http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15208065BBC News wrote:
Dangerous driving - new injury offence plan
Driving offences: Sometimes difficult to prosecute
Dangerous drivers could face longer jail terms under a proposal to go before Parliament.
A new crime of causing
serious injury by dangerous driving will carry a maximum sentence of five years.
Most people jailed for dangerous driving receive sentences of less than two years.
The proposed new crime will be an amendment in the government's mammoth sentencing and rehabilitation bill.
Dangerous driving offences can be difficult to prosecute because it can be hard to prove that an injury was caused by a brief lapse in concentration.
Fill a legal gapLast year, more than 3,000 drivers were convicted of dangerous driving and 154 of causing death by dangerous driving.
The proposed new offence has been designed to fill a gap between standard dangerous driving charges and the death offence.
The maximum jail term for dangerous driving is two years - while those who kill through their mistakes behind the wheel can face up to 14 years.
While the lower sentence is thought to cover most acts of dangerous driving, road safety campaigners have long argued that there needs to be tougher jail terms for drivers who cause life-changing serious injuries.
The proposed new offence will be trial-able at both magistrates and crown courts and drivers could also face an unlimited fine alongside a jail term.
Drivers in Scotland, which has its own legal system, will commit an offence where they cause "severe physical injury".
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said: "We have listened to the victims of dangerous drivers, their families, MPs, judges and road safety groups and their experiences have directly informed these changes.
"Making our roads safer is a priority - five people died on our roads each day last year, so we need to do everything we can to further improve safety."
Some 1,850 people died on British roads in 2010 and Ellen Brook of the Brake road safety campaign welcomed the new offence.
"As a charity that supports bereaved and seriously injured victims of road crashes, we repeatedly see victims' families being grossly let down by the justice system, which only adds to the terrible trauma they must endure.
"This new offence finally means that serious injury is recognised within the title of the offence, and this recognition is vitally important to victims and their families.
"It also means that dangerous drivers who inflict serious injuries can expect to see higher sentences to better reflect the terrible trauma and injuries they have caused."
The former Labour government had said it wanted to increase jail terms for dangerous driving but ran out of time before it could do so.
The new offence of causing serious injury by dangerous driving will be introduced as an amendment to the government's Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill.
You can comment on the BBC page at present!I am broadly in favour of this, as often a serious injury can be life altering, or only mitigated from a fatal injury by modern medicine, so the new penalty would reflect that difference, as long as it is reserved for cases where the driving is dangerous, and the injury severe.
However, I think this measure will not be a deterrent to some of the driving we all see from time to time which results from carelessness and lack of observation, and other measures are needed to improve driving standards - especially in drivers who are many years from the time they took their test!
Nor will it
deter those we see on Road Wars and the like, fleeing from police, and crossing busy junctions at high speeds and endangering other drivers.
In the main, law abiding drivers do not set out to
drive dangerously - and too many simply fail to recognise when their driving is of such a poor standard that it IS dangerous. This law will only punish them AFTER their driving results in a injury - not before.
But those that flee from police MUST know that their driving is dangerous and even plan it - and I think the new sentencing proposed is still not tough enough on those drivers!
Perhaps an offence of fleeing from police in a motor vehicle could supplement this proposed law?
Offenders could be given additional jail time - not concurrent - and persistent offenders, or those already banned should suffer amputated limbs to PREVENT their re-offending! :angry:
I see that in this article,
BRAKE are described as a victims help charity... BUT at the side, a CAMPAIGN GROUP.
In the same spirit as the new law, of listening to the public, this organisation should be split up into a charity - AND a Campaign Group with NO CHARITABLE status! They are not able to form reasonable arguments for many of their proposals, and should not be getting any recognition for some of the daft proposals they come out with, such as
lowering a speed limit because drivers are breaking the
existing limit!!!
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