Lawmakers are trying to decide if there’s a difference between killing someone while driving recklessly and killing someone while driving intoxicated. Current law says there is a difference, and lawmakers want stiffer penalties for reckless driving.
When New Mexico last altered its vehicular homicide laws in 2016, the maximum sentence for drunk drivers who killed someone went from six years per death to 15. Vehicular homicide by reckless driving stayed capped at six years, according to KRQE. That means someone who commits vehicular homicide while escaping police receives a maximum penalty of six years. Many politicians and law enforcement officials would like to see the law changed.
“A vehicle is just as deadly as any other type of weapon, and when someone disregards the safety of others while they’re operating that vehicle and they cause a death, they should be held accountable,” Greer Rose, Bernalillo County deputy district attorney, said to KRQE.
Prosecutors like Rose would like to see the sentences increased for reckless drivers who kill people.
“We face difficult conversations with families where we have to tell them if someone’s not intoxicated, the penalty is so much lower than if they were, and for those families, the tragedy is the same,” Rose continued.
State Representative Sarah Maestas Barnes co-sponsored the 2016 bill but saw it watered down in committee. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t what we intended. We wanted the stiffer penalties for reckless driving,” Barnes said to KRQE.
She tried to increased penalties for reckless driving the next year, but her idea did not gain enough support. The Bernalillo County DA’s office handled its share of cases involving innocent bystanders killed by those trying to outrun police or by street races, speeders, and red-light runners.
The DA’s office reported an uptick in many types of reckless driving cases, according to KRQE.
“If someone is making that decision to drive in a way that endangers the community, we would hope that an increase in the penalty would make them think twice about that,” Rose said.
