Judgment Highlights Potential Unfairness of RTA 1988
19/11/2010
In the recent case of R v Williams [2010] EWCA Crim 2552 the CA held that as a matter of statutory construction fault was not required to prove an offence of causing death by driving without insurance and without a licence. Sarah Daley of GCN was interviewed for LexisNexis Current Awareness (published 13.11.10) about the issues the case raises.
Extracts from the article as follows:
Daley says: “The facts of the appellant's case starkly highlighted the potential unfairness of the Road Traffic Act 1988, s 3ZB being a strict liability offence. This was because in this case the driver although both unlicensed and uninsured was driving safely along a dual carriageway when the victim had stepped out in front of the appellant's car from a maximum distance of three feet.” He had no opportunity to avoid the accident.
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However she adds: “The difficulty for juries which has not been clarified is the meaning of causation in each particular case. To be a cause it is known that the action must have made a more than negligible contribution to the death but there is no clear definition or assistance with the meaning of the phrase 'more than negligible'.”
