Honorable Larry Phillips, Chair, House Committee on Transportation
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1736 by Bohac (Relating to the penalty for illegally passing stationary authorized emergency vehicles.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Transportation Code as it relates to illegally passing stationary authorized emergency vehicles. Under the provisions of the bill, the punishment for illegally passing stationary authorized emergency vehicles would be enhanced to a third degree felony if the violation results in serious bodily injury or death. Under current statute, illegally passing stationary authorized emergency vehicles is punishable at various misdemeanor levels and is based on the type of violation.
A felony of the third degree is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years, or, in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $10,000.
Increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties and or of the State due to longer terms of probation, or longer terms of confinement in county jails or prison. When an offense is changed from a misdemeanor to a felony, there is a transfer of the burden of confinement of convicted offenders from the counties to the State. In fiscal year 2010, less than five people were arrested and placed on misdemeanor community supervision for illegally passing stationary authorized emergency vehicles. For this analysis, it is assumed the number of offenders convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of State corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.