The Tennessee Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would require intoxicated drivers convicted of vehicular homicide to pay child support if the victim of the offense was the parent of a minor child.
According to CBS 46, the legislation passed unanimously. It had been amended to include the names of the children of Nicholas Galinger, a Chattanooga police officer who was killed by a drunk driver while on duty in February 2019. HB 1834, also known as “Ethan’s, Hailey’s, and Bentley’s Law,” had already passed in the state’s House but has not been signed into law.
A summary of the legislation states that “if a defendant is convicted of vehicular homicide due to intoxication or aggravated vehicular homicide and the victim of the offense was the parent of a minor child,” then the sentencing court must make the defendant pay “restitution in the form of child maintenance to each of the victim’s children.”
These payments would continue until each of the children turns 18 years old and graduates from high school, “or the class of which the child is a member when the child reached 18 years of age has graduated.”
It is the court’s responsibility to decide what the amount should be for the children, taking into account the “financial needs and resources of the child,” the financial demands of the child’s guardian or living parent, which also includes the state if applicable, and the “standard of living to which the child is accustomed.”
There should be long term responsibility for this 100% preventable tragedy. It’s common throughout the world, and has been for centuries, if not millennia.