Dangers Of Negligent Driving
No longer is driving without due care and attention an acceptable defense. Momentary lapses of attention are not allowed as an excuse now, and improper driving is an offense that can land you in jail!
Powerful associations like MADD ” Mothers against drunk driving, and other such associations have been lobbying for such changes in the law for quite some time now, and several states have statutes which vary in degrees depending on the severity of the outcome of careless driving.
What is somewhat surprising is that people dont seem to take this offence very seriously. In fact, people seem more willing to offer advice about how to avoid the charge than anything else! On an online discussion forum, we came across a man who had been charged with driving carelessly because he had been spinning his wheels on gravel by revving the car very high. The police officer that charged him said in his report that there was an open petrol pump nearby and so could have caused large scale damage and potential injuries to many people. The question he put forward on the forum was that if he could prove that the petrol pump was closed, would that help his case? And to our surprise, around fifty people had replied to him with advice about how to avoid punishment saying that if he could prove something in the officers report wrong then hed have a better case etc.
Each year negligent driving is the cause of tens of thousands of people either being killed or seriously injured and we dont really take much notice of it. Thousands of people lose their driving licence each year (at least temporarily) because of careless driving and quite often they simply get back behind the wheel the next day without a valid licence. A lot of the time, the people living in the surrounding areas usually know when someone is doing this and dont pull them up on it, this is why we have a lot of the road accidents we have in the country.
Although as an offence, driving without due care and attention is not deemed as important as drunk driving or driving while talking on the phone, it is still one of the leading causes of road accidents and needs to be addressed with greater seriousness.
For more information about driving without due care and attention and for free legal motoring advice, visit pattersonlaw.co.uk