Senate Bill No. 420
(By Senators Snyder, Unger, Anderson, Edgell, Kessler and Ball)
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[Introduced February 4, 1999;
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article four, chapter
seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to criminal
offenses involving leaving the scene of an accident
involving a motor vehicle in which there is injury or a
death to any person; and increasing criminal penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article four, chapter seventeen-c of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. ACCIDENTS.
§17C-4-1. Accidents involving death or personal injuries.
(a) The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident
resulting in injury to or death of any person shall immediately
stop
such the vehicle at the scene of
such the accident or as close thereto as possible but shall then forthwith return to and
in every event shall remain at the scene of the accident until he
or she has fulfilled the requirements of section three of this
article. Every such stop shall be made without obstructing
traffic more than is necessary.
(b) Any person failing to stop or to comply with
said these
requirements
under such circumstances shall
after being involved
in an accident resulting in the death of any person is guilty of
a felony and,
upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by
imprisonment in a correctional facility for not less than thirty
days nor more than one year nor more than three years or by fine
of not less than one hundred thousand dollars nor more than five
thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment fined and
imprisoned.
Any person failing to stop or comply with these
requirements after being involved in an accident resulting in an
injury to any person is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be punished by confinement in a county
or regional jail for not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than
five thousand dollars, or both fined and confined.
(c) The commissioner shall revoke the license or permit to
drive and any nonresident operating privilege of the person so
convicted for a period of one year.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create separate
criminal offenses involving leaving the scene of an accident
that resulted in the death or injury of any person.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.