On the 28th of January this year, Graham John Stone, from Torquay, pleaded guilty to the death by careless driving of a 91 year old man, and was sentenced to 7 years in prison by Exeter Crown Court. The incident happened on the 23rd of April 2011 in the quiet village of Ilsington, Devon, due to the careless driving of the 46 year old, because he was under the influence of the drug, amphetamine. The time of day the tragic incident happened is unknown, but Graham crashed into his victims car, a Chevrolet Matiz, which led to the victims death and left the victims wife with severe injuries, who was also in the car. The offence of drug driving is just as serious as drink driving and there needs to be more awareness and action taken surrounding drug driving. The increase in drug driving led to government plans in January 2012, to establish an expert panel to consider the technical aspects of introducing a new offence of driving with an illegal drug in your body, alongside the existing one. During 2011, at least 640 accidents were caused by drug-drivers using both illegal and medicinal substances. Hopefully with the help of campaigns such as THINK! and government legislation, the statistics for drug driving in the future will dramatically decrease.
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