Senate Judiciary [Apr 06, 2026]

Good afternoon. The Senate Judiciary Committee will come to order on Monday, the 6th of April. Ms. Jensen, please start us off with a roll call.

Hendrickson. Here. Wallace. Present. Liston. Here. Roberts. Excuse. Mr. Chair. Here.

Senator Carson.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Weissman, Vice Chairman Robert, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I'm pleased to join Senator Snyder in presenting this important legislation before you today, Senate Bill 72. Far too many Coloradans are being killed or seriously injured due to careless, reckless, and negligent driving on our roads. People want the legislature to act now. This bill continues the important work that the Senator from Manitou Springs and I began last year, but we are merely the messengers for so many amazing advocates who have set out to turn their own tragedies toward a movement dedicated to sparing other families the pain that they know. Today you will hear difficult testimony from many of them. You will also hear from representatives of important advocacy groups such as the White Line, Bicycle Colorado, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and representatives from law enforcement. Today's bill follows on Senate Bill 25-281 from last session. That bill sought to increase the penalties for careless driving resulting in death, raising it from a misdemeanor to a felony. People are genuinely shocked, as I was, to learn that a person can drive in a careless manner, even a reckless manner, not paying attention, exceeding the speed or ignoring conditions on the road, and kill a child and face only a misdemeanor. We also included language in that bill concerning alcohol testing at the scene of a fatal crash. This provision had to be carefully crafted to address any Fourth Amendment constitutional concerns in the context of Colorado's express consent statutes. Fortunately, this work was carried forward this year by the Senator from Frisco, Senator Roberts, who worked to craft what became Senate Bill 132 concerning a voluntary breathalyzer test offered by law enforcement to the driver at the scene of a serious accident where it appears that the crash was caused by that driver. This bill will be Magnus Law named after Magnus White champion bicyclist tragically killed by a reckless and criminally negligent driver And I'm pleased to say that bill was passed unanimously by the Senate. While we did not accomplish all we wanted with last year's bill, we did accomplish two important things with Senate Bill 281. Prior to that bill becoming law, a careless driver could kill more than one person, and only one offense could be charged due to a Colorado Court of Appeals decision. With the passage of Senate Bill 281 last year, a separate offense can now be charged by the District Attorney for each person that is killed due to careless driving. In addition, the bill added careless driving resulting in death to the crimes whereby victims and their families are now eligible for the crime victims' assistance programs under the Victim Rights Act. Now, the bill before you today addresses the concern raised last year that increasing the penalty to a felony in all careless driving resulting in death cases might not be appropriate. since there are true accidents or situations where both parties might be at fault, and we should not remove discretion from the prosecutors. We therefore keep the careless driving resulting in death provision as a misdemeanor, but make it clear that where the driver has acted in a negligent manner and killed a person, the charge will be a Class V felony. The bill clarifies that a person who operates or drives a motor vehicle with criminal negligence that is the proximate cause of death of another person commits the Class V felony of criminally negligent homicide. Under current law, it's a Class I misdemeanor traffic offense if a person uses a mobile electronic device while driving, and this action is the proximate cause of the death of another person. So another provision in the bill makes this offense an instance of criminally negligent homicide, with violations also punishable as a Class V felony. So with that, I will turn it over to my colleague here, and we'll move forward.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, and thanks to my co-prime sponsor, a good Senator from Highlands Ranch. I think he really summed it up very well. I think his opening comments about how much traffic fatalities and serious injuries have increased just since 2015, Total traffic fatalities have increased 31%, 547 to 706. Bicyclists and pedestrian fatalities have increased 91%, from 78 in 2015 to 149 in 2025. So I think you don't have to be a traffic expert. We all drive on the same streets. we've seen that there's just a lot of people out there who seem to operate with a conscious disregard for the safety of others, especially pedestrians and bicyclists. It's a conscious choice of theirs. I think one thing we need to emphasize is the problem we have is this big gap in statute and in sentencing right now. So right now there only one statute involving the death of an individual due to the actions of another that district attorneys can charge the accused with a misdemeanor careless driving resulting in death In some cases the misdemeanor charge fails to reflect the gravity of the crime and excuses the intentional poor choices of the driver. This gap in statute will provide more options to district attorneys instead of just being limited to having the one misdemeanor charge. their next available charge currently is a class 4 felony with one small exception, the move over for Cody law. And with such a disparity in outcomes we're seeing a lot of district attorneys generally default to the misdemeanor charge. We're trying to provide them more options in sentencing. And I will say that we have a lot of witnesses signed up today who really can make the case better than I probably can. And so with that, I will thank you, Mr. Chair, and ready to answer any questions anybody might have.

thank you Mr. Chairman members of the committee my name is Brian Mason and I'm the district attorney for Colorado's 17th judicial district, which includes Adams and Broomfield counties. Jenna Green was 19 years old when she was driving on Sheridan Boulevard in Westminster. She was hit by a defendant driving a 911 Porsche who was going three times the speed limit and who was very drunk. while her body was lying on the street when she possibly could have been saved the defendant and his passenger fled the scene and I had to meet with her mother who had lost her 19 year old daughter in this violent and tragic way and explained to her that the penalty for vehicular homicide included a potential probation sentence. I had to explain to her that the sentencing range for vehicular homicide, DUI, was four to 12 years in prison. I and my colleagues at DA's offices across the state of Colorado have excruciating conversations every day. It's part of our job. But some of the most excruciating conversations I have had in my nearly 20 years is with families of victims of vehicular homicide to describe the very light sentencing range for such a serious crime We all drive on the streets of Colorado. I have a unique perspective when I am driving in Adams and Broomfield County and I see the signs that say, in memory of, and then list a name. And the reason why I say I have a unique perspective is because when I read those names, I recognize them because I've met with their families. I don't believe there is a single statute in the criminal statute in Colorado today where the penalty for the crime is so out of whack in terms of being commensurate, or in this case, not commensurate, with the seriousness of the offense. And so I testify today in support of this bill and ask this committee to pass it. Thank you.

Thank you and good afternoon. Please make sure the mic's on. There's a gray button halfway up the black stem. Testing. Thank you. Thank you and good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Chairman, and members of the committee. My name is Erica Jones. I'm a senior deputy district attorney and the vehicular response team lead at the Boulder District Attorney's Office. I'm here on behalf of the Boulder District Attorney Michael Doherty, as well as the Colorado District Attorneys Council. As Mr. Mason noted, all 23 Colorado District Attorneys are in support of this bill. In 2019, our office created the Vehicular Response Team in recognition of the devastation and loss these tragic cases have on victims, their families, and our community as a whole. I joined this team in 2022, and I have firsthand experience in prosecuting several of these cases with charges varying from careless driving resulting in death to vehicular homicide under the DUI subsection. The addition of the criminally negligent homicide subsection will allow prosecutors to have additional charges that more fairly reflect driving conduct on the road that leads to vehicular fatalities and bridges the gap between the careless resulting in death statute and the requirements of the vehicular homicide reckless driving statute. By means of example, our office several years ago prosecuted a case where a defendant was driving well over 90 miles per hour down the diagonal highway and hit another vehicle with two victims inside, killing both in the crash. That case was charged as vehicular homicide under the reckless theory and went to a jury trial. And the ultimate question for the jury at trial was, was that conduct careless driving or was it reckless driving? And the jury ultimately returned a verdict of careless driving. I think that adding and clarifying the criminally negligent homicide statute to include the explicit subsection that is proposed outlining driving and operating a vehicle with criminal negligence will allow prosecutors more charges when evaluating conduct on the road that result in fatal crashes. Finally, as to the portion of the bill where it proposes vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges be charged as crimes of violence, as the law stands now, the sentencing range is available after conviction when someone kills or seriously injures a number of their person while intoxicated or driving recklessly is not commensurate with the impact that this causes. I, too, have been in conversations with victims of crimes of vehicular homicide and careless resulting in death and having to explain the potential sentencing outcomes to them. These crimes need to show a commensurate and just sentencing range. I ask you to please vote yes on Senate Bill 72, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me?

Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Heidi McCollum. I'm the elected district attorney for the 5th Judicial District. I represent Eagle Lake Summit and Clear Creek counties. My district sees more than our fair share of traffic fatalities, particularly along the I-70 mountain corridor year round. This bill will help establish an understanding for the general public of the importance and personal responsibility and accountability on our roads and highways, so that families whose loved ones have been taken from them as a result of a preventable traffic crash can get some sense of justice. State statute defines the purpose of sentencing. It states among the factors of court is to considerate sentencing that punishment is one of those and that it should be imposed in relation to the seriousness of the offense. So my question is, what is more serious than the taking of a human life? And when that taking of a life is because someone chose to drive without regard for the safety of others around them, then what is it that the family members of the person killed actually deserve? They're never going to get the one thing they want. They want their loved one back. There are some crimes where the damage is so severe that punishment is the accountability for someone's actions. This bill expands criminally negligent homicide to include vehicular homicide, which is one of those crimes where the accountability and the punishment are in fact one in the same for the families who've lost someone. Additionally, allowing a provision for killing someone while texting and driving to be charged as a felony rather than a misdemeanor is a huge step in the right direction. Finally, making it possible for DAs to charge Class 3 and Class 4 felony vehicular homicide and vehicular assault as crimes of violence is the appropriate thing to do. if i could just take a moment a bat is considered a bludgeon which is a deadly weapon imagine if that bat hit you at 90 miles an hour a bat is a few pounds a car is a couple of tons driving a vehicle carries with it a responsibility for all of us to be aware of those around us and to take due care for other people's safety. This bill will still allow prosecutors to file misdemeanor charges of careless driving resulting in death when the facts of a particular case actually show that that charge is appropriate We make judgment calls every day in every case and the people we represent should know that we as the prosecutors and their elected officials are making informed decisions about their cases, not that we're hamstrung because the law doesn't allow for harsher sentences or lighter sentences if the circumstances demand it. Thank you. I

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Gordon McLaughlin, District Attorney for the 8th Judicial District, Flare and Marin Jackson Counties, and here on behalf of Colorado District Attorneys Council. In my experience, there is simply no category of cases where victims feel so universally let down by our Colorado criminal justice system than the cases we're dealing with here today, careless causing death and vehicular homicide crimes. Even when we're talking about sexual assaults, domestic violence, first degree homicide, cases that are obviously extremely difficult and we can never always succeed for victims. But those cases come with very serious potential consequences. When we have the evidence, we can try to get justice for victims, even if we can't undo the harm. But that's just not true with these vehicular cases. The relationship between the harm caused taking the life of someone that these families loved. And the potential penalties is incredibly, incredibly out of balance. When we're talking about misdemeanor cases, we ask to keep the misdemeanor because as a prosecutor, I realize there is a wide variety of potential crimes and some people deserve to be charged with the misdemeanor. But others do not. And we need this criminal negligence avenue to make sure that we are reflecting the gravity of the crime, that we are sending a message to the community that we care about these dangers in a world where they are growing so fast, with cell phones and other media use and distracted driving, and most importantly, send a message to victims that we care. Sometimes the facts do allow us to charge reckless as a felony, but those penalties are wholly insufficient. The current range indicates to judges that only the worst of the worst should even see close to the top of the range, meaning most cases do not see anywhere near that maximum sentence, despite that ultimate loss. I personally tried a careless driving-causing death case just over a year ago, where the defendant was texting while she ran over and killed Oliver Stratton, a 10-year-old boy, while he was riding his bike and abiding the bike laws in his own neighborhood in Timnath. We convicted that defendant at trial, and she got a maximum sentence, one year in jail. and the judge allowed her to serve that by work release. She was back out in the community immediately. Because the Department of Revenue aired on their paperwork, she was back driving immediately. The message the criminal justice system sent to that victim, even though we did the maximum that we could, was that this system does not care about vulnerable victims and vulnerable users of our road. It was incredibly far from justice for the Stratton family. I ask you to make sure that we are sending a message that as the dangers grow on our roads, we take those dangers seriously, and we're going to do our best to honor victims and keep our community safe.

Thank you. Good afternoon, honorable committee members. My name is William Boyd. I have owned and operated AlphaZulu Logistics and Amazon Delivery Service partner out of Lafayette, Colorado since September 2018 We were among the first 50 DSPs in North America and indeed the world We have delivered over 21 million packages throughout the front range of Colorado and our drivers have driven over 8 million miles to date Prior to our delivery business I was commissioned in the Army after graduating from the University of North Alabama into the Army Corps of Engineers in 2000. Following 9-11, I was deployed to combat in Afghanistan and later to Iraq, where I served as a company commander for a Sapper Route Clearance Company. Suffice to say, I understand and manage risk on a daily basis. You may be wondering why it seems like I'm giving you my resume. It's because context matters to what I'm about to share next. As a 12-year-old boy, I watched my dad die in a skydiving accident off the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. His reserve parachute prematurely deployed in the Cessna 182 aircraft, ripping him out of the plane while his main and reserve parachute became hopelessly entangled. He hit the ocean with a blast wave that I can still vividly see in my mind's eye to this day. Ultimately, it was a freak accident. 31 years later, on October 22, 2022, I witnessed my son, Kinoa Bear Boyd, while practicing at IMI Motorsports Complex in Dakota, Colorado, get backed over and crushed by a 30,000-pound water truck while he was sitting still on his dirt bike. As my son was tipped over, I yelled out, and I ran to the track where I found my son on his side under the truck in agonal breathing, the gassing for air kind of labored breathing that your brain unconsciously tells your body to do when it's not getting enough oxygen. In the minutes that followed, I was transported in my mind's eye back to the boyhood state of shock. I had seen death again. I didn't shed a tear until I saw my wife at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette. I collapsed in the parking lot in anguish and otherworldly pain that she and I were just beginning to endure. That same afternoon, we had just returned to our house with what seemed like the entire neighborhood of Silver Creek Lafayette coming to us and I received a call from the detective telling me he was confident that the driver would likely be charged with careless driving. A misdemeanor citation, a thousand dollar fine. As the weeks and months wore on, careless driving resulting in death charge was dismissed and upgraded to vehicular homicide reckless driving as more facts came to light. The truck had no backup beeper, no reverse lights, defective brakes, no registration, no insurance, dirty mirrors, no backup camera. The driver reversed over a distance of 40 feet to crush my son after looking in just one side mirror. He didn't use the spotter and he negligently and willingly operated the defective commercial motor vehicle with little to no precautions to avoid running over the motorcyclists who were all over an active track. A risk he absolutely would have known would be present. After an agonizing two-week trial, nearly two years later, it ended in a hung jury. The DA felt confident in their case as the facts became more and more clear and retried it in January 2025, another two-week trial. This time, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on vehicular homicide and lesser-recluded charge of manslaughter. Ultimately, the jury's rationale was that they did not feel that the driver made a conscious decision to run over Kai. If one was to read the facts of this case and testimony, I think it becomes clear that there was a fair amount of careless and negligence involved. It was not an accident, but sadly we never saw justice or accountability given the chasm that exists in our motor vehicle laws in Colorado. I implore you on behalf of Kinoa Bear Boyd to move forward with Senate Bill 26072 as written. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair and Committee members. My name is Michael White. You all know my son, Magnus. We fully support Senate Bill 72, and we are grateful these crimes are finally being taken seriously. I'm here today to ask this committee to protect one specific piece of what is in this legislation, classifying vehicular homicide as a crime of violence. You already know what happened at Magnus' crash scene. I am here to testify about what happened after. On July 29th, this individual killed my son just outside of Boulder. On December 13th, 2023, they were charged and arrested for vehicular homicide. They were released the very next day on PR bond. On April 4th, 2025, a jury convicted this individual of reckless vehicular homicide. On June 13th, 2025, a judge sentenced this person to four years in prison. We left that courtroom believing we understood what punishment meant. We thought we could breathe just for a little while. On November 20, 2025, our family received an email. This individual was being referred to Community Corrections. Five months served out of a 48-month sentence. 10.5% of what the judge handed down in sentencing. we just went through a nearly two-year criminal process full of delay after delay a week-long trial where we had to sit there in silence and listen to the choices that were made that killed our son in a sentencing process that was anything but certain all layered on top of our grief this referral came out of nowhere and we were thrown right back to the beginning full of the unknowns without any time to heal This is trauma after trauma after trauma. Then in January of this year, an email came from the DA's office. While out on PR bond, during the years between Magnus' death and their sentencing, this individual committed additional felonies. This is not someone who made one terrible choice and spent the following years in remorse. This is someone who continued to commit felony crimes and is exactly why this classification matters. Some might argue that vehicular homicide is not a crime of violence because there is no intent to kill. I am not a lawyer. I am a grieving father. But I have become well aware of the laws over the past two and a half years. When someone makes a conscious choice to drive in a way that they know endangers everyone around them, That is a deliberate act. The choice came first, the death came after. Colorado law defines a deadly weapon as any object that can cause death or serious bodily injury. A vehicle driven recklessly meets that definition. Vehicular homicide requires that a person consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk. The law uses the word consciously. That is a knowing mental state. Colorado's Crimes of Violence statute covers offenses where a deadly weapon was used and death resulted. Vehicular homicide meets both those categories, both those standards. vehicular homicide belongs in the crimes of violence category. Magnus had never broken a bone in his life until this individual who killed him broke his pelvis, broke his collarbone, and shattered his skull so badly he was unrecognizable. That is violence. I am asking this committee to treat it as such. I understand there's an amendment to remove the crimes of violence provision. I understand the state budget crisis. Keep vehicular homicide in this bill. Vehicular assault makes up 92% of this bill's fiscal note. Our family's fiscal note for this crime is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And we will never recoup a single dollar of that. Give families like ours the one thing the system has never offered us. Time. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair and Committee members. I want to just share what it feels like when there's limited accountability and uncertainty with sentencing. I'm Magnus' mom, Jill White. I want to share what it means to be afraid. Not the idea of fear, the actual physical embodied experience of being terrified to walk out your front door. For 23 months, the person who killed my son was in our community, released on a PR bond. For 23 months, I was afraid to go to the grocery store, to local hiking trails, to the library, always anxious, always scanning. When I saw someone who resembled her, I froze. My breath would go short, and I would lock up. That was my daily life. The person who killed my son, Magnus, hit him from behind at 60 miles per hour. He was thrown in the air 17 to 30 feet, which is a two- to three-story building, and he flew a distance of 60 feet, which is five lanes of traffic or a bowling alley. After a traumatic week-long trial, a jury found this person guilty of reckless vehicular homicide. Then we waited for sentencing, holding our breath, because a guilty verdict does not guarantee accountability. The sentencing range was probation to two to six years in prison to community corrections and halfway house. It's a broad range. there was a real possibility this person would walk back into my community and our community. The judge sentenced her to four years. The judge was clear and deliberate about why. And for the first time in two years, I could breathe. Michael and I started coming back to life. We were more present for our younger son. I wasn waking up with that dread of maybe running into this person The fear the panic it lifted We felt safe Then five months later, as Michael talked about, we got an email. The person convicted of killing Magnus was being referred to a halfway house or community corrections. They were coming back to the community, and just like that, I felt completely not safe. The anger, the fear, the trauma just came right back. The panic attacks, I'm feeling it now, the numb hands, the short of breath. It's really hard. Even just putting this testimony together was one of the hardest, because I had to relive that. I just didn't understand. The judge said four years. we got five months. That was really scary. What it meant was that we potentially had to go to three hearings, three separate hearings to relive the trauma and the violence of how my son was killed and beg for justice again. The trauma just kept going. Naming vehicular homicide as a crime of violence changes that. This bill is about accountability and sentencing uncertainty. When someone makes a conscious, knowing decision to drive dangerously and kills a person, that's violence. That's a violent act. For the victims of that violent crime, it deserves to be named one. Anything less than that fails Magnus again. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Robert Rotherham. I'm Traffic Commander for Douglas County Sheriff's Office, representing Douglas County as well as the County Sheriffs of Colorado. In looking at the crash involving death, we only have choices of careless causing death. Careless driving is defined as failure to take into consideration a road with graves. curves of roads, things like that. The other choice would be reckless driving, which is definitions of wanton and willful disregard for the safety of property or persons. That is the felony. There's nothing in between. And so this bill would, that we're in support of, and if you look at CRS 18-1-501, it defines criminal negligence, says a person acts with criminal negligence when through a gross deviation from the standard of care, that a reasonable person would execute fails to perceive substantial and unjustified risk, that a result will occur or that circumstances exist. And so I see that, and I look at that definition, and I feel like with the laws in place that has been passed in this state and other states of texting and driving, this definitely does fit with the education, the knowledge. people know that it's inherently dangerous to text and drive or many other distractions. Negligent and distractive driving has become one of the most preventable yet devastating causes of death on our roadways. When a driver chooses to divert their attention, whether through texting, manipulating technology, or engaging in careless behavior, this can result in a loss of life. The consequences extend far beyond a simple traffic violation. the law must reflect the seriousness of this harm and this requires opposing higher penalties for conduct that leads to such irreversible tragedies First stronger penalties serve a vital deterrent function Research consistently shows drivers will adjust their behavior when consequences are clear certain and severe While our state has taken steps to address distracted driving, penalties for cases involving fatalities often remain disproportionately low relative to the gravity of the outcome. Elevating these penalties communicates that society will not tolerate behavior that puts others at mortal risk and encourages drivers to take their duty of care seriously. Second, higher penalties acknowledge the profound impact on victims' families. The death of a loved one due to another's inattention leaves permanent emotional, financial, and psychological scars. When the legal system imposes only minor penalties, it can appear to minimize the value of their lives lost and erode the public confidence in justice. Increased sanctions better align punishment with the harm caused and reinforces the principle that every life on the road deserves protection. Third, the stronger consequences help address the rapid rise of technological distractions. Smartphones, infotainment centers and vehicles, and other devices have introduced a level of cognitive load that earlier traffic laws were not designed to confront. As technology involves so much accountability, so must accountability. Enhanced penalties not only punish dangerous conduct, but also incentivize innovation in safer design, such as do not disturb modes and improvised driver assistance systems. Finally, elevating penalties for negligent and distracted driving resulting in death supports a broader culture of responsibility. Driving is a privilege that carries inherent obligations. When negligence ends life, it's not a mere accident. It's a preventable failure to uphold that responsibility. The legal system must respond accordingly and promote safer roads and reinforce the norm of attentiveness and respect among all roadway users. Thank you very much.

Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Committee. My name is Terri Vogel. I'm here today as an advocate for bicyclists, vulnerable road users, and safer roadways. As you've heard specifically, Senate Bill 72 specifically addresses the failures, shortcomings, and the lack of penalties that currently exist for drivers who by their own conscious choices and behaviors are the cause of someone's death. I have experienced this personally. I was awakened by a phone call at 6.50 in the morning on July 4, 2019. It was the emergency department at Parker Adventist Hospital, asking if it was possible that my husband was out on an early morning bike ride and asking me to come directly to the emergency room, not knowing the condition of Chuck or if he was even alive, and they wouldn't share that information with me. Upon arrival, Chuck was still on CAT scan, and I spoke with the emergency room physician, who asked me what I had been told about my husband. She continued to tell me, upon his arrival, I heard the words, agameral breathing, protect the airway, intubate. I have retired as an ER and critical care nurse of 38 years' experience, just nine months prior to this. I knew exactly what that meant. And I said to the doctor, it's okay, I'm a nurse, you can tell me. How bad is it? She looked at me and she just said, it's really bad. My husband never regained consciousness and he died the following day as a result of his injuries severe head trauma and condition that was incompatible with life My best friend my husband of 41 years my partner in life to live the rest of my life with. Chuck was a passionate man. He had a passion for family, friends, for his community and for life in general. He always looked for the good in others and always paid it forward. It is a belief that these crimes always happen to someone else, but as you hear today, it happens to many of us. It's a trauma that unless you've experienced is like none other and you cannot fully understand. It fundamentally changes who you are, and it impacts every aspect of your life. There are things you can never unsee, and there are things that are never seen or known by others, like what Michael and Jill have expressed and others as well, The constant letters from the Department of Corrections, hearings, release dates, failures of the system.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Andrew Phillips. I am the cyclist lawyer. My practice focuses solely on representing cyclists and their families who have been seriously injured or killed by drivers. And I want to speak today about why this bill matters, not just in criminal system, but also for the families who are left behind in their ability to obtain meaningful accountability in a civil system after their loved one is killed. When someone is killed in a traffic crash, families often assume that the civil justice system will fully compensate them for that loss. but the way that the criminal law system classifies this conduct is critically important because currently in Colorado if a driver kills someone because of making these conscious decisions that are dangerous, like texting, driving, or speeding, they can only be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. That classification does not just affect the criminal sentencing, it also has real consequences in the civil system. It affects how insurance companies evaluate the case, it affects how defense attorneys frame the conduct, and it affects how juries understand the seriousness of what's happened. When the conduct is labeled a misdemeanor, it becomes easier to describe as a momentary lapse, a simple mistake or just an accident. But for the families that I represent, there is nothing minor or accidental about what has happened. This bill helps correct that disconnect, and from a civil perspective, that matters enormously. Because when conduct is recognized as a felony and a crime of violence, it sends a clear signal to insurers, juries, and the system as a whole that this was not a minor conduct. It was serious, blameworthy behavior that resulted in the loss of a human life. This shift directly impacts how these cases are valued and resolved. It strengthens the family's ability to hold the defendant financially accountable. It changes the leverage in settlement discussions, and it helps ensure the civil outcome more closely reflects the seriousness of the loss. Wrongful death cases do not exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by how the law characterizes the conduct from the very beginning. Right now, in too many cases, the law is sending the wrong message. When the law treats the taking of a human life on our roads as a misdemeanor, it creates a mismatch between the seriousness of the harm and the seriousness of the conduct. And for the families who have lost someone, that matters. Because they are not just seeking compensation, they are seeking accountability. And they deserve a system that recognizes the full weight of what has been taken from them. When the law treats the killing of a human being on our roads as a misdemeanor, it does not just affect sentencing. It affects settlement value, jury perception, and whether families can obtain anything resembling full accountability. For those reasons, I respectfully urge you to support this bill. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Michael Raber, and I'm representing Bike Jeffco, the bicycle advocacy group for Jefferson County and surrounding area. and we support Senate Bill 072 for all the reasons you've heard here. But I want to comment a little bit different on where this is going and this has to do with my neighbors and my friends and all these people who are bicyclists who are now afraid to ride on Colorado roads and Colorado safety shoulders and Colorado bike lanes because the word has gotten out that the prosecution of people who don't obey the laws and disregard the safety and the health and welfare of other people, i.e. walkers and bicyclists, is totally disregarded by a group of people who never face a consequence that they can't get out of in just a matter of years and not really understand what they've done or have remorse for what they've done. So we're asking you to put these laws into effect, to help bring them to their senses is to the consequences of distracted driving, driving when they're drunk, driving when they're high, because this has become an epidemic. And I can tell you, all of us who have testified have ridden in Colorado, other states, internationally, and Colorado is one of the most uncomfortable places to ride a bicycle or to walk of any of the places I been and I been to a lot of places doing both of those So I can tell you even my neighbors won leave the neighborhood anymore when they get on their bikes They're doing loop-de-loops because they like to ride, but they will not take the chance of even riding up in a bicycle shoulder just outside of our neighborhood. So we ask you to support this. and the other thing is I started to write a list of the people I know and whose funerals I have been to on the back of this sheet and it's too numerous to even start going down. This is in the last 10 years. So we strongly ask you to increase the penalties because we know that just if you don't have a penalty to pay for your conduct, too many people use misconduct in their daily lives. So please pass this. Thank you.

My name is Crystalyn Garcia, and I'm here today before you representing my family and so many others who live the same reality and unjust. We are carrying a grief that will never end, but also a determination to make sure our father, grandfather, husband, son, brother, uncle, and friend did not die in vain because something has to change. On Mother's Day 2023, my father, Robert Garcia, was killed because of another person's decisions behind the wheel. In a single moment, our lives were shattered. we didn't just lose him, we lost every future moment that we were supposed to have with him. And for the taking of his life, the person responsible only received eight years probation. That was for two felonies of vehicular homicide, one including DUI and the other including reckless driving. No prison time, no true accountability, just probation. This was not part of a plea deal. This was the sentence handed after a trial, after evidence was presented and guilt was proven. They were sentenced to 90 days in the county jail for the choice that they made to drive drunk, a misdemeanor DUI, but were released early. A short sentence for a life-ending decision and ultimately a second chance after taking a life. Not one day truly served for killing my dad. Meanwhile, my family was given a life sentence. No probation, no parole, and every day we wake up with the same reality. He's gone and he's never coming back. My dad will miss seeing his first grandson graduate from high school this year. He will never meet the grandchildren that were born after his death. He will never be there for the milestones that mattered the most. new jobs, new homes, new relationships, new opportunities, and he will never celebrate another wedding anniversary. The moments that should be filled with pride and joy are now served with grief and absence. We are the ones serving the real sentence, and it's a permanent one. There is something deeply broken in the system where life can be taken and consequences do not reflect the magnitude of that loss. This was not a small mistake. It was not a minor offense. It was an irreversible taking of a human life. My father life mattered and so did his future And yet under the current law there is no room There is room for outcomes like this where someone can take a life and avoid prison while victims and families like mine are left to live in a prison of grief That's not justice. Nothing will ever bring my dad back, and nothing will undo the emptiness that now lives in every corner of our lives. But we cannot accept the system that treats the loss of a life as something that can be met with leniency. Something has to change, and I'm asking you urgently to take a stand and fight for stronger vehicular homicide laws in Colorado, such as mandatory prison time when a life is taken, sentencing that reflects the permanence of the severity of the loss, enhanced penalties in cases that involve reckless or dangerous behavior, including DUI. Because no family should have to live the reality, while the person responsible continues to live their life. My father, Robert Garcia, was not just a name on a case file. He's not going to be a statistic either. He was our foundation. He was loved. He deserves more time, more life, and more memories. But now we only ask for more justice. Please do not let his death be just another statistic and let it be the reason for some change because right now families like mine are serving lifetime sentences while those who take the life are given a second chance. Something has to change. Thank you.

Hello, Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for your time. My name is Eileen, and I'm here as a family member who has lost someone due to a DUI driver. Colorado faces a severe impaired driving crisis. the offender in our case received only eight years probation, even after being found guilty by trial. No mandatory sentence, and that is a failure of our system, and it is why I'm here today. In 2023, the year my father-in-law was killed, CDOT reported 218 DUI deaths, representing 30% of all traffic fatalities. In 2022, that number was at an all-time high of 286. worse than the national average. These are not accidents. These are preventable deaths. And yet, even with this level of harm, our system structure allows leniency, even to those found guilty by trial. No mandatory sentence, no real deterrent. Mandatory sentencing for every DUI conviction, especially for those found guilty by trial, is essential for public safety. Together, we can protect Colorado families and lower those numbers. I urge you to support legislation requiring mandatory time served for offenders found guilty. Thank you for your time and commitment to changing lives.

Good afternoon Mr Chair members of the committee My name is Sergeant Brian Scott with the City of Boulder and I here on behalf of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police to support Senate Bill 72 At its core, this bill is about accountability. When someone makes a grossly negligent decision behind the wheel, and that decision results in serious bodily injury or death, the consequences should reflect the seriousness of the harm caused. This bill closes a real gap on that accountability. Current law does not always adequately address situations where a driver's conduct is clearly dangerous and far outside the standard of care, but still falls into a gray area when it comes to charging and sentencing. Senate Bill 72 helps close the gap by making clear the criminal negligence behind the wheel when it causes death or serious injury must be treated seriously. Law enforcement, like myself, sees firsthand every day that a motor vehicle, when operated irresponsibly, can be just as deadly as any other weapon. When someone drives while distracted, careless, or in complete disregard of the risk they are creating for everyone else on the road, the results can be catastrophic. This bill reflects that reality. Safety for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists, and all who use our roads, has always been a top priority in the City of Boulder, which is why we've adopted the Vision Zero program as part of our master plan. We believe that this Senate bill helps further the work being done to realize our Vision Zero goals. In law enforcement, we've all responded to crashes where, within seconds, an ordinary day turns into a fatal scene because someone made a careless or reckless decision that they can never take back. Whether it's a driver looking at a phone, drifting across a center line, or simply failing to recognize the obvious risks that they're creating, the outcome is often the same. Someone loses a life or is seriously injured, and a family loses a loved one. and we're left standing on the side of the road trying to explain to them why that person can never come home. Those moments stay with officers like myself forever, and they're exactly why accountability in these cases matters. We understand there will be an amendment to remove the crime of violence section from this bill. While we understand the reasoning behind that amendment and appreciate the efforts to keep the bill moving, the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police does believe that change weakens the measure. The original language better reflects the seriousness of the conduct that results in serious bodily injury or death. That said, even with that amendment, we still support the spirit and direction of this bill because it remains an important step towards improving accountability under Colorado law. For those reasons, the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police asks for your support for Senate Bill 72. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It's good to see you all again. My name is Colonel Matthew Packard, and I have the privilege of serving as the chief of the Colorado State Patrol, a career that I have embraced and built passion in over the course of nearly 26 years. First, I would like to say thank you to this committee, specifically for your work last session in moving this issue forward and bringing more attention to the violence that is caused by irresponsible driving across Colorado's roadways. But we still have work to do. And as evidence of that, this morning I got my weekly email that shared that year to date there have been 100 122 people that lost their lives on Colorado's roads in 114 different crashes. Last year in 2020, the Colorado State Patrol investigated fatalities resulting in careless causing death charges 42 times. 10% of those involved the use of a phone. Like District Attorney Mason, these numbers bring back vivid images. over the course of 26 years, I've directly investigated or directly supported investigations where people lost their lives in El Paso County, in Douglas County, in Adams, in Arapaho, in the I-70 corridor, in Pueblo, in Boulder, and Weld, and many others. This is an issue of statewide concern. It is worthy of the attention of this committee and this legislature. There is work to do. and as I drive across the state I have memories of those crash scenes. I remember my first careless causing death case on C478 Quebec where a nun was killed by an inattentive driver who rear-ended her at highway speeds as she stopped for traffic and her neck was broken and resulting in an internal decapitation. These are significant acts of preventable behavior. One of the most challenging parts of working in this space is the demonstrable and significant gap in between a failure to show due regard and willful and wanton behavior. And this bill moves us in the right direction to shore that up, to provide investigators and prosecutors alike a solution within the law that our state has been significantly lacking for decades to address this loss of life. Dying in a car crash is a unique experience for a family to lose a loved one. And I don't want to compare the loss of life in any one way or the other. But I would just ask anybody in this room today who hasn't interacted with our state's transportation infrastructure, losing your life in a traffic incident is something that every single person in this room today and in this building has the opportunity to be exposed with. because we all use that, whether we're walking, riding, driving, or whatever in the middle. Help us have the tools in place to prevent this tragedy, to keep these stories from keeping coming. While I have become accustomed to the feeling of this, the one change that hasn't happened in my 26-year career is the pain and the significance of the impact of the victims that are left behind. Help us prevent that from occurring again. Thank you.

Thank you so much. My name is Trini Willerton, and in 2018, I was hit by a driver with an F-150 truck going over 50 miles an hour. This driver broke six of my ribs, fractured my scapula, fractured my pelvis in three different places, punctured my left lung, among other injuries, and total I had over a dozen fractures. I spent 13 months of my life in a process seeking justice for myself and my family. The driver finally received at the time what was the highest penalty, which was four points on his driving record. He had a symbolic fee and 60 hours of community service. You know, currently things are not much different. Since this, I have made up my life trying to prevent from what happened to me to happen to others. I founded a nonprofit called It Could Be Me And because of this I have met numbers of more people than I would ever want to meet that have struggled by just going through what I had to go through or even worse losing someone that they loved It's just really painful to think of all the people that are there in that courtroom and know how much they've struggled. I know them personally, and it's just we're at a crossroads right now, and things really do need to change. And right now you have the power to make that change happen. It's unbelievable to me and unconceivable that someone can go get in their car, kill another human being, and not have anything that really, really measures up as far as accountability. So just please, I don't want to be, you know, this person, I'm still here. And I really struggle, struggle with survivor's guilt, because I'm one of the few lucky ones that made it. But you know, if you think about it, luck should not be one of these words that are involved with violence with with traffic and safety. It should be a given people should be able to go out, whether it's on the road. their bike or walking or just having a nice day out and not be fearing for their life. We should not be grieving people that just went out because someone else made a really bad choice. And until I believe we make people accountable, that's not going to change. So please help us make that a reality in Colorado. Please make us feel safe when we go outside. Please make us understand that if we are out there and we make a bad choice, we're going to be held accountable. And please do this before the next victim, because if not next session, we'll be here with more victims like we are today. So thank you so much. Please vote for this bill. Okay, thank you. Ms. Hudnall,

sorry oh all right we're hearing you now please continue okay thank you i apologize for that um i'm actually um my name is amy hudnell as you know i'm in boston and i could not be there today um but my son brennan lee davis hulse was killed on august um 12th 2023 and just that alone, that statement that I just stated, it's been two and a half years. It never gets, it just, it never feels real when I say this. I can't believe I'm a part of this. I don't think there's one person in this room or online or anyone that couldn't make it today to testify that gets used to losing a son My son was 21 years old He was so excited getting ready to endure and embark on a life that we had no idea what would become of him But I was excited We were all excited until our world was flipped upside down. I'm a traveling nurse documentation specialist. So after my son died and before my son died, I have come across so many other victims and I, it's been trauma after trauma after trauma. I am no longer able to, I have an active nursing license but I'm no longer able to feel comfortable being a nurse on the floor so I've gone back to traveling and I just feel like that's a good comeback. I'm in support of this bill because my son Brendan was my protector by nature as he just from a little boy um my first born son um and he was a pedestrian that night um I never would have thought I would lose my my little baby boy Brendan he was walking across the crosswalk he pressed the button it's very clear on the camera an out-of-state driver in an SUV ran him over nobody else did everybody else was at a standstill or stop he had stumbled he's a size he was a size that's the other thing I don't know sometimes what do I use was is um he he he was a clumsy person because he had big feet every now and again um he tripped a little bit over his big feet and it just breaks my heart um knowing i was out of town actually um for work and uh he got hit he i was on the phone he called to get a uber lyft at 9 24 p.m we were not talking at three in the morning not that it makes a difference but 9 24 p.m my phone rang and for 23 seconds I looked at our phone bell I got to hear my final words from my son um and then he crossed the crosswalk and we think from the video he put his phone in his pocket I'm not sure but I heard everything I just didn't know at the time what I heard so out of all the traumas all patients I've seen the car the SUV which was again a lady a driver I've said the story before to the committee about Brendan but he was hit and he was not ejected he didn't fly in the air instead he was caught underneath her car and she has quoted to the investigators the detectives and myself, she saw him and she froze and she could feel running over him with her front two tires or back two tires. My son was wrapped up in plastic brand new SUV car parts that had to be peeled off An off emergency room nurse came Other people came Some people didn care and just drove around It was on Main Street and Parker Road otherwise known as Highway 83 He had four beats per minute from the off duty emergency room nurse He had an internal decapitation as well. CPR was started. Police officers came, firefighters did an AED. He was taken to Parker Adventist Hospital. So from 924, from the time he was hit and pronounced dead, 954 was over $80,000 to save my son's life. I'm in support of this bill because obviously I will never be the same. My world is upside down. my our youngest son is without a brother we don't we'll never know what could have would have been I suffer from PTSD I have a hard time driving I talked about being a nurse um I don't feel like it's safe for me to take care of other patients um but also at the same time I I'm just trying to find a way to honor my son and so every time I watch tv it's a joke pedestrians getting hit it's it's a joke it's laughable it's unexpected and it throws me into a panic attack um it's not funny to me and so I want you to know that as I've traveled Colorado is people laugh that we don't have the accountability and responsibility and the penalties for somebody like my son and everybody else who is speaking. And I love Colorado, so it's like a catch-22. Why aren't they in place? They should be in place. Come on. So please support this bill. Most other states, you know, are universally with it and making these changes and we just need to be up there you know raise the bar that this is going to happen to you consequences there's penalties um so i'm i thank you for your time and i just will never get that out of my head um it's ruined me thank you i'm open for questions

thank you chairman and members of the committee my name is josh stewart i live in littleton colorado and i am the father of liam stewart two and a half years ago there was a knock at my door my oldest son liam who had just turned 13 one week earlier the baby that made me a father had been struck by a driver and Liam was gone. I'll never hug him again. I'll never hear his laugh again. His two younger brothers will grow up without him. They get older and Liam stays forever 13. That morning, Liam was biking to school just a mile from our home. He was in the bike lane. He followed the rules. He was in a school zone, but none of that protected him from a driver who made a conscious choice to take a risk. Like so many times behind the wheel, the driver didn't take the risk. They handed it to everyone else. The person who paid for that risk was my son. Liam paid for it with his life. That's what I'm saying. day my family had made a choice. We chose to forgive the person who took our son. But forgiveness is not absolution. It recognizes the humanity of the person who caused harm, but it does not erase responsibility. It does not remove the need for accountability. There must be a place for justice, even in forgiveness. We believed we lived in a state that takes the loss of life seriously, that listens to victims, that holds people accountable when they take a life. We were wrong. In Colorado today, the most a driver can face for killing someone like Liam is a traffic misdemeanor, most often a fine and possibly probation. That meant my family sat in traffic court begging for anything more than a $1,000 fine. It meant the person who killed my son continue to drive because of a paperwork error. It meant hearing a district attorney tell us there was nothing more they could charge for someone who had ran a stop sign in a school zone across bike lanes filled with children. Someone who knew the risk because they were driving their own children to school that day. How we charge these cases reflects how seriously we value life. Right now, our law says it is not that serious. Today in Colorado, a person could be speeding, texting and driving, running stop signs, and if that choice takes a life, it is still treated as a misdemeanor. Killing someone in the car is treated no differently than speeding in a construction zone or driving without insurance. It is the only death-related crime still charged as a misdemeanor. I'm here to ask you to fix that So the next family who lives this nightmare Knows their loss matters That the law reflects the gravity of what happened This bill gives prosecutors a tool

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a question to Colonel Packard. Is there a couple things I'm just curious about? What is the, if someone is found guilty, either negligently or under misdemeanors, whatever, whatever, what happens to their driver's license, and what's the implications for getting their driver's license back? And then the second question, is there any type of a registry that the public can look up or that can be available for people who have committed what we've heard about today, these horrific crimes? Is there any type of registry, or do they just skate through the rest of their lives without anybody knowing.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Liston, for the question. So the consequence to one's driving privilege is again dependent upon the seriousness of the violation. This bill does contemplate doing a mandatory revocation for someone if they're convicted of the criminally negligent homicide involving a vehicle. Vehicular homicide, vehicular assault also has a mandatory revocation. I need to verify this but I do not believe careless driving does careless driving when I wrote that ticket a couple of weeks ago for someone driving in and out of traffic at a speed that was excessive but not reckless it a four violation So it is four of the 12 points an adult has. And as far as a registry, there is no registry about a conviction like this. There's ways to obtain driving records or criminal histories through CBI and those types of things, but there's no registry per se. Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman, members of the committee. My name is Peter Phibbs. I'm the founder of Bike Brighton. I've spent years trying to get more people on bicycles on the street, and now I'm wondering why. Putting people's lives in danger with no consequences is unconscionable. I believe we've raised a generation of people that think that life is a video game and you get an extra life, well you don't when you kill or seriously injure somebody on the side of the road it sets off a cycle of pain that we've heard from everybody up here my brother's a lifelong member of law enforcement I'm a pioneer Colorado family and I believe it's time for a change I'm here on a more personal note my next door neighbor, Jeff Meeker, was killed on his motorcycle. The last message he ever got to his wife ever got was, I'm on my way home. And this driver had a revoked driver's license, paraphernalia in the car, and likely impaired. That driver received less than a year of sentencing. Yet his disabled wife is left to raise her children. without his support. Jeff was a man who was passionate about motorcycles, muscle cars, and life in general. Yet there is no, when I heard the sentencing for what he received, we were aghast that they are left raising their children and now he never got to see his grandchild born. and the fact that there's an amendment being proposed to take out the jail term in this is it's not about money it's about people's lives and when you are arguing money against a life I think you all would agree that a life is more important I know the state has budget constraints and problems my brother deals with it every day but these families that I've heard from today It's been painfully awful to hear these stories from others, and it will just continue. So I'm here on behalf of Bicycle Colorado and the vulnerable users of our roads to please support this bill as written and move it forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair, members of the committee. My name is Jacqueline Claudia, and I'm the Executive Director of The White Line, a Colorado nonprofit with a mission to end vulnerable road user deaths by 2035. We support SB 2672 I want to tell you about a case we documented On August 2 2023 10 Oliver Stratton was riding his bicycle in Timnath when he was struck and killed by a driver who'd been texting nearly every 22 seconds for over half an hour. She sent a text seconds before impact, and afterwards she deleted those texts and lied to the cops. She was charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. A jury convicted her. The judge gave her the maximum sentence the law allowed. And that maximum for killing a 10-year-old child was one year and a $1,000 fine, which was immediately suspended. She served it in Larimer County Jail's alternative sentencing program on work release, where she could leave 12 hours a day, keep her personal cell phone, and take a graduation trip with her family. She was released in February 2026, serving only nine months of those two concurrent one-year sentences. The 12 points that should have been assessed to her license were never applied, so she's still driving today and probably texting. The sentence follows the charge. When the strongest charge available is a traffic misdemeanor, this is what accountability looks like in Colorado. This is what it means to the family, and this is the problem that SB 2672 solves. When the consequence for killing someone is this hollow, it deters no one. Deterrence requires a real consequence, and right now, through probation, plea reduction, prosecutorial declination, the effective consequence approaches zero. A felony changes that. Between a Class 1 misdemeanor and a Class 4 felony, there's nothing in Colorado's charging structure. That gap forces prosecutors towards the lighter charge. To families, it says that the law doesn't take the death of their loved ones seriously. To cyclists, pedestrians, and runners, the people that the white line works with every day, it says their life carries diminished legal weight. SB 2672 fills that gap. It gives district attorneys a Class 5 felony option, criminally negligent homicide. We're cases where driver's negligence kills a person, and it ensures that killing someone while using a handheld device is no longer just a misdemeanor. The change to criminally negligent homicide represents meaningful progress in the work we began last spring with SB 281. The fact that vehicular homicide and vehicular assault are still not considered crimes of violence under Colorado law means that we have work ahead of us. The families that we work with, families like Ollie's, are not asking for vengeance. They're asking for a legal system that acknowledges what happened to them, and we respectfully ask for your yes vote. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the committee, thank you. My name is Jocelyn Reimer. I'm the Director of Victim Services for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. I'm here today in strong support of Senate Bill 26072. Every week, I walk alongside families who are navigating the criminal justice system after losing someone to a crash caused by an impaired or reckless driver. I sit with them through hearings. I watch them take time off work, arrange child care, travel across the state, and then brace themselves again and again to relive the worst day of their lives. They do all that because they believe the system will hold someone accountable, and too often it doesn't, not in a way that reflects what actually happened. When a family watches someone walk away from a vehicular homicide conviction with probation or sees an offender moved into community corrections after serving only a fraction of their sentence it doesn feel like justice It feels like confirmation that the life that was taken from them didn carry the weight that it should have This is what this bill addresses. Senate Bill 26072 increases penalties for vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, making consequences proportionate to the harm caused. Equally important, it restructures sentencing to limit premature eligibility for parole and community corrections. Knowing that the person responsible will be held fully accountable provides a measure of stability and trust in the justice system. I also want to acknowledge that MADD strongly supports designating these offenses as crimes of violence. I understand an amendment is being considered to address that provision. that is a fight that we will continue, but progress is meaningful, and we look forward to working with this committee toward that goal. This bill is not about punishment for the sake of punishment. It is about fairness. It is about consistency. And it is about honoring victims and their families by ensuring that the law reflects the seriousness of what has been taken. No sentence brings back a loved one, but we can choose to build a justice system that doesn't ask families to grieve twice, once at the crash and again in the courtroom. I want to thank all of the victims and survivors who have shared their stories today. Your voices speak the loudest in this space. I urge you to support Senate Bill 26072. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, members of the committee, for the opportunity to testify. My name is Skylar McKinley. I'm here on behalf of AAA's 800,000 motorist members in Colorado. are 64 million motorist members nationwide and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which is the nation's most heavily cited scientific research organization on traffic safety. We support this bill as amended. Colorado's roads, no secret to anyone in this room, are getting more dangerous, not less. 760 people were killed on our roads in 2025. That is not a statistic of happenstance. That statistic reflects choices that people make when they're behind the wheel. Those choices and what we consider acceptable behavior are themselves a function of how we as a state and as a people treat them. Right now, district attorneys face a charging cliff. A driver makes a reckless decision, someone dies, and in that circumstance, the most appropriate charge may be a class one misdemeanor. Because the next step up is a class four felony, like vehicular homicide with nothing in between. That gap isn't justice, it's a structural problem, and this bill will fix it. By adding motor vehicle operation to criminally negligent homicide, this bill gives prosecutors a class 5 felony option that fits the conduct. The standard here is pretty simple. Would a reasonable person have seen this coming? That's not a low bar. A motor vehicle is one of the most consequential instruments a person operates in daily life, and the risk it creates when it's misused are not obscure or ambiguous. I'm talking about texting at highway speed. I'm talking about running a red light. I'm talking about pulling a U-turn when you're not allowed. These may not be choices necessarily rising to the level of vehicular homicide in every circumstance, but they are absolutely failures to perceive risks that any reasonable person would recognize. Colorado courts already applied this standard when someone is injured by a firearm that some other party forgot was unloaded, and I think that's useful here. Ultimately, what this gets at is this idea of you should have known better. That is a very real sensation. We've all said it to someone or about someone. They really should have known better. Not every fatal crash warrants a Class 4 felony. Some. do warrant more than a misdemeanor. This bill creates the space to make that distinction. AAA has represented Colorado drivers for more than a century. We are the reason that these challenges in traffic safety exist and why we see it as our obligation to solve some of them. This bill is not about punishing careful drivers. It's about ensuring that when someone makes a choice that kills another person, the law has the tools to respond proportionately. And I would end on a final note. I have, for better or for worse, worked on dozens, 20, 30 traffic safety measures over the years, including most consequentially the Move Over for Cody Act where we created a new way to address the severity of hitting someone when they're working at the roadside. That was done because of fatalities and tragedies at the state patrol but also because of AAA drivers. And by broad acclaim the legislature said, yes, let's create another avenue because this is so serious. All crashes rise to that level of seriousness and why we're proud to support this bill as well. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm James Karbach with the Office of the State Public Defender. We're here in an amend position, and we understand that an amendment is likely to be offered, which would get us to neutral on this bill. We were opposed to the introduced bill. We favor an approach that truly does create a range of penalties and allow the factoring in of the facts across crimes. And since this conversation began robustly in this space last session, Ms. Kane, who used to work at my office, and myself have done a lot of work in looking at vehicular homicide charges statewide. We looked at cases from July 1, 2022 to June 12, 2025. There were 258 vehicular homicide cases in that time. 147 were the Class III felony, which involves some sort of impaired driving, and 111 were cases in which it was reckless without that charge of impaired driving. Of the 210 of those that were resolved, some are still pending, 73% of them resulted in incarceration. Of the cases where probation was imposed, the vast majority of them, 70% of them, involved the reckless form of vehicular homicide, not the impaired driving. And we found only two examples where someone received probation that went to trial. 55 of the 57 were resolved by plea agreement. And we only point that out to say, and we found many, many examples where people went to the Department of Corrections sometimes for long sentences. And so we favor an approach in vehicular homicide that even within that charge takes into consideration the full range of penalties. The other thing I wanted to comment on today while we support adding negligent vehicular homicide to the statutes so that it very apparent that charge can be filed Some of the testimony that we heard both this year and last year is just very surprising in hearing that prosecutors are routinely communicating they can charge criminally negligent homicide. It's been very clear in our published decisions in this state that it can be charged, even without being called out. A case called People v. Tau that was decided in 1999 was a case the facts are very briefly discussed. Someone ran a stop sign and killed two people in another car. And that person was charged with vehicular homicide. They were acquitted of vehicular homicide but convicted of criminally negligent homicide. And that person argued the court shouldn't have been allowed to consider it. It was a bench trial. And they also argued that because of careless driving resulting in death, there was no legal ability for criminally negligent homicide to be a conviction. And the courts very clearly said, no, criminally negligent homicide covers driving and can be charged. And again, there are other published decisions that have reaffirmed this since. So in some ways, putting this on the books may bring consistency of understanding even to our law enforcement and prosecutors and make clear that that's an option. We support that. We understand that would remain after the amendment. But again, it is somewhat surprising to us to hear it is so frequently communicated that it's not an option today. With research into the case law, it's apparent that it is. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Wiseman, Vice Chair Roberts, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. My name is David Maxted. I've been a criminal defense attorney for over 15 years. I'm the current board president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and serve on its legislative Policy Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify today. Before I discuss our position on SB 2672, I'd like to extend our appreciation to the proponents of this bill who have been working on this issue for some time. We're very grateful for their willingness to engage with us and build relationships between our organizations as we discuss this understandably difficult policy. Although we may not agree on all aspects of this legislation before you, we have the utmost empathy for families who have experienced the immense loss that SB 72 seeks to address. CCDB is opposed to SB 72 as introduced because of the significant sentencing increases to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. As an organization, We work to protect judicial discretion in criminal sentencing and resist mandatory minimum sentences. That said, we have seen amendment L-001, which addresses the provisions that caused us the most concern. If the committee adopts L-001 today, CCDB would likely move to a neutral position on the bill after conferring with our policy committee. again we greatly appreciate the sponsors and proponents willingness to engage with ccdb and are always available for further conversations on this very challenging and important issue thank you for your time i available to answer any questions all right thank you sir committee are there questions for either witness Seeing none thank you both for being with us today

Senator Carson? Snyder. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to let Senator Schneider describe the amendment, and then I believe he has some comments about it. I would like to make some comments as well before I formally offer it. Very good.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Committee, to hearing testimony from so many witnesses that have gone through some horrible experiences. It's very much appreciated. Well, and as we heard from some of the folks who testified really on the introduced bill, that's the gold standard. That's what we feel would be most vigorous as far as trying to curb this growing problem that we have. We're also all cognizant of the current fiscal realities that we have. So unfortunately, the fiscal note, which we never really got to debate, was about $16 million. And I think we all know that's just a bridge too far for this year. So we looked at what could we salvage, what could we do to bring the fiscal note down to zero. So we'll be bringing Amendment L-001. And that does bring the fiscal note down to zero. We have a fiscal memo. I don't know if we have a revised fiscal note, but I'm thinking that might be able to help us avoid the Appropriations Committee. I think the Chair has that discretion, if I'm not mistaken. So with that, do you want to introduce the amendment, move the amendment first, or speak about it?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will go ahead and move Amendment L-001. All right, very good.

And make a few comments about it. I will say that Senator Schneider and I spent a lot of time this summer, and I want to thank all the folks who testified and have worked on this. We had a lot of stakeholding meetings. and I think I can speak for Senator Schneider. This is not an amendment that we particularly want to offer. We prefer not to offer it but while the one fiscal note is million the four years over four years is million What that does tell you is that we're not sentencing a lot. It was interesting to hear Mr. Carball's testimony, so I want to look at all that. But I think this amendment, or this fiscal note at least, the original one, would indicate that we're not sentencing a lot of people to a lot of prison time for these offenses. But that's certainly an issue that we want to address going forward. You know, in these stakeholder meetings, you know, it was pretty clear that at a minimum we wanted to raise the careless driving resulting in death up above the misdemeanor level and make it clear that these offenses can be charged as criminally negligent homicide, which is going to stay in the bill, obviously. And as far as prison time goes, I mean, that's ultimately up to the judicial system. There's nothing in this bill that would prevent prison time, and certainly I think the intent of the bill is in those cases where it's warranted, you're going to see prison time. We also wanted to address this issue of the continued use of cell phones, electronic devices that is leading to these type of tragedies. And so that's still going to be in the bill. I believe the way it's structured is we take that out of the misdemeanor category and we make it clear if the electronic device, cell phone usage is a cause of the death, that it's certainly going to warrant the criminally negligent homicide charge. And so, you know, when it comes to the issue of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, The folks that you've heard from today, I understand they very strongly would like to keep that in the bill, as would I, but we're going to continue to work on that issue going forward, and I think this bill, as amended, will help us to continue to move this issue forward. I think we're making a lot of progress in raising all of the issues around this of safety on our roads, So with that, as I have, I've moved Amendment L-001 and would ask for the committee's adoption of it.

Senator Snyder. Thank you again, Mr. Chair and committee. So, you know, it's with no sense of joy that we are cutting out the crime of violence portion of this bill, the vehicular assault, and some of the other measures. But what we are keeping in with L-001, continue to expand criminally negligent homicide, a classified felony to include vehicular homicide, thus providing district attorneys with another charging option. and the bill removes language from statute that makes holding a handheld device while driving and hitting and killing another person a de facto class 1 misdemeanor. Again, providing more options. And I think that if you had to sum up all the testimony we heard from the DAs and from law enforcement and to the families It was that the extreme right now as the law sits between a misdemeanor and a class 4 felony is too big of a gap. So we're trying to give more options to the judicial system, to judges, to DAs, to really pare down based upon the facts. We all recognize there truly are accidents that really are not ascribable to any flaw in character or substance use or using a phone. We want to preserve that because we all recognize that. But at the same time, when there are people that make a conscious decision, however they do that to endanger the lives of others, we need more options. And this is a step in that direction. So I would respectfully ask for an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I will move the committee to adopt Senate Bill to approve Senate Bill 72 as amended and move it to the Committee of the Whole.

No, I'll just keep my comment private.

Yes.

Yes.

Aye.

Yes. Okay.

Sponsors. Senator Carson, did you want to make another motion?

Members, any objection to consent? Seeing none, 72 will be on the consent calendar. All right. Committee, that concludes our work for today on Wednesday. we have 96, 71, and we will be adding 11, 23. And that's likely it for Wednesday, barring introduction of more bills that are assigned to us. Until then, judiciary is adjourned.