This report describes the results of two surveys carried out as a second phase of a study commissioned by the Road Safety Division of the Department for Transport. Following the Road Traffic Law Review (commonly known as the North Report) (Department of Transport and Home Office, 1988) a number of legislative changes were made, reflecting concerns about the way in which motoring offences were dealt with by the criminal justice system. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of the 1991 Road Traffic Act on the prosecution of dangerous drivers and to examine criticisms of current legislation and practice. It investigated the criteria being used to determine the charges and sentences for those drivers. The report from the first phase (Pearce et al., 2002) explored the extent to which the criminal justice system, in implementing the 1991 Road Traffic Act, had achieved the aims intended by the North Report and the subsequent legislation. The research identified concerns that the aims of the legislative changes have not been fully realised. A number of possible changes in legislation and procedures were discussed; the first phase report described and evaluated these suggestions. The second phase comprised surveys of drivers who have been convicted of careless or dangerous driving and victims of road crashes. As in the earlier research in this study, the focus is on three ‘‘bad’’ driving offences: causing death by dangerous driving, dangerous driving and careless driving, (which includes driving without due care and attention). The surveys aimed to identify the views of respondents on the offences themselves, the way in which the charge was determined, the available penalties for these offences, and the way in which the sentence was determined. The survey of convicted drivers was an attempt to identify how convicted drivers viewed their conviction, how they viewed the legislative procedures they experienced, and whether any aspect of the experience had affected their subsequent driving. A questionnaire was sent to a large sample of drivers who had been convicted of careless or dangerous driving. The purpose of the survey of drivers was to identify the views of those who go through the legal processes on their experiences, and to assess the impact on drivers and their families of the accident, conviction and penalty. The aim of the survey of victims was to seek the views of those who have experienced the legislative procedures from the victim’s perspective. Questionnaires were sent to people who had lost a relative in a road crash and to those who had been injured in road crashes. Although the respondents include both injured victims and next-of-kin, for the sake of readability the report will use the term ‘‘victim’’ to refer to both groups, although they are victims in a quite different way. Some research has previously been carried out into the impact of road crashes on the victims, and on the way in which their needs should be met (FEVR, 1997), but little research has been carried out to identify their views on the legislation surrounding motoring offences. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting