20 months UK jail for American driver

What an odd sentence.

In the first instance, he did cause three deaths.  It's awful and could have been avoided.  But the sentence term-- it seems very excessive.

In the end, it was an accident and an unfortunate one, and yes he did cause DBDD.  But when was the last time you heard of anyone going to jail for that amount of time for DBDD.  Was Leeds CC trying to make some sort of point that foreigners shouldn't be driving?

All that said, the guy who caused the accident is an idiot for several reasons:
- Driving in a foreign country in the middle of the night in which you don't know the rules of the road for the country, the road signs, the markings, and you have only been in the country a few hours.
- He should have looked in any guide book.  Chances are they would have listed the basic rules of the road for Britain and road markings for britain.
-If he was in any doubt, he should have just stayed on the left.  When I started driving here I never went in the right lane.  You are taught in America that the left lane is for passing and the right lane is for cruising.  He should have had the sense to reverse those two, so essentially even if it was a dual carriagway, he was in the passing lane on a bend.

Yeah, I think he is an idiot, too, for the same reasons.  Especially since he was on a business trip and surely he could have expensed a hotel room for the night and a train ticket to London the following morning.   
But it does seem a bit extreme to send someone to jail for 20 months over an accident like that.  At any rate, I am sure it is something he will regret for the rest of his life.

He will almost certainly be released having served only half the sentence.

I don't think this is excessive for causing death by dangerous driving.  Yes, it is terrible for him, and I do feel sorry for him, but he must have some punishment for what he has done.

Vicky

My reaction is it was an accident.....so why does he have to do jail? I'll have to think about that one.
I'll have to think about whether I want to drive in the UK also if jail is a possibility.

Yeah, that's probably a good thing.

And just because it's an accident, doesn't mean it isn't a preventable one. All in all, if something has you thinking twice before getting behind the wheel, you won't convince me that's a bad outcome.

But what about the English people that do this and the ones that jump in the vehicle drunk or over the limit, or the boy racers or the ones who just have no driving licence, they get away lightly yet they know what they are doing, my wifes step sister was killed by a boy racer he did not go to prison, the lad driving a 4 wheeldrive and went into a family car leaving the little girl disabled (brain damage and paralised) he went to prison for no time at all really,  there are many more than this and they walk free or serve very little time yet they do it on purpose without consideration for others on the road they just do not care. Then you have the older generation who get confused and drive the wrong way down the motorway or round about.

This chap it was an accident, I can say my wife said she gets confused after driving in the US as it feels so natural to do so over there, but she has been driving here since she was 19 and she has to stop and think for a good few days after arriving back in the UK, it can happen to anyone in a blank moment. It is a terrible thing to have happened and a waste of life but for all of the people concerned and their families.

It is very sad.

Indy

I always tell DH about how there are white lines in the middle of one-way roads and yellow lines in the middle of roads with traffic heading opposite directions.  I have had to ask him several times whether it was a one-way street we were on.  Personally, I think this is a flaw in the system. 

"A flaw in the system" because we have different road markings and signs to the US?! Surely it's the duty of the driver to learn the signs and markings.
So by that analogy, if a US driver did a left turn on a red light here and caused an accident that would also be a flaw in the system here because there wasn't a sign saying you can't do it!

Also, the report says that "he thought he was on a dual carriageway", however it doesn't say that he was overtaking at the time, so either way whatever he thought he was on the wrong side of the road, surely when driving on the opposite side of the road to what you are used to and not knowing the area then you just take extra caution, especially as he couldn't see the other side of this dual carraigeway he "thought" he was on.