New Driving offence announced

A new offence of 'causing serious injury by dangerous driving' has been announced by The Justice Secretary. It will carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and allow the courts to impose tougher punishments on dangerous drivers who devastate the lives of others. At present, just under 6,000 drivers are charged every year with dangerous driving.

The following figures represent the number of accidents caused last year by various types of dangerous driving activity (Department for Transport statistics):

•  18,803 accidents were caused by careless, reckless or hurried driving.
•  3,862 accidents were caused by aggressive driving.
•  Aggressive, careless, reckless or hurried driving caused at least one death a day.
•  5,858 accidents were caused by drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol, resulting in 160 deaths.
•  A significant 32,525 accidents were caused by illegal manoeuvres such as exceeding the speed limit, illegal turns, disobeying traffic signals and disobeying rules pedestrian crossings.
•  14 deaths and 139 serious accidents involved a stolen vehicle