Penalties for Over-Speeding and Accidental Murder

Interviewer: What about if you’re in an accident, you kill someone, and you’re over the limit? What are the penalties there and what’s that called?

Dale: That’s aggravated vehicular homicide. And you’re going to jail for a minimum of 3 years, in prison. And sometimes it’s the most unfortunate of circumstances, where husband and wife are coming home from a party, and husband doesn’t see the stop sign, and runs the stop sign, and it causes an accident, and the wife is killed. The people have children, the mother is now deceased, and the father is going to prison.

Interviewer: Anymore to say about the felony side of OVI?

Dale: Just that it’s treated more seriously probably than any other crime.

Interviewer: Then any other crime period?

Dale: You could kill somebody and get involuntary manslaughter or murder in the second degree. But it’s really easy to prove a case for a aggravated vehicular homicide. All you have to show is, the person was intoxicated and someone is killed as a result of the accident. I mean, it’s fairly simple to show your burden of proof, and usually what I see on those cases is, the minimum sentences that I see handed out are 10 years.