The Evening Telegraph in Kettering is calling for a review in the law to allow drivers involved in fatal accidents to be given tougher sentences.

Prompted by the case of driver who was fined just £500 and given nine points on his licence following his involvement in a car accident which killed a 17-year-old girl, the newspaper has put the spotlight on the issue and is channelling support for sentences to fit the crime.

The man involved could only be charged with careless driving, and afterwards the girl's father told the Evening Telegraph: ""We need to have a think about the laws and how we drive. We can't keep saying, 'tough, there's nothing we can do'."

Editor David Penman said: "It's not the place of the Evening Telegraph to say what the sentence should be, but we believe that the public has the view that too often people are killed and the driver responsible walks free with a minor penalty.

"We tend to agree with the father that the sentence was probably insufficient - there was no ban, the man didn't go to jail and £500 isn't a lot of money."

As part of the campaign the Evening Telegraph has published interviews with parents of children who died in similar circumstances.

It has also published the story of the father of an underage driver who thinks the sentence handed out to his son - of four years in jail - wasn't tough enough, and has already won the support of road safety campaigners and local MPs.

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