Road Deaths

EDM number 977 in 1999-00, proposed by Andrew Miller on 13/07/2000.

That this House notes that the present Home Office consultation document on reforming the law on involuntary manslaughter has left out road deaths from being considered for inclusion under this law; believes that this consultation is an opportunity to try and assess the advantages and disadvantages of dealing with one form of unlawful death and injury under a separate law, instead of common law, particularly in view of the overwhelming evidence of public dissatisfaction with the present road traffic law (Road Traffic Act 1988, amended in 1991), supported by numerous petitions delivered to the Home Office, and most recently a 13,000 signature petition by RoadPeace, and supported also by a great many complaints from their constituents to most honourable Members; notes that there is a growing agreement that the law cannot continue as at present and also the Human Rights Act 1999 will require that road deaths be treated no differently from other culpable deaths; believes that this consultation also provides a change to end discrimination in respect of road deaths, beginning with the investigation and ending with derisory sentences in magistrates' courts where the fact of death is not even recorded on court records, and to end the social exclusion of bereaved families of road victims, who feel deeply insulted by the lack of acknowledgement of their loss and the treatment of their loved ones' death; and therefore calls for road deaths to be included for consideration under all three charges proposed.

This motion has been signed by a total of 51 MPs.