The 2006 Road Safety Act is the latest government attempt to cut down the numbers killed and seriously injured on roads. Jonathan Black examines its potential impact


The government launched a road safety strategy entitled 'Tomorrow's Roads - Safer for Everyone' in 2000. The strategy set out a framework for improving road safety, integral to which was the achievement by 2010 of casualty reduction targets of 40% (50% for children) of those killed and seriously injured on the roads of Great Britain.



The first three-year review of the strategy took place in 2004. The Road Safety Act, which was given Royal Assent on 8 November 2006, gives effect to several elements identified as part of a wider strategy and supports initiatives designed to achieve the casualty reduction targets.



The Act consists of 68 sections and an additional seven schedules. Little of the Act came into force with Royal Assent. Instead, as is increasingly the case, various parts will be implemented piecemeal - some after extensive pilots and evaluation of the effectiveness of the proposed measures.



Sections 13-16 make manifest the government's intention to crack down on motorists who repeatedly commit offences while over the prescribed alcohol limit. Section 13 tightens the rules in relation to high-risk offenders, namely, those who have been disqualified from driving for being two times over the limit, those disqualified for failing to provide a specimen and those disqualified on two or more occasions within ten years. The new provisions will mean that those high-risk offenders are prevented from having any entitlement to drive while awaiting the outcome of medical enquiries relevant to an application for the return of a licence following a period of disqualification. Such drivers will be prevented from any further driving until the secretary of state for transport is satisfied that they are fit to do so.



Sections 15 and 16 insert new sections 34D-34G into the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 and give courts the power to offer offenders convicted of certain drink-driving offences the opportunity to participate in an 'alcohol ignition interlock programme'. The programme will only be available to offenders convicted of a relevant drink driving offence on a second occasion within ten years and where the period of disqualification is to be for at least two years. The programme will last for at least 12 months, but must not exceed a half of the original unreduced disqualification period.



The programme requires offenders to comply with certain conditions. These include elements of education and counselling, but the main feature of the programme is that offenders may only drive a motor vehicle fitted with an alcohol interlock device that is designed to prevent the vehicle being driven until a specimen of breath has been provided in which the proportion of alcohol does not exceed a specified amount. The device will be set at nine microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - thus allowing for minor, unintentional consumption, but not any ingestion of an alcoholic drink.



The programme will be run in experimental areas on a pilot basis. Successful completion of the programme will entitle the offender to a reduction of at least 12 months from the period of disqualification. However, the programme cannot be undertaken at the same time as participation in a drink-drive rehabilitation course.



By far the most controversial provisions are those contained in sections 20 and 21 of the Act. These create the two offences of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving (section 20) and causing death by driving unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured (section 21). The former &150; an either-way offence punishable on indictment by a term of imprisonment of up to five years &150; creates a scenario whereby criminal liability will attach to a driver's momentary inadvertence that causes death of another motorist or pedestrian. Only time will tell whether there is a need for a additional offence that combines poor driving with fatal injuries, but given the statutory test for careless driving is that of falling below the standard of a careful and competent driver, this new offence has the potential to open difficult questions of causation and liability for the courts.



Section 30 inserts a new section 32A into the Road Traffic Act 1988. The phrase 'without due care and attention' is re-defined by the Act to make it clear that this means driving in a way that falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver. In determining what would be expected of a careful and competent driver, regard is to be had to not only what the driver could be expected to be aware of, but also to any circumstances shown to have been within the knowledge of the accused. 'Without reasonable consideration' is also redefined so that it is clear that this means driving in a way that inconveniences other people.



Section 21 creates an either-way offence of causing death by driving a motor vehicle on a road in circumstances where the driving is otherwise than in accordance with a licence, while disqualified or while uninsured (or unsecured) against third party risks. There is no requirement in the section for the driving to fall at any time below the standard of the normal competent and careful driver. A person who drives a motor vehicle and who satisfies one of the three criteria and then kills someone, irrespective of any consideration of fault of any kind, will face a prison sentence on conviction of up to two years.



Section 22 creates an offence of being the keeper of a vehicle that does not meet insurance requirements. The section inserts a new section 144A into the Road Traffic Act 1988, which will complement the existing section 143 offence. Under new insurance requirements, the registration mark of a vehicle, or the name of the vehicle's owner, must be specified in an insurance policy or security. If these requirements are not met - and there will be a national database of insurance policies kept by the DVLA - any person committing the offence becomes liable to a £100 fixed penalty (section 144C) and to the relevant vehicle being clamped, removed and eventually disposed of (section 144D).



Sections 8-10 and schedules 2 and 3 provide for a new system of endorsement of driving licences. In essence, the new system removes the need for drivers to have a counterpart licence on which details of endorsements are recorded. The current system has been held to be discriminatory to European Community licence-holders who are not issued with counterpart driving licences and thus, when stopped in the UK, are unable to take advantage of the lesser penalties potentially available under the fixed penalty system. The new provisions will also ensure that EC drivers committing offences in this country become the subject of records kept by the DVLA, which can be used in subsequent court proceedings.



The Act increases the maximum penalty for careless driving from £2,500 to £5,000 and makes the offence of using a mobile telephone when driving endorseable.



Solicitor Jonathan Black is a justices' clerk in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. He is the author of Drinking and Driving Offences (2nd edition), from Law Society Publishing, which can be ordered direct from Marston Book Services, tel: 01235 465 656