BILL NUMBER:S3641

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 2 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 moter vehicle which they are a passenger and
where the operator of said vehicle has not stopped and provided informa-
tion 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 punisha-
ble by a fine of not less than $250 or more then $500 in addition to any
other penalties provided by law.

              

Section 3 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 vehi-
cle, 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
tiding, 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: 2011-S. 4613

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None

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