Three Canberra families who have all shared the terrible burden of their children becoming victims of horrific road accidents - in each case triggered by an offending driver, and the victims blameless - have combined their voices to seek a review of the sentencing of repeat offenders by the ACT courts.
The three families - the Searys, Corneys and McLuckies - had a high-level meeting on Friday with ACT ministers Chris Steel and Shane Rattenbury to discuss the issue.
The campaign for a sentencing review is being led by Tom McLuckie, whose 20-year-old son Matthew was killed in a head-on collision with a stolen car driven on the wrong side of Hindmarsh Drive on the evening of May 19 this year.
Just 10 days ago, Mr McLuckie initiated an online campaign called ACTnowforsaferroads, which has now attracted well over 7000 supporters, dozens of whom have written personal messages of support and thanks for his efforts. He intended to garner this support for a petition to the ACT Assembly.
Some of those who have contacted Mr McLuckie have shared their personal stories about their lucky escapes on Canberra's roads, their near-misses, and in some cases, about their own children who have been victims of an ACT justice system which, in the view of the families, was "broken" and desperately in need of an overhaul.
As any parent would expect, Garry Seary and his wife Janice were still grieving at the loss of their 19-year-old son Lachlan, an emerging star for the Canberra Brave ice hockey team ,who was killed when his car was flipped over a guardrail on the Monaro Highway in March last year.
Lachlan Seary was driving home carefully, a designated driver who had just dropped off his mates, when his Corolla was rammed from behind by another vehicle driven by 29-year-old Gilmore man Peter Loeschnauer. Police calculated Loeschanuer had been driving at 157km/h just before the crash.
The offender later pleaded guilty to charges of culpable driving causing death, a high-range drink driving charge, and driving with MDMA (ecstasy) in his system.
Loeschanauer was sentenced to five years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in December 2024.
Lachlan Seary was buried on March 17 last year, on what would have been his 20th birthday.
"The absurd thing about this [Loeschanuer sentence] is that the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] and the police investigators both warned us before the sentence was handed down that we had to manage our expectations," Garry Seary said.
"How can this happen? How can it get to the point where that the police and the DPP both have to manage the victims' expectations for a crime as serious as culpable driving causing death?
"This just shows how the system is broken. The police know it, the DPP know it. They just can't say it publicly. This is not about bringing in draconian practices; this is about meeting community expectations."
Tom McLuckie said the government had promised a fulsome response to the issues he had raised within three weeks. They also advised a review of transport-related offences was already in progress.
"I'm not going away; this is important and I intend to keep pressing the government on these matters," Mr McLuckie said.
"I think the ministers were a bit surprised. I don't think they realised how much the community is behind this. So many people have had enough and they want it to change."
In a statement, ministers Steel and Rattenbury described the meeting as "important and constructive".
"The government has undertaken to look at the families' proposals and provide a written response in the coming weeks," the statement said.
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