Navigating road traffic offences

Every year in Bermuda, thousands of people are prosecuted for traffic offences, such as speeding, driving without due care and attention, using a mobile device while driving, driving while impaired, and driving with excess alcohol in one’s system.

Often the penalties are fairly moderate, such as points on a licence, or a modest fine. Other times, for impaired driving offences, repeat offences, and offences causing injury, the penalty can include a lengthy disqualification, or even prison time for very serious offences.

If you are charged with a minor traffic offence, many will not wish to spend thousands of dollars on an attorney. Even if you are innocent you will not get your legal costs back. This article will explain some of your rights when charged with a traffic offence, and will also explore some of the quirks that could make the difference between being found guilty or not guilty.

For example, if somebody cannot give a breath sample due to health issues, they can ask to give a blood sample instead. However, unlike for breath samples, there are no legally approved devices for analysing a blood sample. This can cause blood results of excess alcohol to be inadmissible as evidence.

Similarly, unlike in the UK (which is where our traffic laws come from), there are no legally approved devices for capturing a driver’s speed. This can call into question the reliability of any speed readings from a device. In the absence of supporting evidence of a vehicle’s speed, potentially the speed reading could be thrown out of court.

It might be worthwhile paying for a consultation meeting with an attorney to discuss matters such as:

• what defences you might be able to present before the court;
• if you are guilty, what can you do to mitigate the penalty imposed by the court;
• how to present your case, trial preparation, cross-examination, making a statement in mitigation, and court etiquette.

Furthermore, the burden is on the prosecution to prove a person’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. An attorney can also assist with reviewing the evidence against you, to advise on how strong the case against you might look.

For many traffic offences, there is an “obligatory” disqualification period. However, many people are unaware that the obligatory period can be reduced if there are “special reasons” to do so. The special reasons must be connected to the offence, rather than to the driver. So, for example, the fact that somebody needs their vehicle to work would not be a special reason. However, there are various circumstances that could amount to special reasons. These can include:

• that the offence was unintentional;
• shortness of distance driven (in which case, the court would consider the manner of driving, state of vehicle, how far it was intended to drive, possibility of danger, and reason for driving);
• a genuine medical emergency where there were no other means than for the defendant to drive;
• A victim of spiked drinks might be able to avoid disqualification if it can be shown that they were unaware that the drink was spiked, would not otherwise have been over the alcohol limit, and had not realised they were unfit to drive. Expert evidence may be needed to establish the spiking caused the defendant to be over the limit.

Many people are also unaware that if somebody is disqualified other than for an impaired driving offence, it is possible for the disqualification to be limited only to the class of vehicles being driven at the time of the offence. Depending on the circumstances, it might be possible to limit the disqualification only to cars, so that the person is still able to use a bike.

Another fact many people do not know is that you can apply to the court to remove the disqualification after half of the period, or 12 months, whichever is greater. The court will have regard to the person’s character and conduct when deciding on the application. There are courses that can be done to assist with the reduction.