Culpable driving and natural justice, or lack thereof

“Culpable driving causing death” is the offence of killing someone unintentionally through an accident while speeding, or driving under the influence, or fatigue, or whatever. It was introduced because juries are reluctant to convict someone has caused a road accident of manslaughter.

After the recent Burnley tunnel accident, a police spokesman was quoted as saying that the truck driver involved could be charge with culpable driving, even if he hadn’t been speeding.

This got me thinking. What if he had merely caused the accident by not paying attention to the road for a couple of seconds? Can you be charged with culpable driving and thus be sent to jail for being briefly inattentive on the roads? Better lock us all up, then.

Here’s what bothers me: someone who kills a pedestrian while speeding has done nothing different to someone who merely speeds. Whether or not you kill someone on the roads in those circumstances is a roll of the dice. Yet, the penalties applied are vastly different.

The offence of culpable driving has nothing to do with justice; it is solely about revenge. For the law to be consistent, either increase the penalties for speeding or drink driving to match those of culpable driving, or drop the offense of culpable driving.