A disparity in Colorado law provides a perverse incentive for drunken drivers involved in accidents to flee the scene instead of remaining behind to offer whatever assistance is possible and be held responsible.
That sort of public policy just doesn’t make sense.
A recent story by the Post’s Jessica Fender examined sentencing for driving offenses and found Colorado’s laws result in far harsher penalties for drunken drivers who cause accidents and remain at the scene than for those drivers who hit and run.
A Post analysis showed drinking- related offenses resulted in sentences that were, on average, 25 percent longer than those in hit-and-run cases.
Let’s be clear: We support stiff penalties for drunken drivers. Getting behind the wheel of an automobile while intoxicated is seriously dangerous.
But we also agree with Tom Raynes, director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council, who said fleeing an accident — whether drunk or sober — is truly a “morally reprehensible” act. Lawmakers ought to take up hit-and-run penalties in the next legislative session with the disparity in mind.
Getting caught drunk in an accident with serious injuries can be tagged a vehicular assault-DUI, which is a Class 4 felony, but fleeing an accident with injuries for those not under the influence is a less severe, Class 5 charge, according to the Post story.
We aren’t suggesting that a first- time offender would know about the sentencing disparities and consider them in pondering an escape. And to be sure, if you are drunk and caught running from an accident, you are in serious trouble.
However, we wouldn’t be surprised if repeat offenders were savvy enough to take their chances on running. As Post reporters noted in a series of stories last year, many who drive drunk are repeat offenders.
Furthermore, police say that the vast majority of drivers who flee do so to hide the fact they have been drinking. The problem in dealing with those who get away, but are caught hours or days later, is that it is much more difficult to prove intoxication and levy the harsher penalty.
This disparity could play out in the horrible accident involving a Denver woman struck by a hit-and-run driver in December. Laurie Sherlock (referred to as Laura Gorham in earlier news reports) was 34 weeks pregnant and lost her child in the accident.
If the driver who ran down Sherlock in Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood was drunk, it would be difficult at this point to prove intoxication and levy the harsher penalty.
Yet, we do believe lawmakers were on the right track last year in revising Colorado’s drunken driving laws to beef up penalties.
Significant loopholes had created a crazy quilt of responses to drunken driving, so many offenders were going free even after multiple arrests.
Though our state still lacks the strength of a felony conviction for repeat offenders, a new law imposes a 10-day sentence for those caught driving drunk a second time, and 60-day sentences for subsequent convictions.
Clearly, more reform is needed.
