Safe Speed Forums

http://motoring.aol.co.uk/review-into-r ... 0409990001

Review into road death prosecutions

Road deaths are notoriously difficult to prosecute
A major review of the way dangerous drivers who kill on the roads are prosecuted is to be unveiled.

Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald QC is launching a study of the way the Crown Prosecution Service handles "bad driving" cases.

The consultation will examine how the CPS makes decisions on taking offenders to court, as well as whether levels of support offered to victims and witnesses can be improved.

Hundreds of killers on the roads walk free each year because of difficulties faced by prosecutors in bringing death by dangerous driving charges.

The offence carries up to 14 years' imprisonment but prosecutors frequently opt for the lesser charge of careless driving or driving without due care and attention.

These are easier to prove but only carry a maximum fine of £2,500.

The new Road Safety Act, which won Royal Assent last month, will introduce a new offence of causing death by careless driving, carrying up to five years' imprisonment.

The DPP announced plans for the review earlier this year because of public concerns that too many drivers were escaping with a non-custodial sentence.

Road safety campaign group Roadpeace said 90 per cent of road traffic cases involving a death are dealt with in the magistrates' courts where the average fine is £250.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

But maybe that's because the death was as a result of an accident?? or the dead person was at fault?

Yep, if someone is blind drunk and staggers into the road in front of a car, who's fault is it?

How many parents have been prosecuted for criminal negligence for not supervising their children playing near a main road.


http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/printer_1064314.php

In the US public intoxication is illegal.

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Speed camera policy Kills

This happened last year in Bramhall, Cheshire. A police van attending a disturbance by yobs killed a drunk who "lurched into the road". The causes were the yobs and the drunk, not the police car.

The result in Manchester when a toddler was killed by a car after his dad had left the gate open when crossing the road to chat with a neighbour was the installation of speed bumps. No blame was apparently attached to the father; "speeding drivers" were blamed.

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Brian

There's an actual consultation. I thought it was important enough to start a new thread: http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11393

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

"Research shows 80% of pedestrian deaths on Friday and Saturday nights are alcohol-related, as are nearly three quarters of peak time accident and emergency admissions"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6089784.stm

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm051128/text/51128w41.htm

This article in today's Times also suggests that the government are seeking to move the boundary between careless and dangerous driving:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 83,00.html

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Oh great: justice by mob mentality. What next, phone in votes? "If you think Mr Smith's putting two wheels up on the pavement to let an ambulance past was potentially dangerous, text YES."

Just a little way from the fuddy duddies on the corner shouting that cars are speeding - and then we find out that most of them have never held a licence, never opened the HC or any driving manual - and some of them couldn't read the numberplate at the prescribed distance anyway.
So much for frowning on vigilantes.