The maximum sentence for death by dangerous driving was previously raised from 10 to 14 years but victims' families have complained that offenders are still treated leniently.

BBC correspondent Neil Bennett said the government's own advisers admitted that causing death by dangerous driving was a crime which created particular difficulties. It involved someone's death yet the offender did not deliberately intend to kill.

What do you think of the proposed reforms? Send us your views.

This debate is now closed. Thank you for your comments.

The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we received:

Anyone who drives (and I mean anyone, regardless of how careful they are) can have an accident, I mean that's why it's called an accident. There is a lot of "there but for the grace of God" with this.
Paul, UK

The current laws are quite sufficient. Even driving too fast and losing control is not deliberate murder but closer to manslaughter. A lot of accidents have two sides for example cyclists with no lights and pedestrians wandering across major roads.
Roger, Stockport, Cheshire

It is the criminals that need clamping down on, such as car thieves, drunk and drug drivers etc, before they cause death on the roads Rob H, UK

It is the criminals that need clamping down on, such as car thieves, drunk and drug drivers etc, before they cause death on the roads. The sentences handed down to car thieves in particular are derisory. It makes me embarrassed watching police video programmes from the States when a criminal who deliberately rams a police car is charged with attempted murder; yet when they show a similar incident in the UK, they're getting a six month ban and a community service order.
Rob H, UK

We most certainly do need far tougher, fair laws. But why not legally reduce the power of car engines and bring down the usual 120mph or more top speed of many cars. Most modern cars have far too much power and speed for our overcrowded road conditions.
Hilary Traveller, Guildford, UK

Prior to logging onto this page I read in your news section about a driver who has just been sentenced to three years imprisonment for drunk driving. This is his seventh conviction. His last conviction involved him in the death of his stepson. The judge expressed shock that despite his 10 year ban he was out driving. Clearly the judiciary have no grasp of the real world. His sentence of three years is disgraceful. He will be out and back on the road in 18 months. It is not reform that is needed but stronger implementation of existing laws.
Peter Smith, Walton on Thames

Has the meaning of the word "accident" been lost? Ian, Bradford

Reading these comments makes me believe everyone who kills whilst driving intends to do so. Has the meaning of the word "accident" been lost? Someone who is involved in an accident that kills a person is likely to be severely traumatised and has to live with this for the rest of their life, that's punishment enough in most cases. Jail simply destroys more families
Ian, Bradford

This cannot work. The reason the police and CPS don't bring dangerous driving charges in these cases is that the burden of proof required to jail someone for 10 years is high. Opting for the lesser charge of careless driving makes a conviction more likely. By increasing the sentence to 14 years, government has made it even less likely that dangerous driving charges will be brought.
Tim Watkins, Cardiff

I believe if someone caused a death by their bad driving/dangerous condition of their car they should be punished. But as well as locking them up and retesting them (or banning them driving ever again) how about making them do some community service as well; involving the clearing up of the mess of a road accident. Let them see how it ruins lives.
Emily Robinson, Guildford, Surrey

Whilst hard to argue against, I suspect that tougher sentences won't be a deterrent to prevent dangerous driving. Looking at some of the idiocy you see on roads like the A66, which has a reputation for being dangerous (when it's the people, not the road who are), it's hard to imagine people who drive like that having the common sense to be deterred.
Simon Challands, Manchester, UK

What we do need, is for the courts and the CPS to impose the present penalties and to stick to them John, UK

We don't need another law. What we do need, is for the courts and the CPS to impose the present penalties and to stick to them. I'm sick and tired of reading about criminals who get a five or ten year sentence and are then let out after serving just eighteen months. Our laws are fine, but why are these people let out when they have only served a fraction of the time they were given? Why doesn't ten years in gaol mean ten years in gaol any more?
John, UK

The problem is that there are many possible situations, and each needs to be dealt with separately. Drunken driving which causes death should be heavily punished, but as Neil from London puts it, a slight loss of concentration, combined with someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time, should not receive life imprisonment. That would do no one any good. There needs to be an acceptance of circumstances.
Claire, Aberystwyth, Wales

This is fine but it ought to apply to every road user, not just car drivers. After the news that drunken pedestrians cause 200,000 accidents a year, and that pedestrians are responsible for over 80% of accidents in towns, I hope they will be faced with similar action. Fat chance, everything is the motorists fault.
Andy, Manchester, England

Andy, Manchester, England. A pedestrian who "causes" an accident tends to be punished for his actions instantly and in a more direct way than the law is capable of. What you're suggesting is bringing in a law of "causing your own death by dangerous driving"?
Peter, Nottingham

I got caught speeding when I was 17, and the police scared the hell out of me. Anyone caught for similar offences which are basically dangerous driving should be clobbered for it. I am fed up with people moaning about speed limits; you might be driving in control, but what about the other driver or pedestrian?
Neil Small, Scotland

Sadly, giving people longer to contemplate what they have done after the event will not change drivers' attitudes at the wheel. Only education can teach people while sitting in armchair like car seats, surrounded by their favourite music and air bags, it still hurts quite a lot to be hit by the outside of a car.
Stella, Yeovil, UK

These measures are fine as long as the courts bear in mind that it is not always the car driver's fault if someone is killed - say a pedestrian runs out into the road without looking or a cyclist turns without indicating.
Ian, UK

Perhaps there would be fewer driving 'idiots' if there were less speed cameras and more police actually out on the roads. Speed cameras do not detect the tail-gaters, those who pull out without indicating, lane-jumpers etc. These people are just as dangerous as anyone who drinks and drives. Start policing the roads properly and there will be a drastic reduction in accidents.
Kiltie, Staffs, UK

Let's not tar everyone with the same brush Neil, Horsham, UK

The problem I have is that few people look at the facts of a case. Time and again the papers are full of stories where children are run over and the driver walks free. Outrage normally follows, but in most cases the driver was not speeding and was doing everything right. That is why they walked free. People over look these facts. Tougher sentences for those who are doing wrong is good but let's not tar everyone with the same brush.
Neil, Horsham, UK

13% of fatal car crashes are caused by drink drivers therefore 87%are caused by sober drivers....and what about the drunken pedestrians that are killed by there own stupidity
Paul, Leicester

I have long maintained that if I wanted to commit murder (I don't), my weapon of choice would be a motor car, since if caught it is likely that my punishment would be more lenient. That being said, the real answer to the problem of road deaths is better driver training. No amount of speed cameras coupled with lower speed limits, or threats of heavier sentences is going to be as effective in saving lives as a general improvement in the standard of driving. We should therefore encourage a culture of regular retraining, perhaps with graded driving licences which reward their holders, for example allowing holders of higher level licences to drive at higher speeds, use toll roads for free, use faster lanes on motorways etc.
Martin Dixon, Leicester, England

Interesting timing, yet more "Get Tough" legislation just before an election...a co-incidence?
Chris Parker, Bucks

Long, long overdue. A few years ago I asked a policeman why a person who had swapped a tax disc from one car to another received a greater fine than a person who had caused a death by dangerous driving, his answer was to shrug his shoulders. Car drivers have always had a licence to kill with impunity, we need that taken away.
Kosh, Reading

There has to be common sense - if someone causes death by driving dangerously, they should be charged and prosecuted accordingly. If someone makes a minor error of judgement with catastrophic consequences, they should not be jailed. Otherwise, all careless driving cases, whatever the consequences, should be liable to a hefty prison sentence. The offence is the same, whatever the consequence, just like an attempt in a criminal offence.
Sven, Colne, UK

Well this is surely so overdue it must be welcomed Chris Green, Hagley, Worcs

Well this is surely so overdue it must be welcomed. There has always be provision in the Laws of England and Wales for the charge of manslaughter to be brought in cases where there is neither premeditation nor intent and manslaughter can yield a life sentence so surely it is an appropriate charge to bring in cases such as this.
Chris Green, Hagley, Worcs, England

Anybody that causes death by driving a car should be locked up. I drive for a living and see really bad driving every day from speeding and the idiots who will drive through a red light. A stiff penalty in jail would change the views of these crazy drivers. How about the other people who maim and murder? Stiff penalties should be longer not shorter.
Derek, Hamilton, Scotland

Those who take the responsibility of driving need to except that cars are a dangerous machine and need to understand that it is a privilege not a right. Failure to drive sensibly should result in a life time ban, and killing somebody needs to be treated as just that - manslaughter.
Robert Doherty, Stoke-on-Trent

Death by dangerous, drink or drug driving should be treated as murder with life without parole the only sentence available to the Judge. I spent a month in a coma in 1979 when a car I was in hit a lamp post, a girl was killed and the driver turned out to be over the limit. This has affected the rest of my life and the driver was done for drink driving only.
Davd, Melksham, UK

If a driver has no licence causes serious injury or death, he should not be charged with a driving offence, but with an offence relating to improper use of a dangerous weapon, just as if he fired a gun at a crowd. The driving related charges should only apply to a legitimate driver - i.e. with a current, valid, driving licence.
Andrew, London

A car is a weapon for a drunk... Ben, France

The moment you get into a car drunk, you have decided to risk killing yourself and strangers. If I went out with a loaded gun just because I was drunk and killed the full weight of the law would come to bear on me because the gun didn't kill, I did, a car is a weapon for a drunk... Life in prison, let's stop trying to re-educate criminals and start punishing those who have no regard for our right to life.
Ben, France

I am under the opinion that a life for a life. Why should a family go through so much grief and to never see that person again? When the driver serves only four years of the sentence at the tax payers expense to keep him, only to walk free at the end.
Loraine Goodley, Lincolnshire

As long as we have sensible sentencing by judges, which generally we do have, stronger sentencing powers should be welcomed in order to deal with the small number of anti-social drivers in society.
Peter, France

As ever, hard cases make bad laws. Driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs (whether illegal or prescription) should carry tough penalties regardless of outcome.
Derek Blyth, Hatfield, Herts

I'm all for clamping down on the culpable, but suspicious of the "make him pay" attitude. The aggressive arrogant driver, the drunk driver, and the negligent driver probably deserve to get stung. By contrast the unlucky bloke who had a smoke at a party three days ago will register in a drugs test for the next month despite the fact that he straightened up the day after the party - so why should he get stung?
Phil, UK

We've got to get to the stage when every crime is viewed as important Jane Higgins, Reading

Here we go again... after-the-fact policing! Why do we wait until after someone is killed before we hit hard at careless/dangerous driving? Anyone that drives more than a few thousand miles a year in this country will see numerous incidents of dangerous and inconsiderate driving. However, the police don't seem to be interested. It's so much easier to stick up a speed camera and watch the �s roll in.

All policing in this country is the same� crime etc. I've had a number of incidents on our street and, when you call the police out (when they do eventually come) they are not interested because there would be too much paperwork involved and the offender would simply get a slap on the wrist anyway. We've got to get to the stage when every crime is viewed as important.
Jane Higgins, Reading, UK

Some 20 years ago my father was decapitated by a driver travelling at twice the legal speed limit. He was fined �100. However, then and now I would not wish for him to be imprisoned and robbed of his own children and family. They after all were innocent of any crime. However, the fine was an insult, and I would have liked to see him enrolled on some seriously revolting community service work. Please don't believe all victims want revenge, we don't, it's ultimately pointless, expensive and doesn't bring our loved ones back.
Dawn, Kettering, Northants

Tougher sentences on drivers that cause death are long overdue. I am sick of seeing drunk drivers ten times over the limit walking away with a fine. I say killer drink or drug drivers should be charged with homicide or murder not the far too lenient offence of death by dangerous driving.
Steve, UK

Dangerous driving with death as consequence is comparable to serious mental illness. Instead of giving long prison sentences it might have better scaring effect to send the dangerous driving death causing drivers into closed mental institute for shorter time. I do not think anybody wants to get there voluntarily and for those who want it is the correct place.
Miklos Nomad, Gyor, Hungary

I think this is progress but still not far enough. My daughter was killed by a driver who got six years to serve a minimum of four years. He was drunk and under the influence of drugs, no insurance and no licence. We must clamp down harder to save lives.
Mark Petterson, Lincolnshire

I can understand the bitterness of families that have lost relatives to careless driving, but I am concerned about laws that are weighted so heavily by the consequences of an action rather than the intent behind it. If a window cleaner accidentally drops a bucket because he is carelessly changing the tape in his walkman, are we really going to send him to prison for five years when it lands on someone's head? Of course not. Why should carelessness when driving be different.
Neil, London

Longer sentencing though welcome will not solve the problem. A motorist quite literally pointed his car at me and ran me over. He got off with driving without due care and attention! Motorists with the help of the lawyers provided by their insurers can and will find doubt, this distorts the legal process and sets up the very dangerous situation we have today.
Tone, Auckland, NZ

Yet another law. If sentencing is left to judges, it'll be yet another waste of paper, time and taxpayers' money.
Ken, London, UK