Sian Morgan, whose 15-year-old daughter Keely was killed by a careless driver in Cardiff in May 2023, has taken her campaign for tougher sentences to Westminster, saying she will continue to fight for "what is right" after discussing her daughter's death with MPs.
Keely was knocked down and killed while crossing Heol Trelai in Caerau on May 2023. She had spent the day with her family on Barry Island before telling her mother she was going for a walk. Keely had previously undergone a kidney transplant and dialysis. When she was late home that night, her mother grew worried.
Campaign for automatic licence revocation and longer prison terms
A police officer arrived at the family home to tell Sian that her daughter had been hit by a car and had died. Neighbours who heard the bang found the driver, Christopher West, of Nottage Road, Ely, Cardiff, emotional and admitting he had hit her. Keely was lying on the side of the road with significant injuries to her head and face; people tried to save her life but to no avail.
West was driving without a black box connected in his car as it should have been. He was sentenced for causing death by careless driving and causing death while driving uninsured, receiving 16 months imprisonment, a driving disqualification of two years and eight months, and a requirement to retake his test. There were cries from the public gallery as he was sentenced, and Keely's mother left the court dismayed at the length of the sentence.
Sian has launched a petition, already with 11,000 names, calling for stricter sentences for careless drivers. Her demands include automatic licence revocation following serious traffic incidents, longer prison terms for drivers who cause death or serious injury through carelessness, mandatory reassessment and vetting before any return to driving, and a review of current sentencing guidelines for repeat traffic offenders.
Westminster debate and ministerial response
Cardiff West Labour MP Alex Barros-Curtis held a debate on the topic in Westminster last week where Keely's case was discussed at length. He called for sentencing guidelines and driving disqualifications to be reviewed, saying: "Where a driver has demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to drive safely, there should be a robust process for assessing their fitness to return to the road."
He added: "Keely should have been able to cross that road safely and return home. She was so much more than the circumstances of her death. She was a daughter, a sister and a young girl with her whole life ahead of her. Her family should be able to remember her for who she was, rather than having to fight to ensure that no other family has to suffer the same indignity."
Jake Richards, a minister in the Ministry of Justice, responded to the debate, saying automatic disqualification "is part of live discussions" being had within government. He noted that he had come across too many cases where driving disqualification is not taken seriously as part of the punishment, and that a ban often runs concurrently with a prison sentence, creating the absurd situation where someone cannot drive while in prison but has never had any disqualification from driving at all.
Mother's response and hopes for change
Richards said he had raised the matter with the chair of the Sentencing Council, while the Department for Transport is also looking at the issue. He added: "The judiciary has the power to act. In this case, there is an issue about automating, but the judiciary has the power to implement lifelong driving bans, yet too often they seem not to be considered." He also said that graduated driving licences is "on the agenda".
Sian said the debate and a private meeting beforehand with the minister made her hopeful change would come. She told the minister that sentencing around careless driving needs to be made tougher, as has happened in death by dangerous driving cases. She said there are numerous examples, including Keely's case, where she believes the case was charged at the lesser level of careless driving when it should have been charged as causing death by dangerous driving because of gaps in the guidance that the CPS and judges can use.
"There were so many factors where it [Keely's case] should have fallen under death by dangerous driving, but they were just overridden," she said. "So I feel it really needs to be pushed and have so many more factors included so this doesn't happen again."
If the law is changed as a result of her campaigning, Sian said it will be "bittersweet". "It'll be a very bittersweet comfort," she said. "It'll be so sad and surreal because it's my child. We wouldn't be in this position if I haven't lost my child, and I shouldn't be in this position. No one should ever be in this position, but I've got to try and take some positives and turn it into a positive for other families."
She added: "They failed our family. Without a doubt of it, the justice system has failed my daughter, me, and my family. But if there was a positive outcome, then I would be really happy for other families. I'd be really emotional, I think, really overwhelming and emotional for me, but I know it's done for the right reasons."
The way the debate was handled and responded to has left Sian "flabbergasted". She added: "Nothing will bring Keely back but I just felt that the sentencing......everything about it was so wrong and unfair. How could you not go further with it? How could you not fight for what's right?"
Sian said a number of families were united in their grief from similar incidents all over the UK. "Keely's story is a tragedy to us, but it's a tragedy to all the families that have had to go through this," she said. "We're one family and hopefully we can come together now."
