A CAMPAIGN group today called for a change in the law after a drink-driver was jailed for just two months after a road crash in which a mum lost her unborn baby.
Zoe Stow, of the RoadPeace campaign group was speaking after David Hornby was sent to prison after the head-on collision with Jason and Eileen Winstanley's car near Hoghton Tower on December 12.
Mrs Winstanley, who was six months pregnant was rushed to hospital where her baby, who was delivered by Caesarean section, was stillborn.
Ms Stow, said: "The driver has killed someone, in this case a foetus, who was not strong enough to survive.
"The law simply does not adequately cover situations that arise in reality. And there is no adequate charge to deal with these sorts of cases.
"We also feel the courts are reluctant to impose the maximum penalties that they have in their powers at the moment.
"We believe insufficient priority is given to road deaths, compared with other sorts of deaths."
Hornby, 31, of Chapletown Road, Bromley Cross, pleaded guilty to Blackburn magistrates to driving with excess alcohol, without due care and with two defective tyres.
He was jailed for two months and disqualified from driving for two years.
Passing sentence on Hornby, District Judge Paul Firth said that had the baby been born alive and had died as a result of the injuries his mother had suffered, Hornby would have faced a charge of causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol.
But he said the law made a distinction between a baby that was still born and one that was born alive and then died.
Mr Firth said: "It is right that the law makes that distinction, but I believe it is also right that in considering the consequences of this driving I acknowledge that this is just as much a death as any other child's death."
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