Prison Sentences for Death By Dangerous Driving

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Death by Dangerous Driving Solicitors 

Frequently asked questions about 'death-by' offences.

Don't suffer in silence. Police investigations take months, sometimes years. Repeated police interviews, phone seizures, media reports. Take legal advice as quickly as you possibly can.

What happens if you're charged with causing death by dangerous driving?

You're involved in a serious collision. The police are the lead agency for collision investigation and have the primary duty to investigate and establish the circumstances that have led to the incident. They will secure the scene and preserve evidence, identify witnesses, obtain initial accounts, identify the suspect and implement an effective forensic collision investigation strategy. You may not know the extent of the injuries caused, or even that a person has been injured. The death may occur later at the hospital.

Assuming you remain at the scene, the police will speak with you and place you under arrest for causing death, or serious injury, by dangerous driving. This depends upon whether the injured party is pronounced dead at the scene or taken to hospital in a critical condition. You will also be breath tested for alcohol and swab tested for cannabis and cocaine. If you fail either test, you will be cautioned and arrested for further offences. If you are not injured, the police will take you to custody for further evidential tests, followed by a police interview. They will also want to obtain fingerprints and a DNA sample to strengthen their case. 

The police will want to establish the immediate cause of the collision. The Collision Investigation Unit will attend and secure the scene. The purpose of the CIU is to establish;

  • The approach speed of the vehicle(s)
  • Impact Speed
  • Response times of driver(s) involved
  • The mechanical condition of the vehicle(s)
  • Any environmental factor (road or otherwise) that could have caused or contributed to the collision
  • The position of the vehicle(s) at the time of impact 

Charged with Death by Dangerous Driving? 

What happens next?

  1. Gathering DNA evidence 

    Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (section 15), the police now have the power to take and retain a DNA sample of any person arrested for a recordable offence, regardless of whether they are charged, released under investigation, or go on to be acquitted. 

    "Fingerprints can now be taken electronically and the police will be able to confirm in a few minutes the identity of a suspect where that person’s fingerprints are already held on the National Fingerprint Database..... Fingerprints taken under this provision will be subject to a speculative search across the crime scene database to see if they are linked to any unsolved crime. " - Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Section 15) 

  2. The Police Interview 

    It is vital to instruct an experienced and competent solicitor to support you through all stages of the investigation, this includes the initial police interview. From the get go, the police will be doing everything they can to try and find the evidence to prove that you committed the offence. A death by dangerous driving charge is a severe offence, which if convicted carries a prison sentence, so your emotions will be running extremely high and you may not be thinking straight. You may accidentally admit to something even if it wasn't your fault. It is a solicitors job to collect all the evidence and put a defence forward to give you the best possible chance in the circumstances, so make sure you get a good one and don't go into a police interview without one. 

  3. Autopsy Report
    Following a road death, an autopsy will usually be performed on the body as soon as possible to determine the cause and nature of the death. The report will form part of the police investigation since if charges are made, it needs to be proved that the cause of the death was a direct result of the collision and not an alternative factor. 

Charged, Released under investigation or NFA. 

After the police interview, the completion of the evidential tests (if they were required) and the gathering of initial evidence, a few things can happen.

  • Charged: If the police feel they have enough evidence, they will charge you with the offence of causing death by dangerous driving. It will now be down to your solicitor to gather all the evidence against you and build your defence to put forward at the Crown Court. 
  • Released Under Investigation: If you are released under investigation, you are not out of the woods. You will still be a suspect of the offence, but the investigation will be ongoing. It could be a few weeks or even months before you hear from the police again. But you will hear from them at some point. 
  • No Further Action: If you receive an NFA, the police have chosen not to charge you with the offence. This may be because there isn't enough evidence or it is not in the public interest. You will not receive a criminal record and you are free to go. 

Can I have my mobile phone in custody?

If the police believe there is information in your phone that may be relevant to the investigation, under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), they have the power to seize your phone and retain it until they feel they have all the information they may need. 

Media Attention


As with most serious criminal offences, don't be surprised if the case starts to receive considerable attention from the media. Unfortunately,  you cannot stop the media from reporting on your case or publishing your name or where you are from. They may publish stories about your case without consulting with you first and they may approach you at court hearings.

With a death by dangerous driving case, the police should help you develop a 'media strategy' which allows for your views to be taken into account, and this should be passed on to the media. Your solicitor may also be able to give you some advice on how to handle the media, however they cannot stop them reporting. 


Can you go to prison for causing death by dangerous driving?

Yes. Causing death by dangerous driving carries a prison sentence of between 2 years to a life sentence and is triable only on indictment. This means the offence is so serious that it can only be tried in the Crown Court. As well as this, you will also receive a driving disqualification of 5 years (at minimum) with a compulsory extended re-test for offences committed after 28th June 2022. 

The sentencing guidelines will determine how severe the penalty is based on culpability and harm. Culpability is your direct involvement in the offence and to what degree you are responsible. It is separated into categories A, B and C to examine the seriousness of the offence.  For example, the culpability will be higher for someone who caused death by dangerous driving whilst they were intoxicated (category A), compared to someone who falls just over the threshold (category C).

The harm factor in death by dangerous will always be of the upmost seriousness, increasing if there were multiple deaths. 

Case law / case examples? 

Have you been accused of causing death by dangerous driving?

If you have been accused of causing death by dangerous driving, whether it was an accident or you have been falsely accused - it is absolutely imperative that you seek legal advice right away. Understandably, you will be extremely anxious and emotional. You may be feeling that there is no way out as you know this offence carries a prison sentence - but there are defences, and instructing the right solicitor will determine how successful you are at getting the case acquitted, or reducing the sentence to the absolute minimum in the circumstances. 

Causing death by dangerous driving defences

A valid defence will depend upon the circumstances and the facts of your case. The most common defence to the offence of causing death by dangerous is that the driving was, in fact, not dangerous. You are entitled to challenge the prosecution's account of what happened. Perhaps the prosecution have misunderstood the definition of dangerousness, or they're relying on unfair evidence. If the collision has been caught on a dash cam, there may be grounds for a defence is the speed has been calculated inaccurately, or it isn't showing the full picture. 

If this defence cannot be used, your solicitor may try and reduce the sentence down to death by careless driving - a less serious offence which has a minimum sentence of a community order and maximum sentence of 5 years custody. It also carries an obligatory 12 month driving ban.

Another defence could be that the collision did not cause the death of the other person, but this is difficult to put forward due to the 'but for' argument. For example......

More General defences:

Automatism 

If you were not aware of your actions when committing the offence, you may be able to use the defence of automatism to escape a conviction. But this defence will not work if you were unaware of your actions due to a voluntary consumption of alcohol or drugs (not prescription). To use this defence effectively, you would have to prove that you were unaware of your actions due to a sudden side effect from medication or medical illness, or there was an underlying medical condition which you did not know about.  For example, if you suffer with narcolepsy and you were taking your medication in line with your practitioner and you had a sudden seizure, you may be able to use this defence as you could not have known it would happen. But if you suffer with narcolepsy and you weren't taking the medication correctly, or you got in the car when you already felt tired, you wouldn't be able to rely on automatism. 

Duress 

This defence applies in a situation where you were forced to commit the offence by a person or a different set of circumstances. The court will look into how reasonable it was for you to have chosen to commit the offence, and whether you definitely had no alternative. For example, if you were in a situation where you were held at knife or gun point and you feared you would sustain a serious injury, or lose your life, you may have a defence. Similarly if someone got in your car and demanded you drive them somewhere whilst they were in possession of a lethal weapon, or they threatened to physically attack you, you would also have a defence. This can also be applied to the defence of self -defence, as you were seeking to protect yourself to avoid serious harm or death.

Mechanical failure 

For this defence to be successful, you would have to be completely unaware that there was anything wrong with your vehicle. For example, upon investigation, your car is found to have a fault which caused the crash, which then caused the death of another person. If your car is up to date with services, you can show evidence of a recent MOT, and you have adhered to all advisories you could use the defence of a sudden mechanical fault if you genuinely could not have known it would happen. Similarly, if you knew about a fault but you were led to believe it had been fixed, you could use the defence of mistake of fact.

Insanity 

Saying you suffer from mental health alone will not suffice as a defence to death by dangerous driving. You will have to go above and beyond and prove that your actions were affected by mental health so much so that you could not have known that what you were doing was against the law. If you succeed in getting an acquittal based on the defence of insanity, the judge must decide whether you are still suffering with mental health problems, and if they decide you are, they can make a supervision order or send you to hospital. 

If in the circumstances, there is no way of putting forward a complete defence to the charge, you may be able to rely on mitigation or an early guilty plea to reduce your sentence.

Will mitigation help me avoid a prison sentence?

Mitigation aims to reduce the length or severity of your sentence, and could mean the difference between a low level community order and a prison sentence. The court will take into account various mitigating or aggravating factors when deciding on sentencing. The mitigation that may be put forward in a death by dangerous driving charge could be any one of the following: 

  • No previous convictions 
  • Good driving record 
  • Actions of the victim contributed significantly towards the collision/death
  • Genuine Emergency 
  • Mental Disorder
  • Difficult personal circumstances
  • Victim was a close family member or friend 
  • Age
  • Dependants 
  • Remote 

The court will also take into account any potential reduction for a guilty plea in accordance with section 73 of the Sentencing Code and the Reduction in Sentence for a Guilty Plea guideline. 

Character references for mitigation 

A character reference is a letter written by someone who knows you and can comment on your character. This could be a friend, family member, colleague etc... You do not have to bring character references to court but they can help. Character references assist the court in understanding who you are on a personal level. The aim is to persuade the court that you are credible, likeable, hardworking individual who has expressed a deep remorse for the offence committed. If you're seeking help from a GP or counselling services, they may be prepared to produce a reference. 

Character references can be particularly helpful when presenting mitigation in court. We have spent years reducing driving penalties with the help of character references. The magistrates will always read the character references that you provide, before deciding what penalty to impose. They are not read out in open court and can affect the overall sentence.

A character reference can be written by anyone, including;

  • A long-term (family) friend
  • An employer
  • A family member
  • An associate
  • Someone with recognition (e.g. a priest, doctor, police officer).

If you would like to know more about character references either for yourself or for somebody else, we have a full page dedicated to this on another page of our website. See here *link* 

Can you get Legal Aid for causing death by dangerous driving?

Generally, road traffic offences do not qualify for legal aid. However this changes when the accused is facing a possible prison sentence, and you may be able to have some or all of your legal defence covered by a 'Representation Order'. The issue with seeking legal aid for an offence as serious as death by dangerous driving, is that the solicitors may not be absolute experts in that specific field. 

For any death by dangerous charge, we strongly recommend that you seek legal advice from specialist motoring defence solicitors who work on these cases day in day out. It is imperative that the solicitor representing you knows every angle of the law in this area, and can put forward the strongest defence or mitigation possible to reduce your sentence. 

Case Studies and Case Examples of our clients

Coming soon...