'Careless driving' means 'making a mistake while in control of a vehicle and either getting seen doing it, or being proven to have made a mistake after the event, by the police'. Since humans aren't infallible, any of us could be guilty of careless driving tomorrow. In fact we probably will be, except that the police almost certainly won't be there to see it.

A bloke was recently complaining on the web that he'd just picked up a brand new bike, went to brake for a roundabout in the first five miles, made a cock up of it due to unfamiliarity and locked the front, dropping the bike which slid across the roundabout, smashing its tank on the kerb opposite and bursting into flames, completely destroying itself.

Obviously, due to there being a burning motorcycle in the middle of the roundabout, the old bill turned up with the fire brigade and the ambulance, to find that the owner was nursing bruises and a broken collar bone to go with his flambed pride and joy, but ever helpfully they then stuck him on for.... driving without due care and attention! Which proves that they were complete fatherless wankers, obviously. But he was, people who know told him, guilty and absolutely bang to rights. Because? It was his fault, he had obviously made a mistake. And mistakes are illegal. Even though to err is human.

Of course, if the bike had slid across the roundabout and knocked over a cyclist and killed them, it would have been a terrible tragedy, no doubt. But the rider no more wanted to kill a cyclist than he wanted to spanner his collar bone and destroy his brand new bike. But under this new law, that's causing death by careless driving, and a recommended three year jail sentence.

So, every time you get on a bike or in a car, you have to accept that unless you are actually Neo from The Matrix, or perhaps a Terminator, you have a small but finite chance of ending your journey in jail for three years (following those guidelines) and unemployable for most of the rest of your life, probably. And being human, there is nothing you can do about it. Except give up ever riding or driving.

And of course, if you think you've made any kind of mistake and if somebody else is seriously hurt and might die, in circumstances where the police and a jury /might/ decide that your mistake had something, anything, to do with it, you have to chose between doing the right thing and looking after the injured party, phoning an ambulance, etc etc, and doing a runner and denying all knowledge of any accident in the hope of not going to jail if the worst happens.

So, how many people are going to do the /right/ thing and risk their home, their marriage, their family, friends, reputation, potentially their life, and how many are going to do a runner and hope that they dodge the bullet (everybody survives, and/or they don't get found out)?

Should make the roads loads safer, shouldn't it. Making being human illegal. That'll teach those bastard human beings to drive a car, van, lorry or ride a bike, the cunts!