The family of a young man who was killed in a head-on crash in Canberra is calling for tougher measures to deal with people who steal cars and drive recklessly, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Matthew McLuckie, 20, had been travelling home from his job at the Canberra Airport when another car, allegedly travelling at high speeds on the wrong side of the road, collided with his car.
Police are still searching for the driver of a third car they believe was also involved in the incident.
Matthew's father, Tom McLuckie, said his son had been filled with "dreams and hopes" for his future when he was killed on May 19 in the crash on Hindmarsh Drive.
He said Matthew had been studying at the Australian National University for a degree in computing and had been saving up to purchase his first home.
"He was saving up to buy a house, he was planning to build a strength-building regime, just like any normal young man with all these hopes, dreams, plans and they're just robbed of him on that evening."
Warning: This story contains confronting images.
'This needs to stop'
Now, Mr McLuckie is campaigning for change, including calling for stronger penalties for street racing, in the wake of his son's death.
He said the consensus within ACT police and the justice system was that Matthew's death was "an accident waiting to happen."
"And the consensus is that this is not going to be the last death of this sort this year," he said.
Mr McLuckie said he wanted to see higher minimum mandatory sentencing for those guilty of dangerous driving, as well as a tougher stance on parole for offenders.
"People are getting bail, good behaviour bonds, parole, and the ability to re-offend," he said.
Mr McLuckie has started a social media campaign, titled ACTnowforsaferroads, and will be petitioning the ACT Legislative Assembly to investigate whether legislation could be strengthened, with the goal to prevent further deaths like his son's.
"Since our devastating loss, we have been told this was 'an accident waiting to happen' as there is a group of people in the ACT who get their kicks out of baiting police, stealing cars, racing and driving on the wrong side of the road, and are often drug and alcohol-impaired, among other crimes," he wrote online.
"This needs to stop."
Ensuring penalties appropriate to culpability of crime
ACT Roads Minister Chris Steel said the incident suggested the ACT government should look into what offences currently exist to ensure their penalties were appropriate to the culpability of the crime.
"We'll be looking at how we can strengthen our laws, and what other jurisdictions are doing to combat things like street racing," he said.
Mr Steel said while a number of penalties ranging in severity already existed, it was important to consider whether they needed strengthening.
"We want to make sure that they are proportionate," he said.
"Whether that's licence disqualification, imprisonment terms, looking at the impounding of vehicles – which is a penalty currently available to some offences but not others – and we'll be looking at whether we can strengthen our laws."
ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates said the penalties for these kinds of offences were not the only things that needed consideration.
She said part of the challenge for families like the McLuckies was trying to navigate government support services at "a time of immense grief and trauma", made more difficult by bureaucracy.
"What families, including the McLuckies, are telling us is that timeliness is a problem," she said.
"The maze of bureaucracy and red tape is something we must do better on to make sure families aren't having to navigate this in order to access the entitlements which government are clear they should have."
Police 'sick and tired' of capturing same offender 'over and over again'
Alex Caruana of the Australian Federal Police Association said he agreed with Mr McLuckie that the ACT's laws needed to be strengthened, including ensuring offenders faced sentencing rather than simply a penalty for reckless driving.
"We really hope that the review that is going to be conducted is going to be a robust review and they don't wait for some incident to occur before they change the legislation."
He said it was frustrating to see the same people caught multiple times for the same offences, instead of seeing them in court.
He said under current laws, police officers also did not have the same powers as their NSW counterparts to seize vehicles, which was contributing to the problem.
"We would like to see the introduction of, when someone is caught speeding or hooning or antisocial behaviour in that sense, that the police have the power to seize that car immediately," he said.
"Unfortunately, there is a perception out there amongst criminals that this government is soft on crime, and we need to be able to take a tougher stance on things like this so that things don't happen like what happened to the McLuckie family again."
ACT Policing said it had laid more than 1,100 charges for serious driving offences in the past two and a half years.
