Road traffic modification bill passed – Protects unborn children

Road traffic modification bill passed – Protects unborn children

The Parliament adopted the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which aims to protect the unborn child on the roads.

The bill seeks to amend the 2004 Road Traffic Act (Act 683) to prohibit acts that constitute dangerous driving and cycling resulting in injury and / or death of unborn children and related matters.

If sanctioned, the bill will ensure that the law recognizes the loss of an unborn child as a distinct and distinct loss and not just as an injury suffered by a pregnant woman.

In addition, it will impose more severe penalties on drivers and cyclists whose actions cause injury or death to an unborn child.

In addition, it will impose on the driver of a motor vehicle the duty to report, as soon as reasonably possible, to the police station the occurrence of an accident resulting in the death of an unborn child.

Legal remedies

Unlike Law 683, the new law will lead drivers and motorcyclists whose recklessness results in the injury or death of an unborn child to receive a minimum prison sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of seven years. ‘imprisonment when found guilty.

The bill was jointly sponsored by the majority leader, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; the leader of the minority, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu; the Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Ben Abdallah Banda, and the Kumbungu MP, Mr. Ras Mubarak.

It became the first-ever private member’s bill to be passed by Parliament after the House, under the leadership of Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, passed the private member’s bill enactment proposal on July 19 2020.

The passage made the introduction of bills in parliament for consideration no longer the sole prerogative of the executive through ministers of state.

With this, MPs who are not ministers of state, as well as private citizens, can present or initiate bills in the House for consideration.

Memorandum

A memorandum accompanying the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill stated that the Road Traffic Act 2004 (Act 683), which was subsequently amended to the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2008, generally provided for the protection children.

Section 14, for example, prohibits a person from operating a motor vehicle on a highway when a child of five years or under the age of five is in the front seat of the motor vehicle.

“Information from the police and health institutions indicates that a considerable number of women have lost their pregnancies as a result of traffic accidents.

“In addition, Law 638 does not require the driver of a motor vehicle to report the death of an unborn child in the event of a traffic accident and it is impossible to charge an accused for the death of an unborn child. ‘an unborn child, “It said.

The memorandum noted that the lack of an obligation to report the death of an unborn child in a traffic accident inadvertently resulted in the lack of data on the subject that could be relevant for national development planning.

More severe penalties

He cited international practice where the laws of the states of Kentucky, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina in the United States have defined an unborn child as a living organism of the species of Homo sapiens in the uterus from conception to fertilization.

“So there are penalties for people who cause injury or death to an unborn child in these jurisdictions,” he said.

The memorandum cited international best practices from the United States and Australia, which introduced specific fetal homicide laws in 1997 under which a motor vehicle driver could be charged with a separate offense of murder of ‘an unborn child, the penalty of which is a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

“A driver commits an offense if the driver drives dangerously on the road which results in the death of a person, including an unborn child; such driver is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for not less than three years and not more than seven years.

Likewise, a person who rides a bicycle dangerously on a road resulting in the death of an unborn child commits an offense and is liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for at least three years. and up to seven years. , “It said.