Bill
AB 1193
Eliminates the six-year deadline to prosecute hit-and-run deaths or permanent injuries, allowing charges to be filed at any time.
Status and procedural history
- Introduced: February 21, 2025.
- Most recent: Referred to Assembly Public Safety Committee; amended and re-referred (3/24/2025). Set for first hearing but that hearing was cancelled at the author's request (4/29/2025).
- Current status: In committee.
Purpose / intent
- AB 1193 removes the statute of limitations for the crime of leaving the scene of an accident that results in death or permanent, serious injury, so a criminal complaint in such cases may be filed at any time.
Key provisions
- Amends Penal Code section 803 (statutes of limitation) to eliminate the time limit that previously prevented filing a criminal complaint more than six years after commission of the offense when the offense is fleeing the scene of an accident that caused death or permanent, serious injury.
- Leaves intact existing substantive criminal law that requires drivers involved in an accident that causes injury or death to stop at the scene and provide specified information.
- Retains existing penalties for hit-and-run causing permanent serious injury or death (imprisonment in state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, and a specified fine, or both).
- The bill also makes technical, nonsubstantive changes to provisions regarding a person’s authorized use of resistance to prevent a public offense against themselves or their family (no substantive change intended).
Who would be affected
- Defendants: Persons who fled the scene of an accident that caused death or permanent serious injury — they could be prosecuted regardless of how much time has passed since the offense.
- Victims and families: Allows prosecutors to pursue charges without a statutory time bar, potentially enabling prosecution of older or cold-case hit‑and‑run deaths/injuries.
- Law enforcement and prosecutors: Gain the ability to file criminal complaints at any time in qualifying hit‑and‑run cases; may affect investigative priorities for older cases.
- Courts and public defenders: May see filings in older matters that previously were time‑barred.
Potential impacts and considerations
- Practical effect: Eliminates the six‑year filing deadline for the specified hit‑and‑run offense, enabling late prosecutions when new evidence or identity information becomes available.
- Policy rationale: Supports accountability for serious traffic collisions causing death or permanent injury, even if identification or evidence emerges long after the incident.
- Legal/constitutional considerations: The bill is written to change the statute of limitations; retroactive application to offenses committed before enactment could raise constitutional issues (not addressed in bill text).
- Fiscal note: Digest summary indicates no appropriation; further fiscal effects would depend on prosecution activity.
Next steps
- Await scheduling and hearing in the Assembly Public Safety Committee; if passed, the bill would proceed to the Assembly floor and then, if approved, to the Senate and ultimately to the Governor for signature.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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