New offences proposed
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• Drivers involved in fatal accidents may not have to carry the entire responsibility in future following a Law Commission proposal for two new offences of corporate manslaughter.
The commission wants unlimited fines imposed on companies found guilty of reckless killing or killing by gross carelessness. It says reckless killing charges should be brought where companies knowingly take risks that endanger lives. They should be charged with killing by gross carelessness when they take risks that are obvious to a reasonable person.
Mary Williams, director of lorry safety campaign Brake, says the gross carelessness charge could apply to operators who ignore the safety requirements on their 0-licences.
"If you take on responsibility for running a haulage operation, you should be responsible," she says, "not just the drivers who follow orders to evade hours' restrictions or drive poorly maintained trucks."
No haulage company has ever been prosecuted for corporate manslaughter, despite calls for prosecutions after the high profile Sowerby Bridge disaster and last month's jailing of Belgian driver Eddy de Meersman, who killed a moped rider after driving 14 hours in a 27 hour period (CM 15-21 Feb).
The proposals should overcome the need to identify a single, responsible culprit under existing corporate manslaughter law. But they stand no chance of becoming law unless one of the political parties supports them through Parliament.