Kerre Woodham: Does there need to be harsher penalties for careless driving?

18 year old Jade Evans was killed last year when a truck driver ran a compulsory stop sign and crashed into her car, leaving her with catastrophic brain injuries. She and her unborn baby Lily died three days later after Jade's family donated her organs to save the lives of others. Now her family's calling for stronger accountability for preventable road deaths following yesterday's sentencing of the truck driver. The driver, who pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death, was sentenced to two months community detention, disqualified from driving for one year, and ordered to pay reparation to Jade's family. Doesn't seem much for lives lost, does it?  

But then when you think about Jake Hamlin, he got 12 months home detention for driving drunk and killing Samantha Williams. No accident about it. No carelessness about it. It was criminal negligence on his part, really. So yes, it would be nice to see people held accountable for the damage they do.  

Jade's mother Kathryn Stothers and stepfather Cameron have launched Jade's Law, a national petition calling for reform of New Zealand's road safety laws. Named in Jade's honour, the petition wants to increase penalties for careless driving causing death, and asks Parliament to amend the Land Transport Act so penalties reflect the seriousness of a life lost and recognise a wider range of aggravating circumstances for breaches of traffic rules, particularly involving heavy vehicles. Kathryn says the petition is not about seeking harsher punishment for one individual, it's about seeking a change of law to allow judges to impose sentences that reflect the seriousness of the crime.  

If you think back to a Dutch driver —I believe he was a tourist— Johannes Appleman, he T boned a car in Canterbury back in 2014 and that killed Dr Lucy Hone's 12 year old daughter, as well as her best friend and her best friend's mum. He failed to stop at a stop sign, one of those classic long Canterbury roads where you just don't see it. There was no intent, he wasn't drunk, he wasn't tired, yet he ploughed into them and three lives are lost. A Tauranga man was sentenced to 150 hours community work, disqualified from driving for 12 months, and ordered to pay emotional harm reparation for careless driving over the death of a motorcyclist.  

You have that awful, awful case of the young woman in Morrinsville —I think that was back in 2011— who came round a corner just on the outskirts of Morrinsville, failed to take a moderate bend, drifted over the road and ploughed into, she wasn't even going that fast, ploughed into a group of cyclists who were absolutely doing exactly as they should. They weren't all over the road, they were riding sensibly and it was just one of those horrible accidents. She wasn't drunk, she wasn't impaired with drugs, she wasn't tired, she was on her way to work and she killed three people.  

When it's an accident, a pure accident, no drugs are involved, no alcohol's involved, no tiredness, you're not turning around and laughing and chatting to other people, when it's just a dreadful accident, yet the outcome of that moment of carelessness or distraction or thinking about something else, that moment of distraction causes so many lives to be changed forever. Families have to live forever without their child, their husband or wife. How do you reflect that fairly? Harsher penalties, they're not going to stop the accidents happening because these are not people who need to be told not to drink and get behind the wheel of a vehicle. They weren't drunk. They don't need to be told don't take drugs, don't speed. They weren't doing any of that. It was an accident and yet the fallout from the accident is so great.  

Does there need to be a marker in law to say what you did was an accident, yes, but the damage you did through being at the wrong place at the wrong time in a moment's distraction has resulted in so much damage, so much pain, so much harm, we must mark it in law by punishing you. I mean, at the moment you've got a little light community service or a fine, disqualification for a year or so for people who have taken multiple lives. They didn't mean to, they weren't impaired, there weren't aggravating circumstances around what they did, but boy they did some damage. What's appropriate?