The Dangers Of Careless Driving
Where you used to be able to use driving without due care and attention or a momentary lapse in concentration as something of an excuse for a driving offence, these themselves are now driving offences.
Powerful associations like MADD ” Mothers against drunk driving, and other such associations have been lobbying for such changes in the law for quite some time now, and several states have statutes which vary in degrees depending on the severity of the outcome of careless driving.
What is surprising is that people dont really seem to take driving without due care and attention very seriously. In fact, people seem to side with the offenders and advise them on how to avoid their punishment. In an online forum we found one case where a man was charged for wheel-spinning his car on gravel by going very fast and kicking up lots of dust and gravel. The officer that charged him says in his report that there was a petrol pump nearby and it was open, and so could have caused a large accident and many potential injuries. The question he put on the forum was that if he could prove that the petrol pump was closed would that benefit his case in any way. And surprisingly, dozens of people replied with advice about how to get out of the charge and how to prove that something in the officers report was wrong!
Every year there are thousands of deaths or serious injuries on the roads as a result of negligent driving and we dont really take notice. Tens of thousands of people lose their licences every year because of careless driving, at least temporarily and many of them just turn up back behind the wheel without a valid licence! Even though the people in the surrounding neighbourhood may well know about it, most people will not pull them up on it, and this is what causes most of the motoring offences on our roads.
Although as an offence, driving without due care and attention is not deemed as important as drunk driving or driving while talking on the phone, it is still one of the leading causes of road accidents and needs to be addressed with greater seriousness.