In France, the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, recently approved a law to make road traffic homicide a criminal offence, meaning that those causing fatal accidents are liable to prosecution. In Luxembourg, the Road Security non-profit is not in favour of such a distinction, but still advocates for a category beyond involuntary homicide to more severely punish those who wilfully “endanger the lives of others”.
In concrete terms, the association pleads for higher fines if motorists behave recklessly and thereby put others at risk. According to Paul Hammelmann, president of the Road Security, the current legislation does not make any distinction: “We have nothing aside from homicide or unintentional assault and bodily harm. However, we believe that there is nothing involuntary about someone who consciously consumes excessive amounts of alcohol or drugs, or drives at an excessive speed. They know what they are doing and that they might endanger someone else’s life and that is why we want legislation to make them liable to prosecution.”
Hammelmann further argues that such a law would not target the general public, but those who wilfully cross boundaries.
A respective draft law has already been underway since 2017. The penalties stipulated by bill 7204 are up to three years of imprisonment and a maximum of €5,000.
However, both the state council and the judiciary have identified a number of issues with the legislation, which is why the Justice Ministry of the new administration intends to analyse the text once more to finally advance the bill.
