Many more drivers who kill could face jail or even life imprisonment under proposals for tougher penalties outlined by the Director of Public Prosecutions today.

The worst cases now prosecuted as death by dangerous driving should instead be prosecuted for manslaughter which carries a maximum life sentence, a consultation paper suggests.

Hundreds of killers on the roads walk free each year because of difficulties faced by prosecutors in bringing death by dangerous driving charges.

The offence carries up to 14 years’ imprisonment but prosecutors frequently opt for the lesser charge of careless driving or driving without due care and attention. These are easier to prove but only carry a maximum fine of £2,500.

Launching a public consultation paper on the prosecuting "bad driving", the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ken Macdonald, QC, said this morning that he believed that public attitudes had changed.

Behaviour that was once regarded as merely "careless" driving was now regarded as "dangerous." The prime example of this is perhaps the change in attitude to drink driving over the past 40 years."

The DPP said that the CPS inspectorate had found that the CPS made the right charging decision in nearly 93 per cent of cases.

But it added: "Nevertheless we recognise that a lack of public confidence in our approach to cases of bad driving, particularly those involving a death, may remain."

A range of other bad habits behind the wheel including tailgating and using a hand-held mobile phone, which are currently prosecuted as careless driving, could also be moved up into the dangerous driving category.

It means a much broader range of poor driving behaviour would carry a prison term, because dangerous driving comes with a two-year maximum prison sentence, whereas careless driving can only be dealt with by a community order or a fine.

Mr Macdonald said: "We have strong feelings that public views have moved along at a pace in recent years and we want to make sure our policies reflect that.

"The test is if you were standing on the pavement and saw something would you think ‘That’s bloody dangerous’?

"If you thought it was dangerous, would you prosecute it as dangerous driving? Do people regard as dangerous types of driving that they would not have regarded as dangerous five or 10 years ago? My feeling is that public attitudes have moved on."

Behaviour at the wheel which could become imprisonable as dangerous driving for the first time, although some may have featured in dangerous driving cases in the past depending on circumstances, includes:

• using a hand-held mobile while on the move
• tailgating
• tuning a car radio
• "undertaking" - or overtaking on the inside
• running a red light
• applying make-up on the move
• reading a map or a newspaper
• lighting a cigarette
• talking to or looking at a passenger
• emerging from a side road into the path of another vehicle

The document, which applies to England and Wales, also asked for views on the CPS’s current policy of generally not prosecuting a motorist whose driving led to the death of a close relative, providing no other people were endangered in the incident.

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