LONDON, September 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ —
Concateno Welcomes the Campaign to Make Lillian’s Law a
Reality
On the 7th July, John Page was sentenced to eight
months in prison for dangerous driving that led to the death of
14-year-old Lillian Groves. Page’s vehicle hit Lillian while she
was playing outside her home in Croydon, and he admitted to smoking
cannabis prior to the accident. At the time of the accident, police
also found a half-smoked cannabis joint in his car.
On the 6th September it was revealed that, while
traces of cannabis were found in Page’s blood, he avoided a charge
of driving under the influence of drugs, which can carry a 14-year
sentence, because only low traces of the substance were detected.
Lillian’s family believes, however, that if Page had been tested at
the scene of the accident, rather than nine hours later, he would
have been deemed unfit to drive.
Following these events, Lillian Groves’ family has initiated a
campaign to pass Lillian’s Law, which would permit the use of
roadside drug testing devices, similar to the breathalysers that
are used to screen drivers for alcohol.
Roadside drug testing programmes are already carried out in
several countries today, including Australia, Spain, Germany, and
Italy. These programmes utilize equipment that enables police to
rapidly test motorists for the presence of drugs in saliva. The
tests are minimally invasive, and they can be performed in
approximately five to ten minutes. Where implemented, these
programmes have served as a deterrent to “drug-driving.”
For instance, since the introduction of its roadside drug
testing programme in 2004, Victoria, Australia has seen the number
of individuals driving under the influence of illicit drugs
decrease over a five-year period from one in 44 to one in 94. This
statistic very clearly suggests that roadside drug testing is an
effective way to reduce drug-driving and contributes
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