A PETITION calling on the Government to re-write sentencing guidelines for dangerous drivers has passed 20,000 signatures.

The change.org petition - set up by road safety charity Brake and backed by The Press’s Road To Justice campaign - now has more than 20,500 signatures.

It is hoped at least 100,000 people will sign it to force MPs to debate the issue in Parliament.

Gary Rae, campaigns director for Brake the road safety charity said: “It’s good to see the petition reach another landmark, but what we really need now is action from the Government.

“The Prime Minister stated back in September that a full review into charging and sentencing for criminal driving would get underway before the end of the year.

“With just weeks left of 2016, we are still waiting to hear the details of this review, its scope, how people can contribute and when it will report.”

The Press launched a campaign on October 12 calling on the Government to rewrite sentencing guidelines for drivers who kill or seriously injure others on the roads, and several other media outlets around the country have since made similar calls.

York Press:

We believe reckless drivers responsible for killing or inflicting life-changing injuries should not be punished lightly.

Judges are bound by strict guidelines which limit the sentences they can hand down and we want those guidelines to change to give victims and families a sense of justice when they walk out of the courtroom to begin rebuilding their lives.

Over the last six weeks we have reported on the families and victims who have suffered by reckless driving of individuals in York and North Yorkshire.

This includes Linda Atkinson, a moped rider left on a life support machine for three weeks after she was hit by a speeding driver in St Maurice’s Road, York, in October 2015 as she travelled home from work, and Sean Hamilton, a 10-year-old boy killed by a hit and run driver in Holgate Road seven years ago as he made his way home from an evening at the cinema.

To back the campaign, go to https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/156369 and sign the petition.