Accident on the Road

Question: If someone dies in a road accident, can the person whose car hit and killed him get the death sentence?

Solution: The simple answer is no. Neither has the law provided for it, nor can it happen. The reason is: the death sentence can only be given in offences involving injury where there was intent to kill. In a road accident there is no intent to kill. But let me clarify one thing here so you don't get confused: if you can prove that the car that hit A was being driven by B, and B and A had enmity, and B had previously threatened the deceased, the driver had threatened him before, and he hit him deliberately, then intent to kill comes into play, it's no longer a road accident, it goes straight into Section 302.

But generally speaking, in a road accident there is no intent to kill. If someone dies in a road accident, the surviving person who caused the accident will be dealt with under two sections of the Pakistan Penal Code: Section 320 and Section 322.
Section 320(1) deals with qatl-e-khata (death by mistake), defined in Section 318.
Section 322 deals with the punishment for qatl bis-sabab (death caused by an unlawful act), defined in Section 321.

Now qatl-e-khata and qatl bis-sabab are two sections that apply. A question arises: one car hits someone and he dies, why is one person punished under 320 and another under 322? What's going on here? Before I explain, let me tell you what the punishment under 320 is and what the punishment under 322 is.
The punishment under 320 is diyat (compensation) and imprisonment up to ten years. It could be six months, it could be a single day, it could be a year, it could be nine years and 364 days, up to ten years. The punishment under 322 is only and solely diyat.

Now let me come back to this question: why is one person charged under 320 and another under 322? Under 320, if the person driving the vehicle, the motorbike, has a valid driving licence, a licence issued to him by the state to drive that vehicle, then 320 applies to him. What does 320 say? Qatl-e-khata. Qatl-e-khata means there was no intention to kill, but there was an error in the act, and that error occurred while he was legally authorized to carry out that act, but he carried out that lawfully authorized act carelessly, negligently, or in haste. That is qatl-e-khata: no intent to kill. Qatl bis-sabab also means no intent to kill, but here he was not legally authorized to carry out the act at all. He simply took it upon himself to drive the car, took it upon himself to drive the motorcycle, and hit someone. So now you can see the difference between 320 and 322: if you have a licence, it's 320; if you don't have a licence, it's 322.

The advantage of having a licence is that if you're caught, 320 applies, and 320 is a bailable offence, you can be released immediately. If you don't have a licence, 322 applies, and you won't be released immediately, because it is a non-bailable offence, whereas 320 is bailable. Then, under 320, you have all your rights available, you can contest the case, saying, sir, I was coming from the right direction, I was driving properly, I didn't hit him, he hit me, coming from the opposite direction, on the wrong side, you have every forum available to you. But under 322, if it is established that you were driving that car, that motorbike, which the state had not authorized you to drive, that you had no licence, that alone is enough. There is room for argument in principle, but ultimately you will have to pay diyat in any case, because you committed an unlawful act. There was no intent to kill, but you will have to pay diyat.

So that covers 320 and 322, these apply where death results, someone dies, then you get these punishments. Now the question is, if someone drives negligently and at high speed, will he get any punishment even without a death? He's driving negligently and at high speed. There's only one exemption: he might do it out of anger. Section 279 deals with rash driving and riding on a public way. Be aware of this: if you see someone driving a vehicle carelessly, negligently, and at high speed, you can take action against him. A police official can do it, a traffic warden can see that this person is driving carelessly and stop him on the road and take action against him, and you yourself can also call 15.

Now what is the definition of careless and rash driving? What is careless driving? There's a set route, and you're violating it, that's carelessness. There's a service road, it's marked for travel in one direction only, entry from the other side is prohibited, and you're coming from that side, that's careless driving. What is rash or fast? Rash or fast means: there's a sixty-kilometre limit and you're going at seventy, eighty, ninety, a hundred kilometres, that alone doesn't necessarily mean you're driving rashly, you're just speeding. Rash driving is when you're in your lane and suddenly you swerve into another lane, then to this side, then that side, then back, meaning there's a real possibility of an accident happening. There's a difference between speeding and rashness. Rash driving or careless driving is driving of a kind that carries a risk of an accident, that is rash or careless driving, and Section 279 of the Pakistan Penal Code addresses this.

Now let me clarify one more thing here, the intent of the law. In public areas, parks, in housing societies where there's a jogging track built, meaning an area where only the public can walk on foot, if someone enters there on a motorcycle or in a car, this too falls under carelessness and rash driving, he too would be found guilty of this offence, because in that specific area, the public cannot enter except on foot, if someone cannot enter, and they do, then they will be found guilty under 279, and if someone is injured, the sections applicable are different again.