Eight months for taking a life while drunk
Can everyone have a few drinks, run over someone, kill them and flee the scene?
Many of us cycle and run on public roads for the sake of our health and/or pure fun, but sometimes it doesn’t go according to plan.
Although one does not often hear of accidents claiming the lives of those run or cycle on our roads, for one unfortunate cyclist in the Eastern Cape things did go horribly wrong.
The Pedal Power Association (PPA) recently reported the drunk driver who had hit and killed cyclist Clem Morris, 66, in the Eastern Cape in 2012 will spend at least eight months behind bars.
Now ask yourself: What if this cyclist was one of my loved ones – my child, father or husband? Has justice been served? Should the judge who made the ruling not have given a heftier sentence?
To me it seems the driver got off lightly even after pleading guilty to charges of culpable homicide, driving whilst under the influence of alcohol, failing to stop after the accident and failing to render assistance to the victim.
PPA said the man is to spend the eight months behind bars before he could be eligible for another form of correctional supervision such as house arrest to serve the remainder of his four-year sentence in respect of one of the counts on which he was found guilty.
The 28-year-old man alleged in his plea that after consuming alcohol on the afternoon and evening of 7 October 2012 he “fell asleep for a split second” while driving along the Kragga Kamma road, causing his vehicle to drift across the road and crash into Morris, killing him on impact.
The man fled the scene, but was arrested later.
Those convicted who admitted guilt surely have to pay for their crimes? What is the message this story brings? Can everyone have a few drinks, run over someone, kill them and flee the scene? Why worry if we are going to be behind bars for eight months only?
