Drugs and Fire

The Government is changing the law to help drug dealers! From August they have been forced by the EU to change the Road Traffic Act to remove an exclusion preventing claims by passengers who knew that a vehicle was being used in furtherance of a crime. This followed the 2012 Delaney v Pickett case where Delaney was injured because of Pickett’s negligent driving whilst they were transporting drugs. Delaney’s claim was thrown out under UK law, but it was found to be in breach of EU law so we have had to change it.

….Meanwhile, in the United States
They are not so soft in the US where James Anderson, a 79 year old Wyoming man who accidently started a forest fire is having to reimburse $2.9m to the federal and state government for damages and firefighting costs. Anderson is paying $425,000 with the remainder coming from his liability insurers (presumably as part of his home insurance). The authorities had originally claimed $6.3m, but have reached a deal to keep the matter out of court and Anderson won’t face criminal charges. He was apparently burning rubbish at his son’s home, but left the fire unattended while he watched football and the fire spread burning 5 square miles of forest and threatened a small town.