BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2088|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2088
Author: Linder (R), et al.
Amended: 6/6/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 6/21/16
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Glazer, Leno, Liu, Stone
NO VOTE RECORDED: Monning
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/1/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-2, 5/16/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Vehicles: hit-and-run accidents: pleas
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires the court to suspend the driving
privilege for six months or impose an appropriate period of
community service for any person who pleads guilty or nolo
contendere to hit and run with property damage if the charge is
a substitute or in satisfaction of the charge of hit and run
resulting in injury or death.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Provides that a court may suspend, for not more than six
months, the privilege of a person to operate a motor vehicle
upon conviction of any of the following offenses: a) Failure
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Page 2
of a driver involved in an accident where property is damaged
to stop and exchange specified information; b) Reckless
driving proximately causing bodily injury; c) Failure of a
driver to stop at a railroad crossing as required; d) Evading
or fleeing from a peace officer in a motor vehicle or upon a
bicycle; and, e) Knowingly causing or participating in a
vehicular collision, or any other vehicular accident, for the
purpose of presenting or causing to be presented any false or
fraudulent insurance claim. (Vehicle Code §13201)
2)States that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) immediately
shall revoke the privilege of a person to operate a motor
vehicle upon receipt of a duly certified abstract of the
record of a court showing that the person has been convicted
of any of the following crimes or offenses: a) Failure of the
driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in
injury or death to stop or otherwise comply, as specified; b)
A felony in which a motor vehicle is used, except as
specified; and, c) Reckless driving causing bodily injury.
(Vehicle Code § 13350 (a).)
3)Provides that the driver of any vehicle involved in an
accident resulting in damage to any property, including a
vehicle, shall immediately stop the vehicle and exchange
information, as specified, or leave in a conspicuous place on
the vehicle or other property damaged written notice giving
the name and address of the driver of the vehicle involved.
The failure to comply with these requirements is a misdemeanor
punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed six
months, or by a fine not to exceed $1,000, or by both a fine
and imprisonment. (Vehicle Code § 20002.)
4)Requires the driver of any vehicle involved in an accident
resulting in injury to any person, other than himself or
herself, or in the death of any person to immediately stop the
vehicle at the scene of the accident and to fulfill specified
requirements. The failure to comply is punishable by
imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, two, or three
years, or by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one
year, or by a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than
$10,000, or by both a fine and imprisonment. If the accident
results in death or permanent, serious injury, the offense is
punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three,
or four years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days
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nor more than one year, or by a fine of not less than $1,000
nor more than $10,000, or by both a fine and imprisonment.
(Vehicle Code § 20001 (a) & (b).)
5)Provides that a person who flees the scene of the crime after
committing vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence or
vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, upon conviction for
that offense, in addition and consecutive to the punishment
prescribed, shall be punished by an additional term of
imprisonment of five years in the state prison. Existing law
provides that this additional term shall not be imposed unless
the allegation is charged in the accusatory pleading and
admitted by the defendant or found to be true by the trier of
fact. (Vehicle Code § 20001 (c).)
6)Provides that every person convicted of vandalism or affixing
graffiti, as specified, may be ordered by the court as a
condition of probation to perform community service not to
exceed 300 hours over a period not to exceed one year during a
time other than his or her hours of school attendance or
employment. (Penal Code § 594.6 (a).)
This bill:
1)Provides that if the prosecution agrees to a plea of guilty or
nolo contendere to a charge of fleeing the scene of an
accident in satisfaction or substitution for a charge of
fleeing the scene the prosecution shall state for the record
the factual basis for the satisfaction or substitution
including whether the defendant was involved in an accident in
which a person was injured.
2)Provides that the prosecution's statement shall occur prior to
the defendant's waiver of the right to a jury trial.
3)Provides that the judges shall inform the defendant of the
specified consequences before accepting the defendant's plea
of guilty.
4)Provides that if the court accepts the defendant's plea under
the above circumstances and the prosecutor's statement
stipulates or does not contest the fact that the defendant was
driving the vehicle that caused the injury, the court shall
immediately issue an order to impose one of the following
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consequences:
Suspend the convicted driver's privilege to operate a
motor vehicle for a period of six months.
Restrict the convicted driver's privilege to operate a
motor vehicle to necessary travel to and from that person's
place of employment and for work, if driving is necessary,
for not more than six months.
Require the convicted driver to complete community
service as the court deems appropriate.
1)Provides that this section shall become operative on January
1, 2018.
Background
This bill requires the court to suspend the driving privilege
for six months with or without a to and from work restriction or
impose an appropriate period of community service for any person
who pleads guilty or nolo contendere to hit and run with
property damage if the charge is a substitute or in satisfaction
of the charge of hit and run resulting in injury or death.
Vehicle Code Section 13201 authorizes a court to suspend, for
not more than six months, the privilege of a person to operate a
motor vehicle upon conviction for failure of a driver involved
in an accident where property is damaged to stop and exchange
specified information.
Additionally, the court may impose any condition of probation
reasonably related to the offense and aimed at discouraging such
conduct in the future. (See People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal. 3d
481, 486.) The imposition of a period of community service would
be considered a valid condition of probation and well within the
courts discretion.
This bill limits the court's discretion in that it requires the
court to either suspend the defendant's driving privilege for
six months or impose a period of community service. Both of
which options the court may already exercise, in appropriate
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cases, in its discretion.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Programming changes: One-time implementation costs to the DMV
of approximately $110,000 (Special Fund*), primarily for
programming changes that allow for reporting of convictions by
the courts, retaining convictions on driver records, providing
for license suspension and reinstatement, producing mailed
notices, and making other changes. Ongoing DMV workload costs
and revenues from license reinstatement fees are expected to
be minor.
Trial courts: Negligible fiscal impact.
*Motor Vehicle Account
SUPPORT: (Verified8/2/16)
American Motorcycle Association
Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
California Association of Highway Patrol
Crime Victims United
Forged By Fire Foundation
Los Angeles Walks
Orange County Transportation Authority
Peace Officers Research Association of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/2/16)
American Civil Liberties Union
California Public Defenders Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the author:
Hit-and-runs have reached epidemic proportions in
California and unfortunately there's no sign of them
slowing down. CHP has cited an increase in hit-and-run
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incidents from 73,000 in 2014 to 79,000 in 2015. CHP
stats attached.
Current penalties for hit-and-runs do not reflect the
seriousness of the crime and do not act as an effective
deterrent. Hit-and-run drivers are seldom held
accountable for their crimes-either they are handed
lenient sentences or never even identified by police.
From 2009 through 2012, 87% of drivers who "left victims
dead or injured by the side of the road" escaped
conviction. Of those who were convicted, the majority
served less than a 2-month jail sentence. (Mario Karon,
"If You Hit Someone With a Car and Drive Away, You're
Probably Not Getting Punished," Voice of San Diego, 8
August 2014, http://voiceofsandiego.org/ 2014/08/08/
if-you-hit-someone-with-a-car-and-drive-away-youre-probabl
y-not-getting-punished/)
Under current law, it is possible for a driver who commits
a hit-and-run with injury to enter into a plea bargain
agreement and only have to pay a couple hundred dollar
fine. Driving a motor vehicle is a serious responsibility
and should be viewed as a privilege rather than a right.
Hit-and-run drivers abuse this privilege and should be
held fully accountable for their actions.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: According to the California Public
Defenders Association:
DAs are not in the habit of casually reducing injury hit
and run charges to non-injury hit and runs. They do it
only where there is a real question about whether a true
injury occurred or when there are other serious proof
problems. Furthermore, the most serious consequences of a
hit and run charge, in the eyes of most of the clients we
serve, is the loss of their driver's license because it is
essential in their jobs or the proper functioning of their
families. To remove the prime defense advantage of
reducing the charges to a 20002 is to force more
defendants to demand a trial, which will cause more
expense to the court system, and is likely to result in
more acquittals because the DA wouldn't offer the
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reduction if the case didn't have problems in the first
place.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-2, 5/16/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk,
Williams, Wood, Rendon
NOES: Quirk, Mark Stone
NO VOTE RECORDED: Travis Allen, Dababneh
Prepared by:Mary Kennedy / PUB. S. /
8/3/16 18:56:56
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