Colorado Revised Statute § 18-3-106 CRS defines vehicular homicide as causing a fatal accident while driving a motor vehicle in a reckless manner or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Vehicular homicide by reckless driving is a class 4 felony in Colorado, carrying:
- 2 to 6 years in prison, and/or
- $2,000 to $500,000.
Vehicular driving by DUI is a class 3 felony in Colorado, carrying:
- 4 to 12 years in prison, and/or
- $3,000 to $750,000.
To help you better understand vehicular homicide in Colorado, our criminal defense lawyers will discuss the following:
- 1. What is vehicular homicide in Colorado?
- 2. What are the penalties for vehicular homicide in Colorado?
- 3. What are the defenses to vehicular homicide?
- 4. Related crimes
- Additional resources
1. What is vehicular homicide in Colorado?
To prove you guilty of vehicular homicide in Colorado, the prosecutor must show that:
- You drove recklessly OR you drove while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, and
- Your driving was the proximate cause of another person’s death.
1.1. What constitutes reckless driving?
Under Colorado law, you act recklessly in violation of 18-3-106, C.R.S. when:
- you consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk,
- that a result will occur or that a circumstance exists.1
In other words, you drive recklessly when you consciously disregard the risk your driving creates.
If you simply fail to perceive a risk that you should have, you are not guilty of vehicular homicide — though you may be guilty of the slightly less serious felony of criminally negligent homicide under 18-3-105, C.R.S.2
1.2. The definition of proximate cause
You are the proximate cause of someone’s death if the death is a natural and probable consequence of your misconduct.3
Example:
While driving recklessly, you hit a pedestrian at high speed and severely injure her. On the way to the hospital, she dies of her injuries. Even though she did not die right away, your driving was the proximate cause of her death.
Though if death results from an intervening event and not directly from what you did, you are not legally responsible as long as:
- The intervening event was completely independent of the accident,
- The intervening event was unforeseeable,
- You did not participate in the intervening event, and
- If not for the intervening event, the person would not have died.
Example:
While driving recklessly, you hit a pedestrian and break her leg. She is expected to fully recover. But while she is in the hospital having a cast put on, she contracts a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection that she eventually dies from. Since she would not have died but for the infection, the infection was an independent intervening event. Note, however, that depending on the severity of the injuries, you might still be charged with vehicular assault under 18-3-205, C.R.S. or reckless driving under 42-4-1401, C.R.S.4
1.3. The definition of “under the influence”
In Colorado, you drive under the influence when:
- as a result of alcohol and/or drugs,
- you are substantially incapable, mentally and/or physically,
- of exercising clear judgment, sufficient physical control, or due care in the safe operation of a vehicle.5
Often, this will be based on evidence of:
- your statements and/or driving pattern,
- witness accounts of the accident and the preceding hours, and
- whether there are alcohol, drugs and/or drug paraphernalia in your car.
However, it is a permissible inference – even without other evidence – that you drove under the influence if:
- Your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was .08% or higher (DUI per se),6 or
- Your blood contained five nanograms or more per milliliter of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).7 THC is the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
1.3.1. What if my drugs were legal?
It is not a defense to vehicular homicide charges (or any driving offenses for that matter) that the drugs that you took were prescription or over-the-counter.
If a drug you took or a substance you inhaled negatively affected your driving, you can be held responsible – no matter how seemingly innocuous the substance. This includes marijuana — even when it’s prescribed for a legitimate medical condition.
1.3.2. Do I have to take a DUI test?
When you drive in Colorado, you give your “express consent” to a chemical test to measure your BAC if you are arrested on suspicion of DUI. You will usually be offered the choice of a
However, if the officer reasonably suspects that drugs caused or contributed to the accident, you can be required to take a blood, urine or saliva test instead of or in addition to a breath test.
If you refuse to take a chemical test, your license will automatically be suspended for one year. More importantly, your refusal will also be admissible as evidence of guilt should your case go to trial.
1.3.3. Can my blood be taken against my will?
You should be aware that if you refuse to take a DUI chemical test after an arrest for Colorado vehicular homicide, your blood can be taken against your will. Unless the officer did not have probable cause to arrest you, those results will be admissible against you in any subsequent prosecution.8
Vehicular homicide can be caused by reckless driving or DUI.
2. What are the penalties for vehicular homicide in Colorado?
2.1. Reckless vehicular homicide
If you kill someone by driving in a reckless manner in Colorado, it is a class 4 felony. Consequences can include:
- 2-6 years in Colorado prison, plus mandatory parole for 3 years, and/or
- a fine of $2,000-$500,000.9
2.2. Vehicular homicide while driving under the influence
If you kill someone when you drive under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs in Colorado, it is a class 3 felony. Consequences of Colorado DUI vehicular homicide can include:
- 4-12 years in Colorado prison, plus mandatory parole for 5 years, and/or
- a fine of $3,000-$750,000.10
If you are granted probation, the judge may order 90 days of continuous alcohol monitoring.
See our related article, Does Colorado have a felony DUI statute?
3. What are the defenses to vehicular homicide?
Here at Colorado Legal Defense Group, we have represented countless people facing homicide charges including vehicular homicide. In our experience, the following four defenses have proven very effective with prosecutors, judges, and juries:
3.1. You were not the driver
It may seem obvious, but if you did not drive, you did not commit vehicular homicide. We typically use this “no driving” defense when
- the police find you at the scene of the accident but
- you are not behind the wheel.
The burden to prove you were the driver is on the prosecution. This is not always as easy as it sounds, especially when there were no witnesses to the accident.
3.2. You did not drive in a reckless manner
For you to be convicted of vehicular homicide by reckless driving, the prosecutor must prove that you consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk when you drove. This is a largely subjective standard, and reasonable minds could disagree on what qualifies as reckless.
Because the evidence in these cases is often circumstantial, we would argue to the D.A. that there is a reasonable doubt as to your guilt and that the case should be dropped.
3.3. You were not under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs
If prosecutors try to argue that you were impaired by alcohol, we would turn to one or more of our standard DUI defenses:
- You did not begin drinking until after the accident;
- You were having a medical episode (such as a diabetic coma) that police misconstrued as intoxication;
- You have a medical condition (such as GERD) that caused falsely high breathalyzer readings;
- Your BAC level was legal (below .08%); and/or
- There were problems with your breath test or blood test, and the readings were inaccurate.
We may even be able to get your blood independently tested, the results of which could indicate that there was contamination at the police laboratory.
As long as there is a reasonable doubt that you were too drunk to drive at the time of the accident, criminal charges cannot stand.
3.4. The police violated your rights
We find that police sometimes cut corners in their eagerness to hold someone responsible for a deadly accident. Ways your rights can be trampled include:
- coerced confessions,
- planted evidence and
- illegal searches.
With each case, we conduct a thorough investigation of the police’s conduct. If the police may have found evidence through illegal means, we would ask the judge to disregard this evidence – which may then leave the D.A. with too weak a case to continue prosecuting.
4. Related crimes
- First-degree murder (CRS 18-3-102)
- Second-degree murder (CRS 18-3-103)
- Manslaughter (CRS 18-3-104)
- Negligent homicide (CRS 18-3-105)
- Vehicular assault (CRS 18-3-205)
- Vehicular eluding (CRS 18-9-116.5)
A CRS 18-3-106 conviction is always a felony.
Additional resources
For statistics on vehicular deaths, refer to the following:
- Fatal Crash Data – Compiled by the Colorado Department of Transportation.
- Car Crash Deaths and Rates – Compiled by the National Injury Council.
- State by State Fatality Facts – Provided by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
- NHTSA Estimates for 2022 Show Roadway Fatalities Remain Flat After Two Years of Dramatic Increases – Compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- State Highway Safety Report (2021) – Colorado – Provided by the Federal Highway Administration.
Legal references:
- 18–1–501 (8), C.R.S. Definitions.
The following definitions are applicable to the determination of culpability requirements for offenses defined in this code: (1) “Act” means a bodily movement, and includes words and possession of property. (2) “Conduct” means an act or omission and its accompanying state of mind or, where relevant, a series of acts or omissions. (3) “Criminal negligence”. A person acts with criminal negligence when, through a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise, he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur or that a circumstance exists. (4) “Culpable mental state” means intentionally, or with intent, or knowingly, or willfully, or recklessly, or with criminal negligence, as these terms are defined in this section. (5) “Intentionally” or “with intent”. All offenses defined in this code in which the mental culpability requirement is expressed as “intentionally” or “with intent” are declared to be specific intent offenses. A person acts “intentionally” or “with intent” when his conscious objective is to cause the specific result proscribed by the statute defining the offense. It is immaterial to the issue of specific intent whether or not the result actually occurred. (6) “Knowingly” or “willfully”. All offenses defined in this code in which the mental culpability requirement is expressed as “knowingly” or “willfully” are declared to be general intent crimes. A person acts “knowingly” or “willfully” with respect to conduct or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when he is aware that his conduct is of such nature or that such circumstance exists. A person acts “knowingly” or “willfully”, with respect to a result of his conduct, when he is aware that his conduct is practically certain to cause the result. (7) “Omission” means a failure to perform an act as to which a duty of performance is imposed by law. (8) “Recklessly”. A person acts recklessly when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur or that a circumstance exists. (9) “Voluntary act” means an act performed consciously as a result of effort or determination, and includes the possession of property if the actor was aware of his physical possession or control thereof for a sufficient period to have been able to terminate it.
See also, People v. Scarlett (1998) 985 P.2d 36, rehearing denied, certiorari denied.
- See People v. Bettis (1979) 602 P.2d 877, 43 Colo.App. 104 (volunteer fireman responding to an emergency call found guilty of criminally negligent homicide after his car struck and killed bicyclist).
- See Hamrick v. People (1981) 624 P.2d 1320.
- See People v. Calvaresi (1975) 188 Colo. 277, 534 P.2d 316.
- 18-3-106 (1)(a)(IV), C.R.S.
- 18-3-106 (2)(c), C.R.S.
- 18-3-106 (2)(d), C.R.S.
- 42-4-1301(6)(e), C.R.S.
- 18-1.3-401, C.R.S., sections (1)(a)(III)(A) and (1)(a)(V)(A). See also Azi Paybarah, Millions Sign Petition to Reduce 110-Year Sentence for Trucker in Deadly Crash, NY Times (December 19, 2021).
- Same.