This is the hardest page on this website. A driver who caused a death will be coming to terms with it for the rest of their life, and the criminal proceedings are only one part of that. But it is the part that decides about liberty and about the driving licence, and it has strict rules that need to be known immediately after the accident.
Two sentencing ranges
- Basic: up to three years. Ordinary inattention, excessive speed within limits, a momentary lapse.
- Breach of an important duty: one to six years. Alcohol, grossly excessive speed, running a red light, overtaking across a solid line. This is where the difference between a suspended and an unsuspended sentence lies.
Contributory fault
The Supreme Court says: where the victim themselves contributed significantly to the accident, a breach of an important duty generally cannot be found, and the act is assessed in the basic range. A pedestrian off the crossing at night, a cyclist without lights, a driver who failed to give way. The defence has to prove this through expert evidence, and the clock for securing the traces starts running from the first minute.
How cases develop
In one recent case the court first imposed one year suspended and a three-year ban; the appellate court set the judgment aside and decided again in the higher range: two years suspended and a five-year driving ban. The same accident, two different classifications. The question of the important duty decided it.
What this rests on
No advice on this page is an opinion. Each one has a section of the law and a court decision behind it. Click through, the full text is on Europaius.
Statute
- § 143 tr. zákoníkunegligent homicide: up to three years; with breach of an important duty, one to six years
- § 73 tr. zákoníkuban on activity
Case law
- 6 Tdo 482/2022 (Nejvyšší soud, 14. 6. 2022)where the victim contributed significantly, a breach of an important duty generally cannot be found; the act is assessed under § 143(1)
- 3 Tdo 822/2023 (Nejvyšší soud, 11. 10. 2023)negligent homicide in connection with a road accident: interpretation of negligent fault
- I. ÚS 3266/23 (Ústavní soud, 17. 1. 2024)the first judgment (12 months suspended, 36-month ban) set aside; finally § 143(1), (2): two years suspended and a five-year driving ban; complaint dismissed
Related cases
A different situation?
- You or someone close to you has been detained
- Pre-trial detention is looming, or someone is already in it
- A police summons has arrived
- Criminal complaint: you want to file one, or one has been filed against you
- You have been charged with a criminal offence
- A penal order has arrived
- Alcohol or drugs behind the wheel, driving ban
- Plea agreement, conditional discontinuation
- House search
- You have become the victim of a crime
- European arrest warrant, extradition abroad
- Charged with embezzlement
- Disorderly conduct: a brawl, a pub, the street
- Dangerous threats and stalking
- You drove while banned from driving
- Charged with bodily harm
- Damage to property
- Violation of the inviolability of the home
- Defamation
- Conditional release from prison
- Credit fraud and subsidy fraud