Careless driving

Careless driving (or driving without due care and attention) is defined as any driving which falls below the standard that a competent and careful driver would expect and takes two forms:

• Driving without due care and attention, and
• Driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.

It is vital that if you have been charged with driving without due care that you receive expert advice as soon as possible. Keepmedriving can provide you with that advice.

Charges of driving without due care and attention can arise from a number of circumstances, including where for example you have been involved in an accident because you were not being sufficiently careful at the time. This could be, for example, because you were eating whilst driving, changing the station on the car radio or turning to speak to another passenger in the car and as a result not paying sufficiently close attention to the road itself.

Other examples of what constitutes careless driving include:

• overtaking on the inside;
• reading a map whilst driving;
• driving too close to the vehicle in front;
• driving through a red light;
• emerging from a side road into the path of an oncoming vehicle; or
• lighting a cigarette;

Careless driving carries a far lesser penalty than dangerous driving. It does not carry a custodial sentence and could instead result in between three and nine penalty points, disqualification and a fine. However, this is still likely to have an effect upon your lifestyle during any period of disqualification and will almost certainly result in higher insurance premiums.

Being able to offer an explanation as to why an accident occurred is important. If the police can show that there was, for example, a collision then there will be very strong assumption that you were driving below the standard of a competent and careful driver. If, therefore, you are unable to offer an explanation as to why the collision happened, then the court may decide that you were driving carelessly.

It may also be possible to make representations to the Crown Prosecution Service for you to be offered a driver improvement programme instead of proceeding with the prosecution against you. keepmedriving can assist you with putting forward this proposal.

There is now also an offence of death by careless or inconsiderate driving. This has been introduced by the Road Safety Act 2006, and is intended to address those situations where death results from a fairly minor error of judgment – for example one that would not normally attract a finding of dangerous driving. Drivers need to be aware of this new provision, in particular because unlike the existing offence of careless driving which is not imprisonable, the new offence can attract a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

If you have been charged with careless driving then please contact keepmedriving either by completing the appropriate online information form which you will find in the Getting Help section, by requesting a free call-back using the free, no-obligation call-back form to the right or by phoning us during office hours on 084 4804 4804