Tragedy behind the wheel: understanding manslaughter by culpable negligence, vehicular homicide, and DUI manslaughter.

• Author: Hersh, Adam
• Position: Florida

Every day millions of people travel Florida roadways, and when a driver unintentionally kills another person the criminal justice system is often called upon to determine culpability. It may be difficult to decide, however, exactly which crime a driver has committed. Indeed, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and juries frequently struggle with whether a motor vehicle homicide constitutes a criminal act at all.[1]

The purpose of this article is to discuss the three most common motor vehicle homicide charges: manslaughter by culpable negligence, vehicular homicide, and DUI manslaughter.[2] While they often appear to overlap, each has unique properties practitioners should be aware of to represent most effectively their client, be it a defendant or the State of Florida.

The Statutes

Manslaughter by culpable negligence, a second degree felony,[3] involves the killing of a human being where the defendant engages in:

a course of conduct showing reckless disregard of human life, or of the safety of persons exposed to its dangerous effects, or such an entire want of care as to raise a presumption of a conscious indifference to consequences, or which shows wantonness or recklessness, or a grossly careless disregard of the safety and welfare or the public, or such an indifference to the rights of others as is equivalent to an intentional violation of such rights.[4]

While manslaughter by culpable negligence may be committed in a variety of contexts,[5] motor vehicle examples include killing an infant passenger when the defendant was fleeing from law enforcement and lost control of the car;[6] causing the death of a person after attempting to demonstrate the acceleration of a car on a wet highway and consequently losing control;[7] and killing a child pedestrian after the defendant had been drinking alcohol, boasted of the car's speed, spun the wheels, accelerated along a narrow street, and shifted around in his seat before striking the child.[8]

Contrasted to manslaughter by culpable negligence is vehicular homicide, a third-degree felony, which is "the killing of a human being by the operation of a motor vehicle by another in a reckless manner likely to cause the death of, or great bodily harm to, another."[9] The "reckless manner" portion of this statute has been interpreted to mean the state must prove not just simple negligence, but "willful or wanton disregard for safety," the standard for reckless driving.[10] Examples of vehicular homicide include killing a bicyclist after the defendant weaved in and out of traffic, disregarded a yellow traffic signal, and accelerated through a red light;[11] killing a driver in an oncoming lane after the defendant sped in the rain on a hilly two-lane road and attempted to pass another vehicle in a no-passing zone;[12] and killing a five-year-old child pedestrian when the defendant drove 50-60 mph in a posted 30 mph zone with no obstructions in the driver's way in a residential area with many children and a "Slow--Children Playing" sign. The driver also failed to reduce her speed before or after the collision.[13]

If death occurs when a defendant drives under the influence to the extent normal faculties are impaired or with an unlawful blood or breath alcohol level, the driver may be guilty of DUI manslaughter. This second-degree felony occurs when a DUI defendant, by reason of operating a motor vehicle, "causes ... [t]he death of any human being."[14] Unlike vehicular homicide, which requires willful or wanton behavior to convict, the state only needs to show simple negligence in a DUI manslaughter prosecution.[15] Examples include killing another driver after the defendant, under the influence of Demerol, drove her van into the victim's station wagon;[16] killing another driver after the defendant, under the influence of alcohol, ran a red light at a high rate of speed and struck the victim's car in an intersection;[17] and killing the driver of an oncoming vehicle after the defendant, with a blood alcohol level of 0.20, turned his vehicle directly in front of the victim's automobile.[18]

Varying Degrees of Negligence

One of the most important distinctions among manslaughter by culpable negligence, vehicular homicide, and DUI manslaughter is that each has a different threshold of negligence. Culpable negligence is the highest standard," while vehicular homicide contains the middle standard of recklessness or willful or wanton disregard for safety,[20] and DUI manslaughter contains the lowest standard--simple negligence.[21] In McCreary v. State, 371 So. 2d 1024, 1026 (Fla. 1979), the Florida Supreme Court noted that vehicular homicide is properly viewed as a helpful link in cases "where the degree of negligence falls short of culpable negligence but where the degree of negligence is more than a mere failure to use ordinary care." In Magaw v. State, 537 So. 2d 564 (Fla. 1989), the Florida Supreme Court stated that in DUI manslaughter prosecutions:

[T]he state is not required to prove that the operator's drinking caused the accident. The statute requires only that the operation of the vehicle should have caused the accident. Therefore, any deviation or lack of care on the part of a driver...