Outright anger is the only way to describe the comments posted on TruckNet UK regarding Dean Ingram, Jamie Winter, a third youth (who cannot be named for legal reasons) and a judge that seems to have lost all sense of proportion. These youths were responsible for the death of 68-year-old lorry driver Lawrence McCourt by throwing a concrete block through his windscreen while he was driving on the A45.
Judge Charles Wide feels a 40-month detention order on Ingram and one year on Winter is all a driver's life is worth. Drivers posting on TruckNet UK forums beg to differ. One driver says: "They should be made to stand under a motorway bridge while we throw bricks at them as they try to avoid the rest of the non-law breaking TruckNet community driving our respective vehicles down said motorway on the limiter."
Another says: "We could have a re-enactment of that night with them playing the part of the breeze block. That should give a much better ending to the incident." Some members point out that the judge has let these two literally get away with murder, one stating that: "This is outrageous. Maybe the judge needs dangling over a motorway bridge from a rope. Is that what he thinks a human life is worth?" Drivers are so angry they are e-mailing the Home Secretary to press for the Crown Prosecution Service to review the sentencing. Most drivers agree the e-mails will achieve nothing except be an opportunity to vent anger as there is a belief that as it was "only a lorry driver" no one in power will care.
As one driver puts it: "I wonder what they would have got had it been an MP or some other waste of space, whose 4x4 had got a breeze block through the windscreen and been killed." As community manager responsible for TruckNet UK, at this point in my column I normally move on to another subject, but this week I think my typing will be better spent sending my e-mail to public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk and copying it to smithjj@parliament.uk and adding my voice to the calls for the offenders' sentences to be reviewed.
Related used vehicles for sale
