Causation in death by dangerous driving: liability where more than one driver is at fault

Phil Barnes KC, of Nine Chambers, recently appeared,  alone, for the defendant in R v Matthew Isherwood at Preston Crown Court, before the Honorary Recorder of Preston, HHJ Altham. He was instructed by Graeme Parkinson of Forbes Solicitors.

The case turned on a point of causation that is often misunderstood: a driver can be criminally liable for a death even where another party is also partly to blame, and even where their own driving, taken in isolation, would not have caused it. The principle is that where an act of dangerous driving creates the circumstances in which another person dies –  and where that death is one of the foreseeable outcomes of the dangerous driving – responsibility can still follow.

The facts illustrate the point. While overtaking a cyclist on a rural lane near Morecambe, Mr Isherwood misjudged the manoeuvre, clipped the cycle and unseated the rider, leaving him in the carriageway. A short time later, after several vehicles had passed around him, a second driver failed to see the cyclist in the road and drove over him, causing fatal injuries. That second driver was prosecuted for causing death by careless driving. Mr Isherwood, however, faced the more serious charge: phone data showed he had been using his mobile in the moments before the first collision, and he was prosecuted for causing death by dangerous driving. He pleaded guilty at an early stage.

On sentence, the judge took a 12-year starting point before applying significant mitigation, reflecting Mr Isherwood’s previous good character and his early plea, to arrive at a final sentence of 5 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.

The case is a reminder of two things: the breadth of the causation principle in fatal driving cases, and the gravity of the consequences that can flow from even a momentary distraction at the wheel.