Submit your claim details for a free, no obligation case review.
Get Started:
The New York State Senate has passed several bills in attempts to protect state residents from drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol.
The comprehensive package of legislation would increase penalties for repeat drunk drivers, increase penalties for drunk drivers who drive with children in the car, increase the minimum license revocation for the failure to submit to a chemical test and would create the new crimes of aggravated driving while intoxicated and driving while under the influence of the combined effects of drugs and alcohol.
The bill, now going to the Assembly, would create the new Class E felony of aggravated driving for drivers with a .2 blood alcohol content, create the new crime of driving under the influence of the combined effects of drugs and alcohol, establish more precise methods for measuring intoxication and remedy technical impediments under current law that impede the effective investigation and prosecution of alcohol related driving offenses.
By increasing criminal penalties for vehicular manslaughter in the first and second degrees and vehicular assault in the first and second degrees, the legislation is aiming to increase and promote public safety. The requirement that prosecutors prove criminal negligence in vehicular manslaughter cases involving drunk drivers would be removed, as well, and new felony crimes for those causing death or serious injury if fleeing at high speed from pursuing police officers would be created. Judges would be authorized to impose consecutive sentences if a person injures or kills more than one person because of a single criminal act.
The Senate also passed a bill that would created a new Class E felony if a person is convicted of a fourth violation of driving while ability impaired (DWAI) – punishable by a fine of between $1,000 and $5,000 and/or imprisonment for a minimum of one to three years and mandatory revocation of the driver’s license for a year. A bill that would increase the parameters of driving while ability impaired was passed by the Senate including driving while ability is affected to any extent by the utilization of a drug.
The Senate passed legislation including additional penalties for convictions of drunk or drugged driving where a child under the age of 17 is a passenger. Children under the age of 17 are believed to be typically unable to stop a drunk driver for getting behind a wheel, and the legislation would include additional penalties should children be put at risk.
Refusal to submit to a chemical test would carry an increased minimum length of time a driver’s license can be revoked, and in cases where a person had a prior revocation for refusal to submit to a chemical test, or has been convicted of or found in violation of a DWI in the past five years would have an extended minimum revocation under the new legislation.