The bill would amend the Transportation Code as it relates to an accident resulting in the possible death or injury of a person. Under the provisions of the bill, the operator of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in the injury to or death of a person or the possible injury to or death of a person would be required to immediately determine if a person is involved in the accident and if that person requires aid. Under current statute, an accident involving personal injury or death is punishable as a third degree felony if it results in death or serious bodily injury. Those cases not involving death or serious bodily injury are punishable by a fine, incarceration in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for five years or confinement in a county jail for not more than one year, or both.

A third-degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 10 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

Expanding the list of behaviors for which noncompliance is a specific 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 jail, state jail, or prison. In fiscal year 2012, 274 people were placed on felony community supervision and 227 were incarcerated within state correctional institutions for an accident involving personal injury or death.  For this analysis it is assumed implementing the provisions of the bill would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources of those agencies. It is expected that individuals who would be affected by the provisions of this bill are currently being sentenced for other offenses.