Vehicular Assault and Homicide Lawyers in Colorado Springs

When a crash kills or seriously injures someone, the driver can face felony charges even with no intent to hurt anyone. These are some of the most serious charges tied to driving in Colorado, and they are built almost entirely on physical evidence that starts disappearing the day of the crash.

Vehicular homicide and vehicular assault

Both offenses have the same structure. Vehicular homicide applies when someone dies; vehicular assault applies when someone suffers serious bodily injury. Either can be charged three ways:

• Reckless driving that caused the death or injury. The prosecution has to prove a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustified risk, not just a mistake. Vehicular homicide is a class 4 felony and vehicular assault a class 5.
• Driving while ability impaired (DWAI) that caused it. The same classes apply.
• Driving under the influence (DUI) that caused it. Vehicular homicide is then a class 3 felony and vehicular assault a class 4. This version is strict liability: the prosecution doesn’t have to prove the driving was reckless, only that the impaired driving caused the harm.

Causation is usually the fight

In every version, the driving has to be the proximate cause of the death or injury. Being impaired and being in a crash is not enough on its own. The other driver’s speed or conduct, the road, the weather, a vehicle defect, or the victim’s own actions can break the chain. Serious bodily injury is also a defined term, and whether the medical records meet it decides whether a vehicular assault charge holds.

Leaving the scene

A driver directly involved in a crash that injures or kills someone must stop at or return to the scene and stay until they have met the legal duties that follow, such as giving their information and helping the injured. Leaving the scene of a crash with an injury is a class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense; with serious bodily injury, a class 4 felony; with a death, a class 3 felony. A conviction also revokes your license. The charge applies even if the crash was not your fault.

The evidence

These cases rest on the vehicles’ event data recorders, scene measurements and photographs, the reconstruction, toxicology if impairment is alleged, and witness sightlines. Vehicle data can be overwritten, cars get repaired or scrapped, and scenes change. An independent review of the reconstruction, done early, is often what the case turns on.

How we handle vehicular cases

We move quickly to preserve the vehicles and their data, and we get the scene evidence before it is lost. We review the state’s reconstruction line by line and bring in independent experts where the analysis needs testing. Where impairment is alleged, we examine the blood draw and the lab work as we would in any DUI case. Casey Kane served on a prosecutor’s Major Crash Team, which handles vehicular homicide and vehicular assault cases.

If you were hurt in a crash rather than charged, see personal injury.