Assault, DUI, drugs, fraud, AVOs, traffic matters - Negligent driving and charges NSW

Hello,
I had an accident 2 days ago.

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:32

Originally posted by faisal83

If anything happens to the old passenger lady in future will I be liable of any criminal charges?

No.

But I think your question really is "If some medical problem arises with the "old passenger lady" which can be attributed to the collision, could I be charged?"

And, if that is your question, the answer is "yes".

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:33

Are you insured? If so the insurance company should pick up any medical claims provided you reported the crash to them.

Edited by MartinO - 15/June/2012 at 23:43

You will have to just wait for the police to lay charges to find out what you are facing. However it is likely that the police will certainly charge you with Negligent Driving and depending upon the seriousness of the injuries to the elderly woman add Grievous Bodily Harm.

This is an Indictable Offence and there is the option to have this heard in either the Magistrates Court or in the District Court, although this is unlikely. If this is a first offence, Negligent Driving Occasioning GBH if preferred in the Magistrates Court carries a maximum penalty of $2200 or up to 9 months imprisonment or both plus a mandatory 12 month suspension of licence. If it is just Negligent Driving and they don't include the injuries then you will be looking at a fine of up to $1100 plus points deduction and no court appearance unless you want to defend the charge.

If found guilty you will also loose out on any insurance claims for property damage, they will become your personal liability. You will also be held to account for the elderly ladies Third Party Injury claim but this will be covered by your Compulsory (Greenslip) Insurance.

This is a serious offence and it will take the police some weeks before they prefer charges as they will want to judge the extent of the injuries. It may be to late but you should not talk to the police without a solicitor being present. Also, given Neg Driving Occasioning GBH is an Indictable Offence they may try to arrest you in order to lay the charge rather than just issue a you with a Court Attendance Notice.

Finally and importantly, unless you are confessing now, don't assume you are guilty, there can be many circumstance that may have contributed to the accident so some further detail would be useful.

Look I have just read one news.

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:34

Well the situation was not the same, different road, different cars and so on. All other cases can do is give you an indication on how your case may proceed.

As already stated you have to wait till you are charged, if you are charged, and then see what that charge is, and engage a solicitor if you have a defence you wish to exercise.

The thing to learn out of all this is that you need to keep a proper lookout all the time while behind the wheel of a car, it could be you lying dead in the road especially if the other car drives into the drivers door, while you drive across its path.

Yes I understand what you are saying its all about learning from you mistake.

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:36

Whether you are charged or not is not dependent on the outcome of the elderly passenger. Certainly it may determine what charge is preferred against you The fact that it was not deliberate does not stop you being charged.

Failing to keep a proper lookout would be the minimum I expect, to dangerous driving causing death, if she dies as a result. But the latter is not very likely, from what you have said.

It's only two weeks, afraid you are going to have to sweat it out for a bit longer.

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:37

No, it depends very much on what evidence is presented and how well your defence is presented, be sure to engage a good solicitor to represent you if you are charged.

After 4 months I got court attendance ....

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:37

Well... I've done the same mistake - fortunately no one was hurt - only vehicles. The police wrote up the charge so badly though that I simply replied not guilty (as it was so badly written up it was not even similar to the events) and it disappeared. My point is; do not assume you're guilty.

Let's back track a bit, in your first post you said that there where no apparent injuries except an elderly lady who was taken to hospital. Who died, and what was the cause and how has it been linked back to the accident, who was injured for the GBH charge or is this just a double jeopardy effort on the part of police and I would ask similarly for the plain Negligent Driving.... this smells.

Putting that aside this is not a matter you should be seeking to resolve within a forum. You must has legal representation and, unfortunately it will be expensive, I would suggest costs in excess of 20-30K to manage even a low level defence. Given the death aspect it is likely that this will go directly to the District court after your first plea hearing in the Magistrates Court. Don't expect this to go away anytime soon.

The matter will essentially be heard in two parts, first the police will need prove the negligent driving, that you did something in the circumstances that a normally prudent driver would not have done. In this regard it should be the case, especially given that a death has occurred, that a traffic accident expert within the Police has prepared a report, you cannot rely on this an will need to obtain your own, glitch here is that, due to the time delay, often deliberately engineered by the Police, your expert will be operating from a position of weakness.

If the Police can establish negligence they then have to prove the injuries where as a result of the accident and that their extent qualifies for the level of charge. That includes the death, someone may have died, but if they where elderly proving a direct link to the accident can be difficult certainly if it happened sometime after the accident. Even GBH has issues for the Police, they have been very good at watering down the requirements from the original precedents but they are still not easy to prove so again you need good legal representation to reset the bar at the right level.

If this goes to the District Court, as is might, there will be plenty of opportunities to plead the matter down to a lower charge if you have some doubt over responsibility. It will also be a matter where there is a lot of expert testimony flying around, so again, unfortunately legal costs and time go up and up.

Only good news is that you will have plenty of time to make arrangements for your family should things go bad for you.

Edited by citizen181 - 20/October/2012 at 13:53

Before considering how you plead, the first thing you need to do is see if the facts support the charge...... Your solicitor will do this for you.

You should probably consider having an independent traffic crash investigation too if you are facing a charge of negligent driving causing death.... that's fairly serious.

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:39

I can understand how concerning this is for you, There are several things you can do but the most important is to get legal representation. Those on this forum can offer you an opinion but it will be speculative at best and this is too serious a matter for you to rely on it to any great extent. That the woman was very elderly and passed sometime after the accident and after being released from care is going to be a major complication for the police. I expect this is why they have blanketed you with charges at all levels of seriousness, they have some doubt what they can prove and what the court will accept.

This really is going to come down to a battle of the medical experts being able to conclusively point to not only the cause of death but how this links directly back to the accident and to be able to discount any pre-existing condition. Some of this is likely going to be the subject of a Coroners report.

But as I stated the police are going to have to win their negligent driving charge first before they discuss injuries. Given the speeds involved someone has clearly failed to keep a proper lookout for a collision to occur.

Edited by citizen181 - 20/October/2012 at 15:41

Regardless of her age etc there is what is known as the Egg Shell principle. It will be up to the police to prove that it was your act that led to the ladies death. I have done many crash investigations and can tell you that a speed of 30k or 40k is sufficient to cause serious injury or death.

What you need to do is to be able to show that your individual action was not the causal factor i.e.:
# Vehicle deficiency
# Environmental factors
# road surface factors
# road environment factors
# specific actions of the other driver
# Medical evidence
# Autopsy report (the key here is whether a certificate of death was issued by a doctor or whether the an autopsy identified the precise cause of death)
# The list goes on.....
#

Thanks again for the reply.

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:40

How to know whether there was an autopsy report

Edited by faisal83 - 23/December/2012 at 10:41