Tougher sentences for careless drivers
Motorists who kill can expect tougher sentences following new government moves to crackdown on bad or illegal driving.

The Home Office is currently analysing responses to a consultation document published earlier this year – “Review of Road Traffic Offences Involving Bad Driving” – in the light of pressure from bereaved families, campaign groups, police and MPs. The measures are intended to close a loophole in the law that allows motorists who are not charged with causing death by dangerous driving to escape with a fine if someone dies in an accident.

“We need to ensure criminal law plays an effective role in protecting road users and pedestrians”

The key proposals are:

• A new offence of causing death by careless driving – perhaps as a result of using a mobile phone, falling asleep while driving or eating at the wheel – carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The maximum penalty currently available for careless driving is a £2,500 fine
• A new offence dealing with death resulting from illegal (disqualified or unlicensed) driving carrying a maximum five years in prison
• A requirement for courts to take serious injuries into account when sentencing
• An alternative verdict of guilty for statutory offences to be available to the courts when the offence of manslaughter is not proved

The consultation paper also invited views on proposals to extend the use of community sentences for a number of driving offences, which currently result in either a court fine or a short term of imprisonment. Currently, anyone who kills on the road can only be jailed if convicted of manslaughter or causing death by dangerous driving. However, prosecutors are said to often be reluctant to bring a case of manslaughter or death by dangerous driving because of the higher burden of proof needed. Previously, a measure in the 2003 Criminal Justice Act increased the maximum penalties for the offences of causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and aggravated vehicle taking where a death occurs, from 10 to 14 years. The government is committed to increasing the maximum sentence for the offence of dangerous driving from two to five years. The increase will be part of the package of measures resulting from the latest consultation exercise.

Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland says: “While we have made great advances in recent years in improving road safety, too many people are still killed or seriously injured as a result of dangerous, careless and illegal driving. We need to ensure that the criminal law plays an effective role in protecting road users and pedestrians and that the justice system is on the side of the victim. “Our proposals seek to strike the right balance between the level of criminal culpability on the part of the bad or illegal driver and the devastation that their action may cause. “Too many of those who have been disqualified from driving by a court or who drive without an appropriate licence put other road users at risk by taking a vehicle out on the road in clear breach of both the law and their responsibilities to other road users. It is right that they should be held accountable for any consequences that may result, irrespective of the standard of the driving involved.”

Brigitte Chaudhry, founder of RoadPeace, the UK’s charity for road traffic victims, says: “RoadPeace has been calling for many years for an end to using minor traffic charges in response to culpable road deaths and injuries. “But our long wait for action will require that the laws that will finally replace the inappropriate summary charges bring justice and serve as a deterrent.”

The proposals had all-party support when they were announced by the Home Office.

Cars to be fitted with automatic emergency call technology
All new cars in Europe could be equipped with automatic emergency call (eCall) technology by 2009 under a European Commission/motor industry action plan.

The eCall action plan will be implemented across Europe, as part of the European Union’s eSafety initiative. The European Union’s target through its Road Safety Action Plan is, by 2010, to see a 50% reduction in the 40,000 people who are killed and 1.7 million people injured annually in Europe’s roads. EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding says: “With this technology, your car could save your life. Advanced information and communication technologies have great potential to improve road safety in Europe.

“Recent studies suggest that eCall could save up to 2,000 lives in Europe per year”

“Like anti-crash radar, eCall is an area where EU-wide consensus can help remove technological and commercial barriers to the take-up of life-saving road safety systems in Europe.” In the event of a crash, e-call technology will call the emergency services at a Public Service Answering Point (PSAP), and report the vehicle’s exact location. An eCall may be triggered automatically, or manually by someone in the vehicle. Accurate location information will cut emergency response time, thus saving lives and reducing the severity of the injuries. Recent studies suggest that, fully deployed, eCall could save up to 2,000 lives in Europe per year.

The action plan targets the end of this year for agreeing on eCall standardisation and specifications, 2006 for full-scale field tests and 2009 as the year for introducing eCall technology in all new vehicles. The technology will use the location-enhanced single European emergency number (E-112). To enable eCall technology to work, emergency services in EU member states will need to equip or upgrade their PSAPs to process eCall location reports at the latest in 2007.

Van drivers must now belt up
Van delivery drivers and their passengers must wear their seatbelts except on very short journeys following a tightening of the law (RoadSafe: winter 2004/05).

Since 1 March 2005, it has been compulsory for drivers and passengers in vehicles constructed or adapted to carry goods to belt up when making deliveries or collections if they travel over 50 metres. The Department for Transport estimates that if seatbelt wearing in vans is brought up to the level seen in cars, then this change could prevent some 20 deaths, 240 serious casualties and 1,000 slight injuries annually. Goods vehicle users were exempt from wearing a seatbelt when making local deliveries or collections. However, some van and goods vehicle users wrongly considered themselves exempt whatever distance they were travelling. Those carrying out house-to-house calls are not affected by the change.

EU extends compulsory seatbelts
The European Parliament has adopted three directives on the mandatory fitting of seatbelts in commercial vehicles, with the law scheduled to come into force in the final quarter of 2005.

Initially applied to all new vehicle types, it will then be extended to new vehicles of types already in production. The measure applies to all commercial vehicles and, in particular, to tourist coaches an minibuses. As a result of the decision, the requirement to fit seatbelts will apply to two million commercial vehicles annually. The decision closes the last remaining gap, making the fitting of seatbelts in utility vehicles obligatory.

Working time legislation
Long-awaited regulations governing the working time of commercial drivers and crew came into effect on April 4 2005.

In practice, the legislation – contained in the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 –targets “mobile workers” in the transport sector, who were previously exempt from the European Commission-inspired 1998 Working Time Directive.

Effectively, everyone who drives on business, including company car and van drivers and staff in their own cars, must keep a record of the time spent travelling. The legislation has been inspired by EU and UK government concerns about the amount of time employees spend at work, with fatigue the cause of a quarter of all death and serious injury accidents. Although the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 target commercial drivers and the crews of HGV and public service vehicles, lawyers say that the definition of a mobile worker includes drivers of vehicles constructed or adapted to carry goods, and light commercial vehicles also fall within that criteria. In addition, the government defines a “mobile worker” as “any worker who in the service of an undertaking operates road transport services for passengers or the movement of goods”.

While the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations target “mobile workers”, the existing Working Time Regulations cover all employees, including company car drivers. This means that everyone who drives on business falls within one of the sets of laws so time spent at work, including on the road, must be recorded. And, while health and safety law does not apply to commuting, it does apply to employees travelling from their home to a location that is not their usual place of work.

The key points of both regulations are:

• Working time limited to an average 48-hour week, normally calculated over a four-month period
• A maximum 60 hours can be worked in a single week, providing the average 48-hour limit is not exceeded
• Daily rest breaks of 11 consecutive hours in any 24-hour period
• Weekly rest periods of 24 consecutive hours in any seven-day period
• Specific rules govern length and frequency of rest breaks during a working day
• Working time records will need to be kept by employers for two years

As a result, the requirement to keep accurate working time records has never been more important, particularly with such information likely to be requested by the police investigating any road traffic accident involving an occupational driver. The new Regulations will be enforced in Great Britain by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA).

Corporate Manslaughter
The government’s long-awaited Corporate Manslaughter Bill was published in the spring and responses to the draft document are now being considered. However, it remains unclear when exactly the Bill will become law.

Under current corporate killing legislation, prosecutors have to prove a single director was negligent in the event of a serious or fatal accident. That has proved virtually impossible and has thwarted a number of attempted prosecutions, so the new corporate manslaughter legislation has been drafted to target companies and organisations “whose gross failure at senior management levels results in a fatality”. The maximum penalty will be an unlimited fine, so company directors will not face jail. However, the TUC says it is disappointed that the draft Bill does not threaten individual directors with a jail sentence.

“If a company has not carried out a risk assessment, then this could be construed as a failure to manage”

The Home Office says the new Bill “focuses responsibility on the working practices of the organisation, as set by senior managers, rather than limiting investigations to questions of individual gross negligence by company bosses”. Ministers have stressed that no new burdens will be placed on companies that already comply with health and safety legislation. The Home Office says: “The draft Bill aims to ensure that the law is effective in bringing organisations to account when they have shown a clear disregard for the law with fatal consequences for members of their workforce or others.”

David Faithful, a partner in Clarke Willmott and a specialist in at-work driving law, says: “The new offence will complement rather than replace existing health and safety offences and will focus on senior management failures either individually or collectively. “The test to be applied will focus on the way in which a particular activity is being managed. If a company has not carried out a risk assessment or has done so but is paying lip service to it, then this could be construed as a failure to manage.”

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
The Health and Safety Executive has just finished consulting as part of its review of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), which legal experts say could see road traffic accidents having to be reported in the future.

Although the discussion document, part of the organisation’s commitment to undertaking a fundamental review of the health and safety incident reporting regulations, contained no formal proposals for changes to the Regulations, it discusses RIDDOR’s key objectives and current issues and identifies proposals where changes might be made to benefit both the HSE and local authorities as well as duty holders.

Previously, lawyers have suggested that all road traffic accidents involving fatalities, major and over three-day injuries would have to be reported by businesses to the enforcing authorities following the review. Under current rules, such incidents do not have to be reported. A key element of the review is to ensure that any future reporting requirements are easy to understand and that businesses can achieve compliance without undue administrative costs. It is also essential that any reporting system is not bureaucratic and does not burden business unnecessarily. The review is part of the Health and Safety Commission’s, HSE’s and local authorities’ bid to develop a new workplace incident reporting system to 2010 and beyond.

Road Safety Bill
The long-awaited Road Safety Bill has been re-introduced to Parliament after becoming one of the many pieces of new legislation ‘killed off’ due to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to call a general election on May 5.

“Vehicle manufacturers, who are keen to harmonise vehicle design to reduce production costs, support the new global regulations”

However, the Bill was included among 45 new pieces of legislation that the newly-elected government wants to introduce in the next 16 months. Measures to clamp down on irresponsible driving and improve road safety in the Bill include:

• A more flexible system of fixed but graduated penalties for motorists caught speeding, ranging from two points and a £40 fine to six points and a £100 fine. However, the proposed system will not apply to motorists caught speeding in 30 mph zones
• Improving compliance through increased penalties for safety-related offences, such as driving whilst using a hand held mobile phone and using a vehicle in a dangerous condition
• Dealing with poor driving standards by allowing the courts to make increased use of retraining courses for serious offenders and through improvements to driving instruction and testing procedures
• Ensuring that foreign drivers cannot escape punishment in Britain through new powers to issue fixed penalty notices for endorsable offences and to take deposits from offenders who cannot provide a verifiable address
• Tackling drink driving through changes to improve take up of the Drink Drive Rehabilitation Scheme and powers to provide for an experimental alcohol ignition interlock scheme. The most persistent offenders must retake their driving test
• Clarifying which vehicles can break signed speed limits in emergency situations, such as the police and those carrying donor organs and what driver training would be required
• Tackling fatigue-related accidents by piloting motorway picnic areas
• Making various administrative changes to the licensing regime to ensure better security and accuracy
• The banning of in-car radar detectors that can detect speed cameras and laser guns. Systems that operate via a GPS signal will continue to be allowed

Digital tachographs
The launch date for the compulsory fitting of digital tachographs in the UK is now likely to be 5 August 2007, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, although the government has yet to announce a date.

The long-running issue continues to be debated in the European Parliament, but the UK government has said it will have arrangements in place to support the use of digital tachographs in Britain from August this year. While the government has reiterated its position that it will not enforce the mandatory fitting of digital tachographs, the European Parliament’s Transport Committee has now said that all trucks and buses made after 5 August 2006 or registered after 5 August 2007 must have digital tachographs. A Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) spokesman says: “We understand that the effective introduction date for digital tachos in the UK is now 5 August 2007. This gives everyone here a chance to introduce the new kit in an orderly fashion.”

Digital tachographs will record drivers’ activities electronically and store them in digital memory rather than on paper. The records, which cannot be easily manipulated, will be used to enforce drivers’ hours rules. In anticipation of the introduction of digital tachographs, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency began issuing drivers’ cards in June. The fees were decided on following consultation with transport operators and the industry.
The fees are:

Global vehicle safety regulations
More than 20 nations, including the UK and the rest of the European Union, have agreed the first global vehicle safety regulation.

The new door retention standard, aimed at enhancing door safety to prevent passengers from being thrown out of a vehicle in the event of a crash, is the result of three years of research, development and negotiations supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Vehicle manufacturers, who are keen to harmonise vehicle design to reduce production costs, support the new global regulations. Inadvertent door openings are often caused by a combination of forces during a crash, which result in structural failures in the latch system and hinges. Door openings present a serious risk of injury or death to vehicle occupants, particularly if they are unbelted.