The Daily Telegraph Tougher penalties for hit-run drivers
HIT-and-run drivers face up to 10 years in jail under proposed changes to penalties for the offence in South Australia. The South Australian government said today it wanted a tenfold increase in the maximum penalty for drivers who leave the scene of a crash where a person has been injured. The change comes in response to the case of a prominent lawyer who escaped jail after leaving the scene of a fatal crash in 2003. “This is about making sure hit-and-run drivers can no longer get away with being cowards who end up with a penalty such as a fine and a licence disqualification,” Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said. “That type of punishment is about as fair as a slap on the wrist.”

Last week Eugene McGee, a former police prosecutor turned criminal lawyer, was fined $3100 and disqualified from driving for 12 months after killing a cyclist in a hit-and-run crash. He failed to stop at the scene and evaded police before being arrested six-and-a-half hours later. Mr Atkinson said the McGee case had exposed a serious weakness in the law. “Once our proposal passes parliament, fleeing the scene of a crash where the victim is left for dead will carry the same maximum penalty as causing death by dangerous driving, and the offence can be proved without the need to show dangerous driving,” Mr Atkinson said. “Under our reform there will be no incentive for drivers involved in a collision to flee the scene, and those who do will be looking at a jail term of up to 10 years.”

AAP