The Road Safety Act 2006 (c 49) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

. The provisions contained in the Act are designed to improve road safety and help achieve casualty reduction targets. The Government’s strategy for improving road safety was set out in the framework paper "Tomorrow's Roads – safer for everyone". The aim is to improve road safety and achieve casualty reduction targets of 40% of those killed and seriously injured and 50% reduction for children by 2010. The Act creates a new criminal offence of causing death by careless, or inconsiderate, driving. This offence was introduced because of public concern about deaths on the roads and the minimal sentence allowed under the law as it was before the introduction of the Act. A person can now be sentenced summarily to 12 months (in England and Wales) or 6 months or a fine both or on indictment to 5 years or a fine or both. The Act also increased the penalty for use of a hand-held mobile phone or similar device. Section 26 provides for an obligatory endorsement (with disqualification at the court's discretion) for the offence. The provisions of the Act cover: *Drink driving *Speeding *New offences *Penalties and enforcement *Driver training *Driver fatigue *Driver and vehicle licensing *Motor insurance

Commentary

Section 21 of the Act introduced three new offences to the Road Traffic Act 1988, s.3ZB, namely, causing death by driving while (a) unlicensed, (b) disqualified, or (c) uninsured, though (b) was later omitted in 2015 to allow for the creation of new offences for causing death or serious injury by driving while disqualified. The new offence has been the subject of much controversy as it was conventionally construed as meaning that a driver would be guilty of an offence purely if they caused death whilst meeting one of the three criteria, irrespective of their

culpability In criminal law, culpability, or being culpable, is a measure of the degree to which an agent, such as a person, can be held morally or legally responsible for action and inaction. It has been noted that the word ''culpability'' "ordinarily has ...

. This would mean that, for example, even had an uninsured driver driven perfectly and caused death with their vehicle through no fault of their own (such as a pedestrian stepping in front of their vehicle, offering no time to react), that they would be guilty of a s.3ZB offence, purely by virtue of them being uninsured. Rulings differed on s.3ZB, such as ''R v Williams'' 010EWCA Crim 2552, but ultimately the matter was ruled on by the

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in ''R v Hughes'' 013UKSC 56:

Juries should thus be directed that it is not necessary for the Crown to prove careless or inconsiderate driving, but that there must be something open to proper criticism in the driving of the defendant, beyond the mere presence of the vehicle on the road, and which contributed in some more than minimal way to the death.

Section 61 - Commencement

References

External links

The Road Safety Act 2006
as amended from the

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

.
The Road Safety Act 2006
as originally enacted from the

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Explanatory notes
to the Road Safety Act 2006. {{UK legislation Transport policy in the United Kingdom Road safety in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2006 Road safety 2006 in transport History of transport in the United Kingdom Transport legislation

Commentary

Section 61 - Commencement

See also

References

External links