Tough new laws for bad driving in the UK

Tough new laws are to be introduced in the UK for drivers. New regulations will mean that drivers who cause road fatalities while using their mobile phones will face a life sentence in jail. At present, the most serious driving offences can result in a 14 year jail sentence in the UK. However the new laws will see the maximum life sentence being imposed instead. The aim is to send a message to drivers that bad driving is unacceptable. In 2018, 122 people in the UK were sentenced for causing death by
June 28, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Tough new laws are to be introduced in the UK for drivers. New regulations will mean that drivers who cause road fatalities while using their mobile phones will face a life sentence in jail.

At present, the most serious driving offences can result in a 14 year jail sentence in the UK. However the new laws will see the maximum life sentence being imposed instead.

The aim is to send a message to drivers that bad driving is unacceptable. In 2018, 122 people in the UK were sentenced for causing death by dangerous driving. A further 21 were sentenced for causing road fatalities while driving under the influence of drink or drugs.

In addition, a new driving offence is planned. This will be ‘causing serious injury by careless driving’ with a maximum three year jail term.

Factors that are classed as dangerous driving include using a mobile phone at the wheel, speeding or racing.

Related Content

  • IAM welcomes drop in UK road deaths, but concerned over drink-drive casualties
    August 2, 2013
    The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), Britain’s largest independent road safety charity, has welcomed new UK Department for Transport (DfT) road casualty figures showing a fall in the amount of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents. The DfT reports there were 1, 680 people killed in the year ending March 2013, 10% reduction from 1, 870 in the year ending March 2012. The number of people killed or seriously injured also fell to 23, 660, a 6% decrease.
    Read More
  • US road crashes increasing for 2015?
    August 19, 2015
    There is mounting concern in the US at the high number of crashes during 2015. For the first seven months of 2015, there has been a 14% increase in the number of traffic fatalities compared with the same period in 2014. The data shows that there were 18,630 road deaths in this period, with over 2.2 million serious injuries. This is a notable increase and should the trend continue it will mean that 2015 will have had the highest rate of road deaths since 2007. The cause (or causes) of the increase in road de
    Read More
  • Europe’s road safety targets at risk
    July 10, 2015
    This new analysis has been published by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). According to the ETSC data, 2014 showed the lowest annual reduction in EU road deaths since 2001. In all 25,845 people were killed in road crashes in the 28 nations of the EU during 2014. This represented a decrease of just 0.6% compared to 2013. EU member states now need to cut deaths by almost 8% each year until 2020 to meet the target set in 2010 to halve deaths within a decade.
    Read More
  • French road safety worsening
    March 2, 2012
    The road accident rate in France looks to be on the increase as a result of changes in laws, which have softened penalties for offences.
    Read More

Highlighted Content