Companion Website

Blackstone's Criminal Practice 2009

Part C

Updates to Part C: Road Traffic Offences

C2 Evidence and Procedure in Road Traffic Cases

C2.7 Admissibility of Records of Secretary of State

The Criminal Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2008 (SI 2008 No. 3269) amend the CrimPR inter alia so as to substitute part 37 with effect where the court tries a case or the accused pleads guilty from 6 April 2009. The procedure for proving previous convictions is not replicated in the new part 37.

C2.10 Admissibility of Evidence from Prescribed Devices

By virtue of the Road Traffic Offenders (Prescribed Devices) Order 2008 (SI 2008 No. 1332), an additional device measuring odometer pulses between two points is now also a prescribed device.

C2.15 Duty to Provide Information

In Duff v CPS [2009] EWHC 675 (Admin), D, having been the driver, had previously responded to a request sent to his wife in accordance with the RTA 1988, s. 172 in her capacity as the registered keeper of the vehicle in question. The Divisional Court held that D's response to that notice did not provide him with a defence to a subsequent failure to respond to a different s. 172 request sent directly to him in his capacity as the driver.

C3 Road Traffic Offences Triable on Indictment

C3.17 Causing Death by Dangerous Driving: Sentence

The severity of current sentencing policy in respect of motorists who kill is illustrated by Rosevere [2008] All ER (D) 127 (Aug), in which a 61-year-old driver received a sentence of 30 months' imprisonment after pleading guilty on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving. He ran over a drunken woman who was lying in the carriageway of a poorly lit road, dressed in dark clothing. He did not stop, later claiming that he was suffering from a migraine and had not realised what he had hit, but he had been convicted of causing death by reckless driving in 1990 after hitting a deaf pedestrian who stepped into his path.

The trial judge did not regard this earlier case as a relevant sentencing consideration, saying, 'This is not a case involving excessive speed or of inherently bad driving over any great distance, nor are there any other aggravating features present', but the Court of Appeal disagreed, opining that in view of that earlier conviction the sentence was if anything too lenient.

We now have a sentencing regime that routinely punishes fatal driving offences more severely than either negligent or constructive manslaughter. See Hirst, 'Causing Death by Driving and other Offences: A Question of Balance' [2008] Crim LR 339.

C5 Drink-Driving Offences

C5.26 Evidence as to Specimens

Where a blood specimen has been taken for analysis and notice is served on behalf of the defendant requiring the analyst to attend the trial, this does not necessarily preclude reliance on hearsay evidence under the CJA 2003, s. 116 where (for example) the analyst has gone abroad and his attendance cannot reasonably be secured. The RTOA 1988, s. 16, is merely permissive as a means of adducing evidence of analysis of a specimen and is not the only method of doing so: Brett v DPP [2009] EWHC 440 (Admin).

As to possible objections based on human rights arguments, the fact that a defendant in such a case will have been given an identical sample which he could have analysed means that the prejudice potentially suffered where the prosecution rely on hearsay evidence is greatly reduced, if not extinguished.

C6 Summary Traffic Offences

C6.34 Driving Otherwise than in Accordance with a Licence

For the purposes of considering whether a person holds a valid driving licence satisfying the RTA 1988, it is consistent with Directive 91/439/EEC on driving licences that a person may simultaneously hold two valid driving licences, one of which is a Community licence and the other a driving licence issued by another Member State, where both licences had been obtained before the accession to the EU of the latter State (Criminal proceedings concerning Schwarz (Case C-321/07) [2009] All ER (D) 227 (Feb)). In particular, there is no requirement under the Directive to treat the licence earlier in date as automatically being lost or the second licence as a nullity. However, Schwarz also demonstrates that it would be permissible in Great Britain to refuse to recognise a driving licence issued by another Member State before that State acceded to the EU and before the issuing of a GB driving licence, where the GB licence had been withdrawn on the grounds of its holder's unfitness to drive, i.e. the domestic determination on fitness to drive prevails over any continuing permission afforded to the person arising from the licence issued in the other Member State.

Similarly, applying the principles in Criminal proceedings concerning Weber [2009] RTR 57, the Directive does not preclude the refusal to recognise a driving licence issued by another Member State to a person whose right to drive in Great Britain has been withdrawn, even if that withdrawal occurs after the issue of the other driving licence, provided the other licence was obtained during a period when the GB licence was suspended and both the suspension and withdrawal of the GB licence were based on grounds existing at the date of issue of the other licence.

C7 Sentencing Generally

C7.2 Penalty Points

The SCA 2007, s. 63(1) and sch. 6, para. 15 came into force on 1 October 2008 (SI 2008 No. 2504). As a result, the reference in the RTOA 1988, s. 28(2) to incitement has effect as a reference to (or to conduct amounting to) encouraging or assisting the offences under part 2 of the SCA 2007.

C7.2a Penalty Points

The Road Safety Act 2006 (Commencement No. 5) Order 2008 (SI 2008 No. 3164) inter alia brings s. 4 of the Act (graduated fixed penalty points) into force on 31 March 2009.

C7.7 Fines and Imprisonment

The Road Safety Act 2006 (Commencement No. 5) Order 2008 (SI 2008 No. 3164) inter alia brings s. 4 of the Act (graduated fixed penalty points) into force on 31 March 2009. The reference to s. 3 of the 2006 Act in the main work here should be a reference to s. 4.

C7.9 Disqualification for Certain Offences

The SCA 2007, s. 63(1) and sch. 6, para. 15 came into force on 1 October 2008 (SI 2008 No. 2504). As a result, the reference in the RTOA 1988, s. 34(5) to incitement has effect as a reference to (or to conduct amounting to) encouraging or assisting the offences under part 2 of the SCA 2007.

C7.12 Disqualification for Repeat Offences

The SCA 2007, s. 63(1) and sch. 6, para. 15 came into force on 1 October 2008 (SI 2008 No. 2504). As a result, the reference in the RTOA 1988, s. 35(5A) to incitement has effect as a reference to (or to conduct amounting to) encouraging or assisting the offences under part 2 of the SCA 2007.

C7.18 New System of Endorsement: Driving Record

The Road Safety Act 2006 (Commencement No. 5) Order 2008 (SI 2008 No. 3164) inter alia brings ss. 8 (driving record) and 9 (unlicensed and foreign drivers) into force on 1 April 2009.

C7.24 Financial Penalty Deposits

The Road Safety Act 2006 (Commencement No. 5) Order 2008 (SI 2008 No. 3164) inter alia brings s. 11 of the Act (financial penalty deposits) into force on 31 March 2009. Section 12 and sch. 4 are among the other provisions brought into force by the Order.

C7.24a Financial Penalty Deposits

The Road Safety (Financial Penalty Deposits) Order 2009 (SI 2009 No. 491) specifies certain matters for the purposes of part 3A of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, which provides that constables or vehicle examiners may impose a financial penalty deposit requirement on a person in certain circumstances. Articles 3 to 5, with the Schedule to the Order, specify the person, offences and circumstances in which a financial penalty deposit requirement can be imposed. Article 6 specifies the manner of payment. Article 7 sets out the steps to be followed by the Secretary of State where making an appropriate refund in accordance with part 3A.

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