Driving under the influence and other driving offenses: comprehensive reform

Drivers who leave injury crashes face substantially higher prison terms when they have recent convictions for DUI, specified reckless driving, or vehicular manslaughter. Courts must also warn defendants accepting reduced DUI-related pleas that a future death could lead to a murder charge.

What the law does ​

• Makes leaving an injury crash punishable as a felony or misdemeanor, rather than only as a misdemeanor.
• Sets a two-, three-, or four-year state-prison term for leaving an injury crash within 10 years of a qualifying conviction for specified reckless driving, DUI, or vehicular-manslaughter offenses.
• Raises the state-prison term to three, four, or five years for a repeat offender who leaves a crash causing death or permanent serious injury.
• Requires courts to give the DUI dangerousness and potential-murder-charge warning when a defendant pleads guilty or no contest to a lesser or different offense substituted for an alleged DUI.

Who it affects ​

• Drivers who leave the scene of crashes that injure or kill another person.
• Defendants with qualifying driving or vehicular-manslaughter convictions from the prior 10 years.
• Defendants resolving alleged DUI charges through a plea to a lesser or different offense.