Earll caption redacted because of journalistic integrity
And here’s an extended definition of why a senator who once prosecuted criminals now seems to have changed direction …
SB 522 Stack – (PN 529) Amends Title 75 (Vehicles) further providing for accidents involving death or personal injury by increasing penalties. The bill states that if the victim suffers serious bodily injury, a person who leaves the scene of the accident commits a felony of the third degree and would serve a minimum term of imprisonment of two years (current law is 90 days). If the victim dies, a person who leaves the scene of the accident commits a felony of the third degree and would serve a minimum term of imprisonment of five years (current law is one year). – The bill was reported as amended with Senator Jane Earll (R-Erie) voting “No.”
A06980 by Rafferty, reduces the enhanced penalties from two years to one year and from five years to three years for a driver leaving the scene where a person suffered serious bodily injury or death. The amendment was unanimously approved.
SB 1049 White, D – (PN 1341) Amends Title 75 (Vehicles) further providing for penalties for accidents involving death or personal injury and for subsequent convictions of certain offenses. – The bill was reported as amended with Senator Earll voting “No.”
Chairman John Rafferty (R-Montgomery) told the committee the amendment was based on discussions with the Pennsylvania District Attorneys’ Association and PennDOT.
Senator Earll told the committee she would vote “No” on this bill as well as Senate Bill 1049. She said the Senate has spent “significant hours of discussion” relative to the issue of the ever escalating cost of Corrections in the state. Senator Earll commented, “We have an unaffordable corrections system.” She noted the Senate just moved legislation to alleviate the burden on the Department of Corrections but “we move these bills without any regard to the impact on Corrections.” Senator Earll added, “We also move these bills with absolutely no evidence that increasing these fines and penalties has any direct correlation to actually deterring the crimes that they are directed at. She argued there is a need for a fiscal note to determine the impact on Corrections.
Chairman Rafferty responded that he interviewed and saw some of the people injured by hit and run drivers. He said caring for the injured adds costs to such programs as Medicaid. Chairman Rafferty added that is a concern as well and argued the legislation could be an effective deterrent. He said the Appropriations Committee will be taking a look at the legislation and develop a fiscal note.
I called Earll as a reporter yesterday, but we played phone tag. So, I’ll just offer to show her my head scars and X-rays if she’d like to actually have some realistic insight into an issue her constituents expected her to put a moment of clear thought into. You know, so she stops making life easier on dirtbags who hold others’ lives in the lowest regard possible.
Must be the air in Erie.