A DRIVER high on drugs chooses to overtake at 87mph two cars on a blind bend. He crashes into a motorbike being ridden correctly the other way, killing its rider, a 27-year-old hospital doctor. Of course he is imprisoned, but for how long? Technically seven-and-a-half years. Almost certainly it will be only half that. Forty-five months. Not even four years.

It’s not nearly long enough, is it, this “punishment” handed out at Teesside Crown Court to the 22-year-old Thirsk driver guilty of causing the death of the York doctor? And it’s hard to believe that a year ago this month the maximum prison term for causing death by dangerous driving, the offence admitted by the Thirsk driver, was raised from 14 years to life. In practice scarcely anyone received 14 years. On the basis of the Teesside judgement it seems equally unlikely anyone will ever receive life. For the shocking driving that brought about the young doctor’s death was not an isolated instance of irresponsibility.

JAILED: Speeding driver Jake Rogers

He had three earlier convictions for speeding, including one at 95mph and another at 72mph on a 60mph-limit road. And as he tore heedlessly round that blind bend he carried two passengers. Their injuries led to further charges – on top of also driving over the drug limit.

The report I read said nothing of a driving ban. But, historically, driving bans imposed for causing death by dangerous driving have been as feeble as the prison sentences. In 2016, the last year for which I have been able to dig out figures, the average prison term for causing death by dangerous driving was just four years ten months – not dissimilar to what the Thirsk offender has received. Of the 153 drivers convicted only nine were banned from driving for more than ten years. But I suspect that, particularly among the young, longer driving bans would be a more effective deterrent than prison.

Just one or two bans of 20 or more years on 20-year-olds would prompt scare most of their peers into taking care. In the worst instances of dangerous driving life bans should not be ruled out. After all, we ban some people from keeping pets for life. Why should we not keep permanently off our roads drivers who have demonstrated the most reckless unfitness to be on them – sacrificing the lives of others and causing lifelong heartache to their loved ones?

A UN panel on climate change calculates that to save the world from devastating climatic consequences, fossil-fuel emissions must be eliminated by 2050. A snag is that China and India plan, respectively, to double and triple their emissions through increased coal-burning. This explains why President Trump has withdrawn the US from the Paris accord on climate change.

With the US working assiduously towards its targets he wasn’t prepared to see it being made a fool of by China and India. Can you blame him? And, over here, what will keep our lights on when coal is finally banished and the sun fails to shine on windless days?

BORN in March 2000 Jadon Sancho is hailed as the first footballer born this millennium to be selected by England. Wrong. The new millennium didn’t start until 2001.