Bill 1207 (formerly Bill 251) has passed! Starting July 1st, an officer MUST offer a chemical test specifically including a blood draw to any person believed to operate a motor vehicle involved in a fatality.
While this is GREAT progress, there is still work to be done. We need to go back next year and amend this law to include “serious bodily injury.” Under the new law, in Mitchell’s case, the officer could still argue that they did not have to offer a chemical test because he was not pronounced dead until 10 1/2 hours later. Obviously, that would be too late to perform a blood draw. A missed opportunity for evidence collection and justice for victims of drugged drivers.
Even though the severity of his head injuries were obvious and that he had to immediately be put on a ventilator, the officers would still not be REQUIRED to draw blood from the reckless driver. Serious bodily injury cases deserve the same thorough investigation. Serious bodily injuries drastically alter lives of the victims and their families. We need to put pressure on our lawmakers to take this one step further and get “serious bodily injury” included!
Thank you to all who have signed the petition so far.
We need 50,000+ more signatures to help make our next argument for laws against drugged drivers even stronger. Please continue to help us spread the word as most people assume the law already requires blood draw after serious accidents.
Help Indiana become the 2nd state in the nation to require these blood tests for serious bodily injury accidents as well as fatal accidents. I promise you will never want to be left wondering if your family is ever in our situation.