06/04/05 Penalties Increased for Deadly Drivers in New York
New York Governor George E. Pataki has signed two bills into law that will help protect New Yorkers against hit and run drivers and drunk drivers. The new laws not only increase penalties for deadly drivers who leave the scene of an accident, but also eliminate the need for prosecutors to prove criminal negligence in order to charge a drunken driver with a felony.
…The current law did not distinguish between leaving the scene of an incident involving a “serious physical injury” and an incident involving a “fatal injury” charging both as a class E felony. The new legislation will elevate the crime of leaving the scene of an incident involving a fatal injury to a class D felony, with a maximum sentence of 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison. This legislation also elevates the crime of leaving the scene of an incident involving personal injury, which under current law is a class B misdemeanor (maximum sentence of up to 90 days in jail), to a class A misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of up to one year in jail, with a second or subsequent violation could be charged as a class E felony.
The entire statue on hit and run from the NYS Penal Codes is in there as well if you’d like to read it for yourself.
If I’m bored later I’ll look up what the maximum would have been had he stuck around and been hit with a DWI and causing a personal injury accident.
Either way, I hope you find him, and then go after him legally. My guess is the only way you’re going to get any real justice in this is through a civil proceeding.