Hit and Run Law Doubles Penalty

Beth Janicek

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 395

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The new law will make the penalty a maximum of 10 years in prison for drivers that leave the scene of a crash in which someone is killed or seriously injured. It also raises the offense from a misdemeanor to a third degree felony.

The law was needed to be changed because it encouraged drivers to not stop. The law made it so that if a man left a scene and someone died or was seriously injured, he would serve no more than five years in prison for failure to stop and render aid. If the driver had stopped at the scene and been found to have been intoxicated, the driver could have received as much as 20 years in prison.

Carol Thompson's daughter was struck and killed by a driver that fled the scene. She will never know if the driver was intoxicated or not. When authorities finally found Juan Carlos Vara - 12 days after the hit-and-run all the evidence was gone. Carol Thompson's lost her only child, who was 24 and a law student at St. Mary's University. Mr. Vara is currently serving the maximum sentence of five-year prison.

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.