Kelly Kennard’s daughter misplaced her life aged 18 after a brand new driver crashed the automotive she was in
The mum of a teen killed by a newly-qualified driver in a crash claims that the proposed adjustments to driving legal guidelines “do not go far sufficient”. Kelly Kennard, 42, misplaced her 18-year-old daughter Laionie when Joseph Pickett, 20, crashed the automotive she was a passenger in.
Pickett had solely handed his driving take a look at three weeks earlier than when he hit a tree and misplaced management, and 18-year-old Laionie died on the scene from head accidents in September 2023.
On Tuesday (January 7), the Division for Transport (DfT) has begun a session relating to guidelines for brand new drivers – together with a proposed minimal interval of driving expertise after passing a principle take a look at earlier than a learner can take their sensible take a look at. Below the proposed guidelines, new drivers may have six months expertise behind the wheel earlier than being allowed to take their sensible take a look at.
New proposals additionally embrace decreasing the drink-driving restrict in England and Wales and eye exams each three years for drivers over 70. The session hopes to chop deaths on Britain’s roads – roughly one in 5 fatalities or severe accidents in street accidents are attributable to younger drivers.
Since Laionie’s dying Kelly has been calling for younger and new drivers to have black packing containers of their automobiles, and for them not to have the ability to carry passengers for six months after their take a look at. She says the proposals within the session, which closes on March 31, do not go far sufficient.
Kelly, from Verwood, Dorset mentioned: “The federal government simply haven’t got the center to take a tough line. Someplace alongside the road I believe the explanation for this have to be about cash. Driving a automotive is like dealing with a weapon – you are accountable for one thing that may take lives and also you’re accountable for everybody within the automotive.
“Younger folks’s brains aren’t totally developed till they’re 25, they can not perceive the dangers they’re taking and the potential penalties. They assume it is enjoyable and video games nevertheless it’s different folks’s lives. Six months expertise is not sufficient. They will not have encountered a lot of conditions like rural roads or troublesome climate circumstances.
“You actually solely begin to study whenever you’re on the wheel by yourself. They really want to ban younger new drivers from carrying passengers for six months. They need to be making black packing containers obligatory for younger drivers, and banning them from having highly effective automobiles.”
Kelly and husband David, now 43, have been at a carnival with Laionie’s sister Charlotte, now eight, on September 16, 2023, when a father or mother alerted them to the crash, close to Ringwood, Hampshire.
Pickett, his girlfriend Edy Herridge, then 18, and good friend William Inexperienced, additionally 18, suffered minor accidents. Accident investigators estimated that the automotive was travelling between 43 and 54mph in a 30mph zone. However an app on mum Kelly’s telephone confirmed they’d been travelling over 80-miles-per-hour.
Regardless of exhibiting the proof to the police, it was argued the app, which makes use of GPS know-how to calculate velocity, could not be verified for accuracy and thus couldn’t function proof. Pickett, a soldier, pleaded responsible inflicting dying by careless driving on December 20 2024 at Poole magistrates court docket.
On January 29, 2025, he was sentenced to 10 months, suspended for twenty-four months, and 250 hours of unpaid work and disqualified from driving for 2 years.
Kelly has been calling for harder sentences for drivers who trigger dying or severe damage on the street – together with David, Charlotte, and Laionie’s brothers Deon, 22 and Brandon, 17.
She mentioned: “I do not perceive why the Authorities cannot implement a graduated licence. In different international locations it is diminished the fatality price by 28%. Practically each single day as much as Christmas I used to be studying about fatalities. I simply hold occupied with all these households struggling like we’re.
“We’re in a dwelling nightmare. It is prefer it was solely yesterday. We have all bought PTSD – it is actually dwelling hell. There isn’t any approach a teenager needs to be driving a high-performance automotive like that. As a mom it is the least you are able to do to guard your baby with a black field and a small automotive.
“I’ve misplaced religion in the entire system. I believe it is all corrupt. The military are there to guard us, however on this case it helped him to get a lesser sentence, and I believe bought him a reduction on this high-performance automotive. We have got the life sentence, Joseph has been in a position to proceed together with his life and his profession.”
