Causing Death by Dangerous Driving Flashcards
Q: What is the offence of causing death by dangerous driving?
S1 RTA 1988
A person who causes the death of another person by driving a mechanically propelled vehicle dangerously on a road or other public place is guilty of an offence.
Q: What type of offence is this?
Indictable offence.
Life imprisonment with an obligatory disqualification for a minimum of 3 years and compulsory extended re-test.
Courts have the power to order the forfeiture of any vehicle used in the commission of this offence
Q: What are the basic elements of this offence?
- MPV
- On a road or public place
- D caused the death of another person by his driving
- D drove dangerously- either due to the standard of driving or the current state of the vehicle
Q: Who is classed as a ‘driver’ for the purposes of this event?
For the purposes of this offence, the definition of ‘driver’ does not include a separate person acting as a steersman.
Q: What does ‘causes the death of another’ mean?
The death must be that of a person other than the defendant.
This would include a foetus which was later born alive but which subsequently died, as a result of injury sustained in the womb by this dangerous driving.
If a pregnant woman drives dangerously and kills her own foetus after it is born she will be guilty of death by dangerous driving.
Q: What does the death need to be caused by?
Dangerous driving, not by something else unconnected to the driving.
The driving by the defendant must be shown to have been a cause of the death; it is not necessary to show that it was the sole or even a substantial cause of death. It just needs to be more than a minimal or trifling contribution to the death.
Therefore it is irrelevant whether or not the person killed contributed to the incident which result-ed in his/her death or where it is alleged that a second collision was the immediate cause of death
Q: Does the death have to be caused by driving?
COA clarified that this offence relates to causing death BY driving and not causing death WHILE driving and therefore the ‘driving’ does not have to be coextensive with the collision that resulted in the death.
Jenkins 2012- court held that parking a van to make a delivery, leaving it in conditions of poor visi-bility where another vehicle collided with it, was certainly a causal link to the fatality that occurred.
Q: What is ‘dangerous driving’?
S2A RTA 1988
(1) A person is to be regarded as driving dangerously if
(a) the way he drives falls far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver, and
(b) it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving in that way would be dangerous.
(2) A person is also to be regarded as driving dangerously if it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving the vehicle in its current state would be dangerous.
Q: What does ‘dangerous’ mean?
S2A RTA 1988
(3) ‘Dangerous’ refers to danger either of injury to any person or of serious damage to proper-ty; and in determining what would be expected of, or obvious to, a competent and careful driver, regard shall be had not only to the circumstances of which he could be expected to be aware but also to any circumstances shown to have been within the knowledge of the accused.
(4) In determining for the purposes of subsection (2) ‘state of vehicle’, regard may be had to anything attached to or carried on or in it and to the manner in which it is attached or carried.
Q: What 2 factors must be focused on to determine if someone was driving dangerously?
The standard of driving must be shown to have fallen far below that expected of a competent and careful driver; minor driver errors would not amount to such behaviour.
1: The manner of the driving itself
- This is the ‘bad driving test’ (did his driving fall far below ordinary competent standards?)
- Objective test that focuses on manner of driving rather than D’ state of mind
- No need to show intent to drive dangerously
2: The condition of the vehicle
- What would have been obvious to a hypothetical ‘competent and careful driver’.
Q: What does ‘far below’ mean?
Must be really bad.
Driving which is not quite up to standard will not meet the threshold.
Q: What do you need to prove to satisfy that the vehicle involved was in a dangerous condition?
Must prove either:
- That the dangerous condition would itself have been obvious to a competent or careful driver; or
- That D actually knew of its dangerous condition.
Q: Case- requirements of s2A
AG reference (No4 of 2000)
Bus driver inadvertently pressed accelerator instead of brake, killing two pedestrians.
Court held under s2A, the test is an objective one and there is no requirement to show any specific intent to drive dangerously. It is for the jury to determine what constitutes dangerous driving.
The AR is the act of driving in a manner which is dangerous. The driver was conscious of the act he was performing, no defence to claim he had not intended to press the accelerator (more a matter for mitigation than guilt).
Q: What must be considered when deciding what would be obvious to other drivers?
In determining what would have been obvious to a competent and careful driver, s. 2A(3) and (4) introduces a subjective element by taking account of circumstances known to D.
This mixture of tests means that, although D’s behaviour will be judged against the ordinary standards of competent and careful drivers, D’s conduct will also be assessed in the light of facts personally known to him/her (such as knowledge of the risk of a load falling off the vehicle.
Q: What if D’s belief is that he was driving competently and carefully?
D’s belief, however honestly held, as to the conditions surrounding his/her driving at the time is not relevant to the issue of whether he/she drove competently and carefully
