One US state has passed a new law ensuring that children who lose a parent due to the actions of a drunk driver will receive child maintenance as restitution until they reach 18 years of age.
Drunk drivers now have to pay child support if they kill a parent
When someone is killed by a drunk driver, the impact can go far beyond the loss of a life, it can also leave children without a means of support. But a new law will force drunk drivers to support the children left behind.
House Bill 1834 in Tennessee requires that a person who is convicted of vehicular homicide pay restitution in the form of child maintenance if their victim was the parent of a minor child, CBS reported. The bill specifies such a penalty if the death of a parent at the hands of another driver is due to intoxication or aggravated vehicular homicide.
The bill passed unanimously in both the Tennessee House and Senate.
Many are speculating that similar laws could soon be proposed in other states.
Terms of the restitution
Under the new law, restitution must be paid to each child of the victim until they are 18 years old and graduate high school, or the class of which the child is a member when the child reached 18 years of age has graduated, the Daily Mail reported
The payments work similarly to traditional child support, in which payment is made to the primary caregiver of the child until that child becomes a legal adult at 18 years of age.
Also as in traditional child support, one factor in determining the amount of payments will be the standard of living the child is accustomed to. The amount of payments will ultimately be determined by the financial needs and resources of the child, as well as their surviving parent or guardian. This also includes the state, if the child is in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services.
If the defendant is incarcerated and unable to pay the required child maintenance, the defendant would be required to begin making payments one year after their release from incarceration.
State Rep. says Bill will make people think twice about drunk driving
“A parent is responsible for the education and upbringing of that child and when then that parent removed from the home over something so, in my opinion, foolish where we drink and drive and take the life of an innocent then someone needs to be responsible for the upbringing of those children,” State Representative Mark White told WREG-TV Memphis. “If you have the financial responsibility for the rest of your life or for the upbringing of children who’ve lost a parent, education, shelter, food, clothing, all of the above, you need to really think twice.”
An amendment to the bill renamed it the “Ethan, Haile, and Bentley’s Law” before it passed, reflecting the names of three children who lost their 38-year-old Chattanooga Tennessee police officer father when he was killed by a drunk driver in 2019, according to the Associated Press.
The bill now heads to the desk of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who is expected to sign it into law.
