It is greatly to the credit of the family of Ian Gourley, the 15-year-old Peterlee boy who was killed by a joyrider careering round a playing field, that they feel justice has been done with the ten year jail sentence imposed on the 23-year-old driver. But many will feel that justice has not been done.

The driver had 73 previous convictions, many for motoring crimes. Having mown down Ian, who was simply sitting with friends on a bank, he drove off and, aided by his two teenage passengers, set fire to the stolen car. Not arrested until two days later - ample time for remorse to kick in - he showed his contempt for the law, and his indifference to his victim, by answering police questions with the chant "No reply, No reply, No reply," to the tune of "Here We Go" etc.

Ten years in prison, not the five he will actually serve, would have been closer to an appropriate minimum for this hardened offender, devoid of feeling or respect for others. The driving ban also imposed would not have been a day too long had it been double the ten years set by the judge, with the entire period to run after the offender's release. Some might say he had forfeited the right ever to drive again.

But, except for the charitable reaction of Ian's family, the Peterlee case is far from uncommon. Barely a month goes by without our TV screens showing us a grief-stricken family standing outside a court, expressing their dismay and disbelief at the outcome of a case arising from the slaughter of a loved one by a reckless driver, sometimes the worse for drink or drugs.

In the same week as the Peterlee case, the parents of an 18-year-old girl killed by a drunk driver as she crossed the road in St Neots, rightly described as "obscene" the Appeal Court's reduction of the driver's six-year sentence. And in Wakefield, the family of a 76-year-old man killed on a pedestrian crossing by an uninsured driver who failed to stop, branded British justice "a failure" when the offender, who had previous convictions for speeding, was fined just £200 and banned from driving for a mere six months. He wasn't even charged with failing to stop.

Sadly, there is little that can be done to prevent road deaths through genuine accidents, the result of a mistake or a moment's negligence by a driver intending to drive carefully. But the needless loss of life through reckless driving could be brought down by sentences that recognise the gravity of the crime.

Probably a bigger deterrent than prison sentences would be long driving bans. A few bans of twenty or thirty years on reckless drivers who have killed would send out shock waves to anyone tempted to drive wildly, or risking doing so by driving under the influence of drink or drugs. The deterrent would be all the greater if any breach of a ban triggered a prison sentence, with the ban made permanent.

Justice for victims and their families demands little less. Home Secretary David Blunkett is rarely without some weird or wonderful "initiative" to reduce crime. Presumably setting tougher tariffs for irresponsible drivers who kill or seriously maim is too simple for him.