Vehicular Homicide - in Other Countries

In Other Countries

In the United Kingdom, there is no offense of "vehicular homicide". The offenses are "causing death by dangerous driving" and "causing death by careless driving while unfit through alcohol/over prescribed limit", under the Road Traffic Act 1988. This act removed the offense of "reckless driving" as the concept of recklessness in law requires a mens rea that was often difficult to prove in court. Additional offenses connected to fatal road collisions were enacted in the Road Safety Act 2006 but have yet to be brought into force. Legal reformists have pressed for the adoption of a categorization more akin to that of the United States. C. M. V. Clarkson, an advocate of a vehicular homicide offense, opines that while people's perceptions are that death resulting from a motor vehicle is in a different "family" to other killings, "in terms of fault there can be little distinction between those who kill through the dangerous operation of their cars and those who kill with machines, trains, etc.".