By SAM LAWLEY, NEWS REPORTER
More people are dying at the hands of drug drivers than ever before, and bereaved family members and campaigners are urging the government, police and health service to stop the trend spiralling out of control.
Britain's drug driving epidemic has been laid bare in new statistics which show that almost one in 10 (9.1 per cent) fatal accidents involve people on impairing substances.
This is a dramatic surge from the rate in 2022 (6.2 per cent) and a three times larger share than 10 years ago.
The alarming figures, released by the Department for Transport, paint a picture of a growing drug driving trend which now sees more deaths among drug drivers than drink drivers.
Some 189 dead drivers showed traces of impairment substances, versus 171 with alcohol detected in their system.
Of these, 153 were more than twice over the limit level of drugs.
It is illegal to drive in the UK if you have certain levels of substances in your blood. This can even include prescription or over-the-counter medicines if they are affecting your ability to drive.
Those convicted of drug driving can only receive a maximum of six months in prison, although perpetrators can also be slapped with a minimum one-year driving ban and/or an unlimited fine.
Jacqueline Wileman, pictured, died at the hands of drivers whose lorry contained drug paraphernalia in 2018. New figures show one in 11 fatal accidents involve drug drivers
But since 2022, death by dangerous driving has been punishable by life imprisonment, after the law was changed from a maximum sentence of just 14 years.
Johnny Wood, 67, was instrumental to this reform following years of campaigning after losing his sister Jacqueline Wileman at the hands of dangerous drivers, whose lorry contained drug paraphernalia.
The mother-of-two, then 58, was smashed by the vehicle, running on stolen fuel, as it careered around the streets of Brierley, near Barnsley, on September 14, 2018.
The lorry, which also had a vodka bottle laid out on a seat, left a trail of destruction in its wake, hitting several cars and spinning onto a bank, before eventually burying itself into the front wall of a house.
Ms Wileman, who had two adult children and a grandchild, had been halfway through the walk she repeated step-by-step at the same time each day, five days a week.
As she strolled down the familiar roads, the out-of-control lorry rounded a corner and ran her over at speed, before continuing on its rampage.
After the vehicle finally came to a halt, three of its four passengers sprinted from the scene. One even dashed past Ms Wileman's body as he made a shameless barefoot flight.
They were later apprehended by members of the local community and arrested.
Her brother Johnny Wood, pictured right, was instrumental to reforms allowing judges to hand life sentences to dangerous drivers
Ms Wileman, pictured, left, with her late husband Danny, was smashed by a lorry, running on stolen fuel, as it careered around the streets of Brierley, near Barnsley, on September 14, 2018
The driver, Alan Mawhinney, then 53, had to be freed from the lorry, lodged from its jammed position in the home it had crashed into.
According to Mr Wood, who has seen CCTV footage of the collision's aftermath, he reached for a 'spliff', a rolled cannabis cigarette, to calm his nerves as he emerged from the wreckage.
Air Ambulance staff were nFot able to save Ms Wileman, who died shortly after the grim crash. Her family identified her by her necklace and shoes, such was the devastation caused by the collision.
Her older brother Mr Wood recalled his shock when discovering the 14-year maximum sentence for death by dangerous driving, the crime all four were charged with.
He told liaison officers at Barnsley Magistrates' Court: 'But they took somebody's life.'
Mr Wood, a postman in the local area, added: 'The one who had been stuck in the lorry noticed that I was there and looked across at me, saying "sorry", but I would not accept it.'
Karn Hill eventually admitted death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years, while David Mellor, Wayne Carroll and Mawhinney were found guilty and jailed for between 12-and-a half and 13 years.
Disgusted by what he viewed as insufficient sentences, Mr Wood set off on an impassioned mission to bring tougher punishments for driving crimes, helped by local Labour MP Stephanie Peacock, and Conservative Robert Buckland, Justice Minister at the time.
The four people in the lorry at the time, pictured, clockwise from top left: Karn Hill, Wayne Carroll, David Mellor and Alan Mawhinney
They succeeded. The law was changed in June 2022 allowing judges to hand life sentences for death by dangerous driving.
The campaigning was purely selfless, the amendment making no difference whatsoever to the four who had killed Mr Wood's sister.
Indeed, the quartet were all freed once half their sentence had been served - and their releases have caused the ordeal to rage on.
Ms Wileman's family wanted her killers to be banned from entering the entirety of South Yorkshire, but had to settle for an order preventing them from coming into the Barnsley area.
When one broke this restriction, Mr Wood was appalled when he only got 28 days in prison.
He claimed that he and his family were never told when any of the perpetrators entered Barnsley, nor when they committed further crimes.
'We wanted to try and move on with life, but we couldn't,' he said.
'The system all the way through has failed us and still is failing us.
Disgusted by what he viewed as insufficient sentences, Mr Wood, pictured centre, set off on an impassioned mission to bring tougher punishments for driving crimes
'The victims in this country are getting no backing whatsoever from the Government.'
Mr Wood's battle to reform the country's probation system has made slower progress than his fight against dangerous driving sentencing, which saw the maximum term for death by dangerous driving extended to life in prison.
But for all the progress made on jail term laws, only one case has seen a driver sentenced to more than the original 14-year maximum term, while spiralling drug driving figures act as a reminder of the glacial pace at which change happens.
'If you've studied it like I have done for seven years since my sister was put in that grave, [you know] people are committing these crimes because they're b***dy idle and not working,' he said.
'I had never seen or heard of testing for drug drivers until about four years ago.'
Former traffic policeman John Scruby agrees that things are heading in the wrong direction.
The officer, who retired in 2010, and is now a trustee of both SCARD (Support and Care after Road Death or Injury) and CADD (Campaign Against Drink Driving) has devoted much of his later life to tackling road deaths among young people.
And the new statistics just serve to confirm what he has already witnessed while campaigning.
'It was really coming to the fore when I retired,' he told the Daily Mail. 'I think [the drugs] were still there, but not being tested.
'It has been a problem for many years, and I think it's getting a lot worse, because of N2O (laughing gas) becoming really prevalent at the moment.
'It's a new craze, the drug craze, and the problem police have is that it is virtually undetectable.
'Unless you actually witness somebody inhale the gas while driving, which is highly unlikely, they are going to get away with.
'It is quite common. I had to pull into a lay-by near the A57 and I could see six of the canisters actually in the lay-by near the motorway. It is just one of the many drugs that people are using.
'Their mindset is, it's just a bit of fun. And it might be fun until a wheel comes off and you end up in court.'
The focus of public opinion has only recently shifted away from drink driving towards drug-related incidents.
Drink driving was effectively banned in 1967 when deaths related to the practice reached a horrifying 1,640 a year.
This number has fallen, albeit steadily, in the last 60 years to less than 200 deaths each year.
The direction of travel for drug driving deaths seems to be headed in the other direction and Mr Scruby is pushing for a similar public information campaign to the one which has heavily reduced the number of alcohol-fuelled drivers.
'I think it has become the new drink driving,' he said. 'Drink driving is still a problem. It's a different kettle of fish altogether.
'I've spoken about the proposed cuts to the drink driving limit [from 35 micrograms per 100 milliliters of breath to 22 micrograms]. But there is also a limit for drug driving. Why have a limit? It is something people shouldn't be taking.
'People can't tell you what the drink driving limit is. It's not two pints or two units as some think. That was the myth created in the 1980s.
'You can't work out when you've reached that level, same as you can't work out how much cannabis or cocaine you've got in your body.
'But we all know what the safe limit is - it's zero.'
The limit for most illicit substances is very low and fines increase on a sliding scale based on how much is found in a driver's system.
But it's not just the obvious illegal drugs which affect a driver's ability to control a vehicle.
Mr Scruby added: 'Then you look at prescription drugs, there are 119 banned drugs when you are driving and a lot of those are regularly prescribed drugs.
'When it comes to these, if you're using them correctly, then there shouldn't be a problem. But if you're exceeding the dose or taking them irregularly, by, say, going two or three days without taking it and then pumping yourself full of the painkiller, you might feel great because your pain's relieved, but what's happening in your head?
'What is happening to your ability to do a simple task?'
Mr Scruby urged both the doctors prescribing the drugs and the pharmacies issuing them to be very clear with the recipient about their potential effects on driving.
Nonetheless, he said that cocaine and cannabis remain the most common drugs found in those who have been involved in a crash.
And the former traffic officer said that his successors in the role had questions to answer over the surging numbers of drug drivers.
'Policing has been vastly affected,' he said. 'In the mid-1980s when I went into traffic for the first time in Rotherham, we just covered the Rotherham area and we would put an inspector, two sergeants, and probably 20 or 25 PCs out on patrol per shift.
'By the mid-90s, I'd moved to Sheffield, covering both Sheffield and Barnsley areas, and we were lucky if we put an acting sergeant and four PCs out.
'The funding into dedicated road traffic patrols has been decimated.
'A camera can't detect drugs or drink. There is now more reaction to it rather than proactive policing. We used to sit outside the pubs and wait for the drink drivers to pull off. Now it's about reacting to a camera ping.'
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: 'Every death on our roads is a tragedy and the safety of our roads is an absolute priority for this Government.
'Our well-established THINK! campaign is designed to reduce the number of those killed and injured on our roads.
'More needs to be done in this space, which is why we are committed to delivering a new Road Safety Strategy – the first in over a decade and will set out next steps in due course.'
