AB 1281 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Vehicles: leaving the scene of an accident.

Summary

Existing law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to a person, other than that driver, or in the death of a person, to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident and provide specified personal information to the injured person or the occupants of the other vehicle and to any traffic or police officer at the scene of the accident. Under existing law, if a vehicle accident results in permanent, serious injury or death, a person who violates the requirement to stop is subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, or by a specified fine, or both the imprisonment and fine. Existing law requires a person who flees the scene of the crime after committing specified vehicle manslaughter while intoxicated or vehicle manslaughter to be punished for an additional term of imprisonment of 5 years in the state prison, upon conviction, and in addition and consecutive to the punishment prescribed. This bill would instead require a person who violates the requirement to stop to be subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 7, 8, or 9 years if the vehicle accident results in permanent, serious injury or death.

Issues: ✓ Transportation

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 21, 2025 Last action Jan 13, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

01/05/26 - Amended Assembly → AB1281 · 1 edit

MINOR

AB 1281 reduces the proposed penalty for leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death or permanent serious injury from a fixed 15-year state prison sentence to a range of 7, 8, or 9 years. The bill still significantly increases punishment over existing law (which provides for 2, 3, or 4 years), but the amendment makes the penalty less severe and introduces judicial discretion through the three-term structure. All other changes in the diff are formatting-related, reflecting a transition from a printed legislative document to a web-based bill text layout.

ENFORCEMENT

The proposed state prison sentence for hit-and-run resulting in death or permanent serious injury is reduced from a fixed 15 years to a discretionary range of 7, 8, or 9 years. Existing law provides for 2, 3, or 4 years, so the amended bill still triples the maximum penalty but gives judges more sentencing flexibility.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Jan 13, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Without further action pursuant to Joint Rule 62(a).

lower

Jan 13, 2026

Lower · Passed

In committee: Set, final hearing. Failed passage.

lower

Jan 6, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.

lower

Jan 5, 2026

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended.

lower

Apr 10, 2025

Lower · Passed

In committee: Set, second hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.

lower

Apr 8, 2025

Lower · Passed

In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.

lower

Mar 13, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on PUB. S.

lower

Feb 22, 2025

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 24.

lower

Feb 21, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. To print.

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors