Here we go again. A father and son on a motorbike were killed when they collided with a car which pulled out in front of them.

Yet the 74-year-old man whose careless driving led to their deaths has merely been fined £500 and banned from motoring for only six months.

Fred Ward, from Angmering, could be back behind the wheel of a car later this year. But the father and son who died on a road in Gloucestershire, William and Peter Trout, will never be able to savour the joy of the open road again.

This sentence is ludicrous in such a serious case. Police were hampered by the existing law in how they could charge Mr Ward and magistrates were then restricted in the sentence they could impose.

This case, like so many others, including that of PC Jeff Tooley at Shoreham, demonstrates the urgent need for a reform of the law about causing death through driving.