Tougher sentences ahead for drivers who kill

Legislation

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DRIVERS who kill are to be given tougher sentences that could result in a maximum 14 years in prison, following the publication of new guidance to judges and magistrates by the Sentencing Guidelines Council...

The council says that the new guidelines, which also cover the use of mobile phones while driving, sends a clear message to judges and magistrates that driving offences that result in death are serious offences and should receive appropriate sentences.

Lengthy custodial sentences are recommended by the Council for cases involving prolonged, persistent and deliberate bad driving or where drivers are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

The guidelines cover four offences:

The latter two offences were introduced by the Road Safety Act 2006 and will come into force on a date to be announced.

Imprison

The new offences, for the first time, allow courts to imprison drivers who cause deaths by not paying due care to the road, or to other road users.

They have been designed to plug the gap in previous legislation that frequently caused public outrage as drivers who killed could walk away from court with just a fine.

Council member Chief Constable Peter Neyroud said: “The impact of the guideline we have drawn up is that there will be more custodial sentences and community sentences where in the past offenders would almost certainly have received a fine for the same driving behaviour.”

The new advice says that if an offender was distracted by a hand-held mobile phone when the offence was committed the offence will be treated as ‘particularly serious’.

The guidelines state that reading or composing text messages over a period of time whilst at the wheel will be likely to result in an offence being in the higher level of seriousness and offenders should serve up to seven years in prison.

Other distractions include drinking and eating and applying make-up while driving.

For the first three offences, judges and magistrates are advised they will need to assess how bad the driving was and the degree of danger that it created in deciding the level of seriousness.

Other issues – largely related to the offender’s behaviour – are treated as aggravating factors.

The Council recommends that prolonged, persistent and deliberate bad driving and consumption of substantial amounts of drugs or alcohol should put offenders into the most serious category of causing death by dangerous driving and be given jail terms of at least seven years.

Features

A combination of these features of dangerous driving – particularly if accompanied by aggravating factors, failing to stop or a very bad driving record – should attract sentences towards the maximum of 14 years.

In dealing with cases of causing death by careless driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs the guideline provides for longer sentences as the degree of intoxication increases, so that sentence levels equate to those for causing death by dangerous driving.

The Council recommends that where death follows careless driving, a custodial sentence of up to three years is likely, with higher sentences of up to five years where there is a combination of aggravating factors.

However, where the driving involved ‘momentary inattention’ and there were no aggravating factors, an offender should be given a community sentence, which could include a curfew requirement.

Where death results from an offence involving driving unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured, the maximum sentence possible is two years.

Prior to the law changes, the maximum sentence for those convicted of causing death by careless, uninsured or unlicensed driving was a maximum £5,000 fine and penalty licence points.

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