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Road Safety Bill [HL]

Last time we had the Committee stage on the Bill, I opposed an amendment proposed by the noble Earl. This time, I am pleased to support him, at least as far as the first part of his amendment goes. As the noble Earl said, in Northern Ireland, for a great many years, it has been an offence to cause grievous bodily injury by driving dangerously on a road. The wording is almost identical to that proposed by the noble Earl, with one exception: he uses the words ““serious injury””, while in Northern Ireland they talk of ““grievous bodily injury””. Surely, it comes to the same thing. It has worked well in Northern Ireland. After all, if you drive so badly that you blind somebody or cause them to be paralysed from the neck down, it ruins their life almost as much as if you had killed them. It is high time that we brought our law into line with Northern Ireland in that respect. I am not so sure on the second part of the amendment. In principle, the noble Earl is correct, but the proposed maximum penalty of 10 years is on the high side for negligent driving. At the moment, it is true that the penalties are much too low, but 10 years for causing death by negligent driving is too high. Five ought to be the absolute maximum in that case.