---

Road Safety Bill [HL]

At Report, I supported the government amendment which introduced this new offence of causing death by careless driving, and I still do. In speaking to this amendment, I shall speak also to my Amendment No. 23 because, while supporting the Government, there is possibly a problem with the definition of the words ““careless”” and ““dangerous””, to which many noble Lords have alluded today and at Report stage. One of the problems is that application in the legal system is at odds with what one might call common parlance. The answer might be to try to set definitions on a more objective basis. Many people may say that they witness a dangerous driving situation on many days, but that is a long way from proving it in law where the standard of driving must fall far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver. It should be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving in that way would be dangerous, which is probably accepted. I was told in a Written Answer in December that, in practice, the number of convictions is fewer than 250, even though there are about 3,500 deaths on our roads each year. It seems difficult to believe that the remaining 3,000 plus deaths involve merely carelessness or that they are the fault of the victim, particularly as the Government acknowledge that speed is a factor in at least one-third of all accidents. As other noble Lords have said, the discrepancy arises because juries, possibly unconsciously, interpret the definition as meaning far below the standard of driving that they would normally expect rather than far below the standard of a competent and careful driver, which I suggest would be rather higher. That leads to the problem of proving the offence of dangerous driving, which means that probably in legal practice the term ““careless”” ends up being used to catch all of those offences which fall far short of the ““far below”” definition, including some of the examples that noble Lords have referred to today. When the Government proposed the new offence of causing death by careless driving, there was strong criticism of the suggestion that drivers could face up to five years in prison for a momentary lapse of attention, which I can understand. But possibly it would be resolved by having a better definition of the word ““careless””. The lack of it probably hampers the Government getting wider support for this effort to treat bad driving with the seriousness that it deserves. My Amendment No. 23, which of course I will not press, would make it a duty to drive safely and might help to put a more objective bottom line under existing bad driving offences so that the standard of driving must be safe to other road users. Of course, it would not affect existing wording in the Road Traffic Act 1988, as amended, which refers to standards of driving which fall below or far below what would be expected of a careful and competent driver. That would still be retained to distinguish the words ““careless”” and ““dangerous””. I hope that the proposed amendment is helpful. I look forward to hearing my noble friend’s response.