(1) A person upon whom the law imposes a duty or who has taken upon himself or herself any duty tending to preserve life and—
(a) who regardless of the life, safety, welfare and health of others, neglects to perform that duty or performs it negligently and thereby causes the death of another person; or
(b) who acts recklessly in such a manner as to create an obvious and serious risk of causing physical injury to some other person who thereby causes the death of that other person,
commits the offence of manslaughter.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)—
(a) the degree of negligence must be higher than that required to establish negligence for civil liability;
(b) the negligence or recklessness must have been a substantial cause of the death and there must have been personal misconduct or personal negligence on the part of the accused.
(3) It is no defence to a charge on indictment under subsection (1) that the death was caused by the negligence of others as well as of the accused; if the death is caused by the act or default of several persons they all commit manslaughter but the negligence imputed to the accused must have been a substantial cause of the death.
(4) If the negligent act of the accused was a substantial cause of death, the fact that the deceased was himself or herself negligent and so contributed to the accident or other circumstances by which the death occurred does not afford a defence to a charge under subsection (1).