A bill making its way through the Legislature would stiffen penalties for those who leave the scene of a car accident that involves a death. Currently, a loophole in state law makes the penalty for fleeing a hit-and-run accident less severe than the penalty for DUI manslaughter.
The bill is called the Aaron Cohen Life Protection Act, after a man who was killed while biking in Miami-Dade County in 2012. The driver who ran Cohen over continued home and turned himself in later, after any potential evidence of alcohol was no longer in his system. He was sentenced to 22 months in jail – less than half the sentence he would have received had he stayed on the scene. Bill sponsor Miguel Diaz de la Portilla says that's why drunk drivers are running away after wrecks and turning themselves in later.
"Right now, the way the law is written if you flee you could be making a strategic decision that hey, if I am driving drunk, by fleeing you avoid a minimum mandatory penalty", Diaz de la Portilla said.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, there were nearly 70,000 hit-and-run accidents in Florida in 2012, killing 166 people.
If the bill passes, it would create a minimum mandatory sentence of four years for leaving the scene of an accident involving death. Attorney General Pam Bondi supports the measure, as do police and sheriffs from across Florida.