Careless Driving
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I was listening to the radio this morning and apparently criminal lawyers are debating a proposed new law of 'causing death by careless driving'. There are already offences of 'careless driving' and 'causing death by dangerous driving' and this is an attempt to bridge the gap. The distinction between the two, from what I can gather, is that to be successfully convicted of 'careless' driving you would need to have demonstrated a 'momentary' lapse in concentration, e.g. looking down to change radio stations etc, whereas with dangerous driving you would have been driving/riding far below the standards required for operating a motor vehicle and a death was caused as a direct result. The new law would give the judges the opportunity to factor-in any death caused as a result of careless driving. It is worth mentioning as well that careless driving does not involve a custodial sentence whereas dangerous driving and the new law could.
The question I'd like to ask is how you all feel about this? Do you think that a driver should be held accountable for a death for a momentary lapse in concentration, such as the ones we're all probably guilty of making, regardless of experience? I've just read the 'Kamikaze toddler' topic and, if that had gone differently could it be argued that the poster (sorry can't remember who when writing this) would be guilty of the new offence and jailed? Scary thought, eh?
Mark
The question I'd like to ask is how you all feel about this? Do you think that a driver should be held accountable for a death for a momentary lapse in concentration, such as the ones we're all probably guilty of making, regardless of experience? I've just read the 'Kamikaze toddler' topic and, if that had gone differently could it be argued that the poster (sorry can't remember who when writing this) would be guilty of the new offence and jailed? Scary thought, eh?
Mark