vonhosen wrote:MGF wrote:...
You are applying your made-up test.
vonhosen wrote:...You can undertake within convention, the highway code & on the driving test in certain circumstances. You can read about them in the highway code.
No I'm not, I'm applying the wording both competent & careful, you appear to be ignoring half of it. The question is what defines competence & care in the notional driver?
I genuinely struggle to understand why you put so much effort into trying to convince people of something you clearly do not understand.
The legislation is self evident. The law is found in the legislation and the decided cases. You cannot understand the legislation unless you read the case law.
Your question has been answered in the courts repeatedly over the last 80 years. The offence is not new. The definition is not new.
It is primarily a question of fact. The law requires the fact finder to consider all the circumstances of the particular case. No case is identical. A decision in one case does not set a precedent for another.
The fact finder must also consider facts that were in the knowledge of the accused or ought to have been in the knowledge of the accused.
The fact finder may rely on the HC as evidence but cannot convict simply on a breach of a rule or rules.
There is no requirement for the fact finder to consider convention or the driving test. Indeed, convicting on the basis of non-compliance with either or both will probably be an error of law.
The law doesn't tell us what carelessness means. The fact finders have to work it out for themselves. The law puts the standard of care as reasonable care.
The law doesn't tell us what competence means. The fact finders have to work it out for themselves. The law puts the standard of competence at the standard of an experienced driver. Not a novice.
All of this talk of 'convention' and 'driving test' is pointless because the fact finder is not being asked to test the driving against those standards.
To conclude.
I am not contending anything. I am simply explaining the law. If you wish to contend that the law should be different you need to put that to the High Court or above. Not ADUK. We can't do anything about it here.