Charged But What Happens If A Victim Later Dies?

[Matt674]

I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas what would happen in a legal sense if someone caused an accident by dangerous driving leaving the victim in a coma, who then at some later point dies. Bearing in mind that some comas can last for some time. Would the police charge the person with dangerous driving, and then at a later point change it to a charge of death by dangerous driving if they died during their investigations? I'm not sure if they can do this. Or would they wait out to see what happens to the victim?

(I'd like to add that I'm not in any trouble, just in the process of researching for a novel, and can't find anything online to help me!)

[Prudie]

I've only seen it on TV programmes but have certainly seen charges changed when someone dies later = like from ABH to murder for example.

[granny grump]

It may not be true but I thought I had heard something about if they survived for a year and a day it wouldn't be classed as death by dangerous driving but if they died before it would - or have I dreamt that?

[EDDIE51]

I have heard that death must occur within a year and a day (366 days) for the crime to become murder.
If the driver was convicted of dangrous driving they could then be charged later with a second offence for the same incident. But if the victim died as a result of the accident before the case had been heard then the charge could be changed to 'death by dangerous'.
Sorry, this is just my view , I have no legal knowledge of the situation.

[EDDIE51]

Sorry, could NOT be charged later with a second offence for the same incident. (typing too fast)

[FredPuli43]

The CPS would have them charged with causing death by dangerous driving, if the CPS thought it was in the public interest to do so. They probably wouldn't think it was if the death occurred some years later,

It is no longer the law that the victim of a murder must die within a year and a day for anyone to be charged with the murder. It was the rule for hundreds of years but was changed because modern medicine can now keep victims alive for longer than that. Previously it made sense to say that, if the victim didn't die in that time, his death was not directly caused by the accused.

[ST24]

There was an episode of New Tricks that had a plot with a comatose woman in it. The bloke who did it thought that if the death didn't occur within a year and a day he couldn't be tried for murder but it turned out that the law had been changed. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0659733/

I don't know if that is actually the legal situation though.

[WyeDyed]

EDDIE51 - I am not a legal expert but I'm sure that law was repealed or re clarified a few years ago, taking into account the fact that people can be kept alive for longer with modern treatments but still die from the original offence (a dim memory of a R4 program)

[FredPuli43]

The rule about death occurring within a year and a day was abolished by the appropriately named Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996. However, the rule continues to apply if the act or omission, or the last of the acts or omissions, which caused death occurred before June the 16th, 1996.

The current definition of murder, that provision excepted, is based on that in Coke's [pronounced 'Cooke's ] Institutes of 1797, and he was only saying what he understood the existing law to be. There is no Act of Parliament to make murder illegal ; the law has been created by judges, common law.

[WyeDyed]

^^^
It's odd how stuff like that sticks in my head but give me a shopping list with three items on and I'll forget at least one of them :-(

[FredPuli43]

Matt, not sure we've answered the questions fully for your purpose, a novel .

They would charge dangerous driving but further charge death by dangerous driving when the victim died. It does not matter when the victim dies; it could be years later but the Crown Prosecution could say that, if a very long time elapsed, that it was not in the public interest to charge death by dangerous. The defendant would have been tried and sentenced for the first offence before then, and on the basis that the victim was in a coma, so the sentence would be severe anyway. (They would go on if the dangerous driving causing death was particularly bad; the maximum, after all, is 14 years). The CPS might think that nothing much was gained by further prosecution, but they would be influenced in that decision by what the family of the deceased thought and what they perceived the public thought.

There is a new offence of "Causing Serious injury by dangerous driving" contrary to section 1A of the Road Traffic Act; the section has been inserted by an Act of 2012, to come into force on a day to be appointed, but I can't presently say what that day is (or was). That will be the appropriate charge for a driver who puts someone in a coma, but this nicety will not matter in a novel unless the action is set very recently !

[EDDIE51]

Thanks Fred very good answer , that has taught me something I didn't know.

[Matt674]

Thanks guys, you've all been very helpful. The idea is that the coma would last a couple of months, so it doesn't matter so much in terms of the novel about the year and a day clause, though it is interesting. But what you've said fits in with the plan for the suspect to be arrested on the charge of causing serious injury through dangerous driving, questioned and then released on bail pending further investigation whilst the other character's life hangs in the balance.

The intricacies of law aren't my strong point, so I appreciate your help in making a plot that's more believable.