A range of criminal offences may apply in situations where a driver causes the death of another person.
Manslaughter is one of them, but is usually reserved for the most serious dangerous driving cases.
The more common charges are dangerous driving occasioning death. Here we explain the difference.
Manslaughter comprises both voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.
Voluntary manslaughter occurs if the offender caused death to another person as a result of an unlawful and dangerous act, for example, the person was killed in circumstances of provocation, excessive self-defence, or where the person who committed the act was ‘substantially impaired by abnormality of the mind'.
