Driving under the influence and other driving offenses: comprehensive reform.

The entire amendment to Penal Code Section 667.5 was removed. The Senate version would have added vehicular manslaughter (Section 191.5) and vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated (Section 192(c)(1)) to the list of violent felonies, triggering a 3-year prior prison term enhancement for each qualifying prior conviction within 10 years.

The bill's stated scope was narrowed from amending both the Penal Code and Vehicle Code to amending only the Vehicle Code (Sections 20001, 20002, 23635, and adding Section 23583).

The entire amendment to Penal Code Section 1170.16 (Kolya and Anya's Law) was removed. The Senate version would have authorized courts to impose full, separate, and consecutive prison terms for each violation of gross vehicular manslaughter or vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, rather than the standard aggregate sentencing scheme.

The penalty for a hit-and-run (Vehicle Code 20001(b)(2)(B)) where the accident resulted in death or permanent serious injury and occurred within 10 years of a prior DUI, reckless driving, or gross vehicular manslaughter conviction was reduced from a mandatory state prison term of two, four, or six years to two, three, or four years in state prison, or 90 days to one year in county jail, plus a fine of $1,000 to $10,000. A new judicial discretion provision allows the court to reduce or eliminate the minimum imprisonment for reasons stated on the record.

Assembly Member Lackey was elevated from coauthor to principal coauthor status alongside Assembly Member Petrie-Norris. The remaining Vehicle Code sections were renumbered downward by two (old Sections 3-7 became new Sections 1-5) following the removal of the two Penal Code sections.

Removed amendment to Penal Code Section 667.1, which would have provided that for offenses committed before January 1, 2027, references to violent felony statutes in the three strikes law (Section 667) would be frozen as of November 7, 2012, and for offenses on or after January 1, 2027, references would be frozen as of that date.

Removed amendment to Penal Code Section 1170.125, which would have provided similar statute-freezing rules for references in Sections 1170.12 and 1170.126 (the three strikes sentencing provisions).

The legislative digest no longer states that vehicular manslaughter is added to the violent felony definition 'for all purposes, including of the three strikes law.' It now simply says it is added to the definition of a violent felony (under Section 667.5, the prior prison term enhancement).

The vote requirement changed from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority, because the removed sections triggered the Proposition 184 supermajority requirement for amending the three strikes law.

Coauthor list expanded to include Senators Blakespear, Grove, Hurtado, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, Strickland, and Umberg, plus Assembly Member Quirk-Silva. Assembly Member Lackey was elevated to principal coauthor status alongside Petrie-Norris.

The date from which the expanded violent felony definition (including vehicular manslaughter) applies to sentencing under the three strikes law and prior prison term enhancements was changed from January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2027. This means offenses committed between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2026 will still be sentenced under the older list that does not include vehicular manslaughter.

Section 1170.16(a) removed the standalone reference to 'subdivision (a) of Section 192' from the introductory language, since it is already covered in the enumerated list at item (2). This is a drafting cleanup with no practical effect.

Multiple instances of gendered pronouns were updated to gender-neutral forms (e.g., 'himself or herself' to 'themselves,' 'his or her' to 'their') throughout the Vehicle Code sections.

Section numbering was reorganized and various grammatical articles and conjunctions were corrected (e.g., 'any a' to 'a,' 'when if' to 'if'). The fiscal note changed 'Vote: 2/3' to 'Vote: 2/3 majority.'