28-672. Causing serious physical injury or death by a moving violation; time limitation; penalties; violation; classification; definition

(L19, Ch. 255, sec. 1)

A. A person is guilty of causing serious physical injury or death by a moving violation if the person violates any one of the following and the violation results in an accident causing serious physical injury or death to another person:

1. Section 28-645, subsection A, paragraph 3, subdivision (a).

2. Section 28-710.

3. Section 28-729.

4. Section 28-771.

5. Section 28-772.

6. Section 28-773.

7. Section 28-792.

8. Section 28-794.

9. Section 28-797, subsection F, G, H or I.

10. Section 28-855, subsection B.

11. Section 28-857, subsection A.

B. A person who violates this section shall attend and successfully complete traffic survival school educational sessions that are designed to improve the safety and habits of drivers and that are approved by the department. In addition, the court may order the person to perform community restitution.

C. The court shall report a conviction for a violation of this section to the department and:

1. For a first violation of this section, may direct the department to suspend the person's driving privilege for not more than one hundred eighty days if the violation results in serious physical injury and not more than one year if the violation results in death.

2. For a second or subsequent violation of this section within a period of thirty-six months, shall direct the department to suspend the person's driving privilege for one hundred eighty days if the violation results in serious physical injury and one year if the violation results in death.

D. If a person's driving privilege is suspended pursuant to any other statute because of an incident involving a violation of this section, the suspension period prescribed in subsection C of this section shall run consecutively with the other suspension period.

E. If a person fails to successfully complete traffic survival school educational sessions or perform community restitution pursuant to this section, the court shall notify the department and the department shall promptly suspend the driver license or permit of the driver or the privilege of a nonresident to drive a motor vehicle in this state until the order is satisfied.

F. If the person who suffers serious physical injury as a result of a violation of this section appears before the court in which the action is pending at any time before trial and acknowledges receipt of satisfaction for the injury, on payment of the costs incurred, the court shall order that the prosecution be dismissed and the defendant be discharged. The reasons for the order shall be set forth and entered of record, and the order shall be a bar to another prosecution for the same offense.

G. Restitution awarded pursuant to section 13-603 as a result of a violation of this section shall not exceed $100, 000.

H. A prosecution for a violation of this section must be commenced within two years after actual discovery of the offense by the state or the political subdivision having jurisdiction or discovery by the state or the political subdivision that should have occurred with the exercise of reasonable diligence, whichever first occurs.

I. A person who violates this section is guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor.

J. For the purposes of this section, " serious physical injury" has the same meaning prescribed in section 13-105.