IT is not difficult to understand why the parents of death crash victim Charlotte Parsons are calling for a change in the law.

It is far harder, though, to comprehend the grief the family, who live in Yatton Keynell, must be feeling at such a senseless waste of a young life.

She died when 18-year-old Nicholas Wilkerson lost control of his Vauxhall Astra while racing around a bend, the car ended up lying upside down in a field. Wilkerson, who had only recently passed his test had already been caught speeding weeks before the accident.

When Charlotte's father Julian calls for tougher sentencing in these circumstances he is doing so not only as a grieving parent but as a station officer at Chippenham fire station.

The number of road accidents he has been called out to has made him only too aware of the consequences of young people driving too quickly in cars too powerful for them to control.

Appealing to these young drivers to slow down and drive safely is a waste of time. Few teenagers put behind the wheel of a car with their friends in the back have the maturity or the intelligence to accept they must act responsibly towards themselves, their passengers and other road users.

How many times have all of us been overtaken on a bend by a youth in a souped-up car? Each time it happens the odds shorten on that person killing themselves, or someone else.

It is high time the law recognised the danger these drivers pose. Anyone caught speeding within three years of passing their test should face an automatic ban.

If Wilkerson had been punished when he was first caught speeding, Charlotte Parsons would be alive today, and that young man would not have to spend the rest of his life coping with the knowledge his stupid act of bravado killed someone.