A couple have joined a national campaign to increase the sentencing powers of judges after the death of their son in a road accident.

British Telecom engineer Robert Collins, 43, of Cypress Avenue, Worthing, died in June 1999 when he was hit by a van as he walked home along the A259 Rustington bypass.

Driver Barry Smithers, 26, of Arlington Crescent, East Preston, was charged with causing his death by careless driving and with drink driving.

But at Chichester Crown Court in April the prosecution said two witnesses who were in the van had given evidence which did not accord with their original statements and there was insufficient evidence of careless driving to put to a jury.

Judge Anthony Thorpe directed the jury to enter a not guilty verdict.

Smithers pleaded guilty to drink driving. He was banned from driving for two years, sentenced to 100 hours' community service and ordered to pay £100 costs.

Mr Collins' parents Irene, 65, and David, 72, of East Preston, believe the death of their son should have been taken into consideration in sentencing.

Now they have joined RoadPeace, a charity for road accident victims, and have written to the Home Office to plead for a change in the law.

RoadPeace wants the Government to include road deaths in its proposals to reform the law on involuntary manslaughter.

Mrs Collins said: "Apparently the death of our son could not be taken into consideration when passing the sentence and so we joined RoadPeace in the hope the law could be changed in future and the death of a person not be taken so lightly.

"RoadPeace gave us a great deal of support and ideas of how we could make our voice heard. We have had meetings with the CPS and our local MP, Peter Bottomley."

"We are trying to change the law and hope something is in the pipeline. We want as many people as possible to know about the work of RoadPeace so people in similar situations can also join the campaign."

"We still think about our son every day and will never forget him. But we want justice for his death. We need the law changed for the future to stop this happening again."

The RoadPeace hotline is on 0208 964 1021.