, but there are times when Carol and I go to a wedding or a party I may like to have a drink or two. I have no worries sticking to the amount I may have planned to drink and I know no one will make me have another drink if I don’t want one that simply is never going to happen.

But I could never really be sure if I may have gone slightly over the drink driving limit and lets say I had and then drove home feeling fine and fit to drive and got stopped by the police. The breath test proves positive and I get charged and then in the court the judge fines me and bans me for a year. The thing is not only have I just received a large fine and can’t drive my car for a year, I also just lost my job as without a driving licence I can’t do my job.

Now the consequences of drinking and driving would be far too high and not worth taking the risk over and for that reason If I do plan to go to a party and have even one drink, I leave my car in the garage as I have discovered to my costs over the years, there are often never second chances.

That is why I believe if the deterrent is strong enough it will work and if lets say it was decided that anyone caught over the drink drive limit would get an automatic 25 year ban from driving, do you not think they would think long and hard about going to the pub in their car? There would have to be no exceptions as there could never be any excuses for anyone who might still be stupid enough to take such a big risk.

Human rights have gone too far, there was a time people were sent to prison and did what was known as hard labour and if I ran a prison you would get fed, have to work hard all day and then be locked up in your bare cell for the night. You would never be allowed to have visitors and your life would be so unhappy you would make sure you never came back to my prison again.

Listen I’m not some hard faced person, far from it as I still cry when Lassies on the TV, but I come from a time when punishments were so hard you learned from them and made sure you never did anything that would see you receiving that punishment ever again.

At the end of the day most of us are all decent law abiding citizens trying to get through life as best we can. It is never right that those who won’t live by the same rules we have to and think they can do what ever they want and never have one regard for everyone else, should end up not having to pay a really big price and not receive the punishments their deeds and actions fully deserve, ones that would have made them stop and think hard about before they ever committed a crime in the first place.

I have already outlined my thoughts on crime, punishment, justice and human rights elsewhere on this forum, Dave. The results of this were straw man attacks from certain quarters, entrenching of respective positions in others, and no doubt a huge amount of boredom for everyone else. I have no intention of going through that again in this thread.

I am however in agreement with the quote of yours that I have highlighted above

Of course stronger punishments are a deterrent. That's why there are no murders in the USA.
(I'll let someone else do a breakdown of States.)