Driving without Due Care and Attention / Inconsiderate Driving

When a driver is involved in an accident, if there is Police involvement either at the scene or at a later point, the driver could be summoned to court for driving without due care and attention (also known as careless driving), or inconsiderate driving.

This can be a source of annoyance and distress for anyone. This can be worse where any accident was serious or stressful in itself. People can feel victimised or that they are treated like a criminal during these proceedings, and all for what is often a lapse in concentration, or often simply and accident.

Mary Monson Solicitors deal regularly with cases involving driving without due care and attention. We also represent people accused of Dangerous Driving, and Causing Death by Dangerous Driving.

Case Study

Our client was a business man accused of hitting another car at a roundabout, failing to stop, and failure to report the accident to the police (for details of these two other offences click X on the left hand toolbar). As well as the failure to stop and report the accident, he received a summons for driving without due care and attention.

He was accused of driving into the other car on purpose, then speeding off. As a respected professional person, he vigorously denied this, and we prepared a case that involved numerous character witnesses, as well as commissioning a technical report into the accident which showed that the damage could have been caused by a simple nudge, which he might not even have noticed. After the first hearing we put our case informally to the prosecution, and they dropped the case against our client.

The Law of Careless Driving explained

The offence of driving without due care and attention is contained in section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1998 (known as RTA 1988). It can usually only be heard in the magistrates court. The Law does not actually state what is meant by careless driving, but courts say that the standard of driving has to be that of a reasonable and careful driver. In certain circumstances, the court may look to the Highway Code as a source of advice on what constitutes good driving, but the guidelines in it do not all carry the weight of law.

The following types of behaviour may constitute careless driving:

• tailgating another vehicle
• pulling out in front of a vehicle, creating a risk of collision
• driving inappropriately fast according to the road conditions
• otherwise not paying attention to the road

Inconsiderate Driving

A similar offence to careless driving is inconsiderate driving, which includes driving which unreasonably upsets other road users, because it is particularly aggressive or selfish. If a car purposely and repeatedly tailgates, flashes or beeps its horn at another driver, then the charge of inconsiderate driving could be made out.

Penalties

Various penalties exist for careless driving and inconsiderate driving. A court must endorse the licence with 3 - 9 points OR enter a disqualification of a length to be decided by the court, a fine will also usually be payable. A court, may, with skillful persuasion consider a very short ban as a punishment if points would result in a totting up ban of 6 months or more.

A court should only consider the maximum number of points or a long ban if there has been a lot of damage, or if there have been any other aggravating features, such as other offences committed at the same time. The court may take into account the defendant's previous driving record, and the effect of a ban on the defendant.

If you have been accused of driving without due care and attention, and a ban will have a large effect on you, we recommend getting in touch to talk about your situation.