Soldier Acquitted of Causing Death by Dangerous Driving

Case study summary

Our client was acquitted of causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving. He pleaded guilty to lesser offences of causing death by careless driving, thereby accepting a degree of culpability but to lesser offences, attracting a much lower prison sentence.

Case study

Our client was serving with the First Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Whilst on duty, he took time out to drive his brother and some friends to a Halloween party. On the way, his vehicle was involved in a road traffic accident causing the deaths of two of his colleagues and friends, and the serious injury of two more. Our client accepted that his driving fell below the standard of a responsible driver, as the vehicle was overladen; it was carrying seven passengers in a five-seater vehicle.

Following our expert legal advice, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of causing death by careless driving, thereby accepting a degree of culpability. At trial, the jury was made aware that he had pleaded guilty at his own request to the lesser offences, and he was later acquitted of the more serious counts of causing death by dangerous driving, and of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. We called an expert forensic collision investigator to show that our client was not driving too fast, and that he would not have known that one of the tires was underinflated.

He was sentenced to three years imprisonment for causing death by careless driving, which is much less than he would have received had he been found guilty of causing two deaths and serious injury by dangerous driving.