AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Under current law, a person who commits a driving while intoxicated offense and causes serious bodily injury to another individual can be charged with intoxication assault, which is a third degree felony, with certain exceptions. Serious bodily injury is defined as an injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes serious permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ. Currently, there is no distinction between a driving while intoxicated offense that causes serious bodily injury and such an offense that leaves a person in a persistent vegetative state.
H.B. 1199 seeks to address this issue by creating a penalty for an intoxication assault if the commission of the offense leaves a person in a persistent vegetative state.
H.B. 1199 amends current law relating to the penalty for certain intoxication assaults.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 49.09, Penal Code, by adding Subsection (b-4), to provide that an offense under Section 49.07 (Intoxication Assault) is a felony of the second degree if it is shown on the trial of the offense that the person caused serious bodily injury to another in the nature of a traumatic brain injury that results in a persistent vegetative state.
SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective.
SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2011.