BILL NUMBER:S1439

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in
relation to enacting "Steven's Law" to require the reporting of
personal injury motor vehicle accidents by passengers

PURPOSE:

To require a passenger of a motor vehicle involved in a personal
injury accident to report the accident when he or she knows the
operator of the motor vehicle did not stop and provide information to
either the injured party and/or to a police officer.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends section 600 of the vehicle and traffic law to add a
new subdivision 3 that provides that a passenger, knowing or having
cause to know that personal injury has been caused to another person
due to an incident involving the motor vehicle which they are a
passenger and where the operator of said vehicle has not stopped and
provided information to the injured party and/or a police officer, the
passenger shall report the incident as soon as physically able to the
nearest police station or judicial officer.

Failure to do so shall constitute a class B misdemeanor and is
punishable by a fine of not less than $250 or more then $500 in
              

addition to any other penalties provided by law.

Section 2 provides that this act shall take effect on the first of
November after the date on which it shall have become law.

JUSTIFICATION:

On March 22, 2007, 17-year old Steven Bacon was the victim of a
hit-and-run accident in the town of Ashland. His body wasn't
discovered until the next day. The driver of the vehicle turned
himself into the police the next day but only after the driver of
another vehicle, a friend of the driver who witnessed the incident,
insisted that he turn himself in. Also in the vehicle that killed
Steven Bacon was a passenger who was also a witness to the incident.

Although no one can know for certain whether Steven Bacon would've
survived his injuries had his body been discovered sooner, there is no
doubt that there were people with knowledge that something horrible
had happened that night whose failure to come forward resulted in
Steven Bacon's body laying in the culvert on the shoulder of the road
for well over 12 hours.

The driver was charged, in addition to manslaughter in the second
degree, with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident in
violation of vehicle and traffic law section 600(2). However, his
passenger was under no legal obligation to report the accident even
though he was fully aware that a body flew over the car in which he
was riding, and also aware that the driver neither stopped nor
reported the incident. This legislation creates that legal obligation
for a passenger of a vehicle to report the incident if the driver does
not.


LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2014- S.3641

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

EFFECTIVE DATE:

The first of November after the date on which it shall have become
law.