Ratko Mladic has been described as ‘a bombastic thug who had no sense of the rules of warfare.’ What then should we call drivers with no sense of the rules of road safety?
In the 15 years that the accused war criminal evaded capture for allegedly ordering the murder of some 20,000 Muslims, more than 45,000 lives have been claimed by vehicles on the roads of Britain.
We don’t call road deaths murders, and very rarely are they even manslaughters.
At worst, and it seems only when every road safety rule in the book has been blatantly ignored, might they be called “death by dangerous driving”. And although the maximum sentence for the offence is 14 years, no driver has yet received it.
Clearly, not every driver who kills is a bombastic thug, but without doubt there are plenty who will become so and who are.
They could and should be identified at the earliest opportunity.
Allan Ramsay, Radcliffe Moor Road, Radcliffe.
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