Press Release
3 February 2005

Home Office traffic offences proposals released

Pressure from victims brings movement first time in decades

Pressure from organisations representing road crash victims has ensured that for the first time in decades the Government is proposing tougher measures to deal with bad driving.

Today the Home Office has launched its consultation on Road Traffic Offences involving Bad Driving, for which responses are due by 6 May 2005.
The Key Proposals are:

• A new offence of causing death by careless driving carrying a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment
• A new offence dealing with death resulting from illegal (disqualified or unlicensed) driving carrying a maximum 5 years imprisonment
• A requirement for courts to take serious injuries into account when sentencing
• An alternative verdict of guilty for statutory offences to be available to the courts when the offence of manslaughter is not proved

RoadPeace welcomes the Government's willingness to address the issues of death and injury on the roads, we are however disappointed with these proposals, which do not go far enough in addressing the existing problems. In the interest of victims, we hope that far tougher final proposals will emerge from the consultation.

Brigitte Chaudhry, Founder of RoadPeace, said:
"RoadPeace has been campaigning for many years for better laws in response to road deaths and injuries. But we feel that the proposals of so many varying charges would make things over-complex. We want a tough new law, which sends the simple message to drivers that bad driving can kill and maim and will be dealt with severely by the courts. We favour a simple charge of -Vehicular manslaughter' for death and -Causing bodily harm' for injury, both of which would leave a wide range of sentencing options to judges, according to the level of drivers' culpability."

Zoe Stow, Chair of RoadPeace, said:
"The challenge is to formulate offences which allow the court to address total culpability for a death or serious injury on the road and to give parity of treatment under the law with death or serious injury arising out of negligence in other situations. The charges we propose would do that. Offences must send out a strong message of driver responsibility and be matched by committed enforcement."

Contacts:
RoadPeace office 020 8838 5102 Rita Taylor 01963 359 044
Brigitte Chaudhry 020 8964 1800
Zoe Stow 01491 642 857

Notes to Editors:

'Road deaths and injuries shatter lives'

In the UK, from 1940 - 2000 (60 years - a person's lifetime), 17,586.625 million people were reported injured and killed on UK's roads - if we take under-reporting and the effect on families into account, then more than half the population is affected by road death and injury in their lifetime. On the world's roads, 3000 people are killed daily - a daily 9/11 disaster!

At present, out of the 3500 deaths on Britain's roads, only some 250 are followed by a prosecution, which mentions the death in the charge. Other culpable deaths that get prosecuted (many do not) are only followed by a summary charge in a magistrates court, dealt with by lay magistrates, where the death remains totally disregarded, not mentioned or even recorded. No other country in the world treats death on the road so shabbily in law. It is rare for even summary charges being brought in cases of injury.