HIT & RUN, MISDEMEANOR VEHICULAR HOMICIDE

If you have been charged with a criminal traffic offense, you are facing serious consequences and have much greater concerns than restrictions on your driving privileges and payment of fines and increased insurance premiums. Serious traffic offenses carry serious penalties that can affect you for the rest of your life. Convictions stemming from hit and runs with or without injury, and misdemeanor vehicular homicide charges can subject you to a prison sentence, lost educational opportunities and career choices, and overall diminished quality of life. Securing the skill of a traffic offense attorney experienced in handling serious traffic offenses in North Carolina is the best investment you can make to preserve your freedom and protect your future.

Misdemeanor Vehicular Homicide

Under North Carolina law, a misdemeanor vehicle homicide occurs when any person operating a vehicle unintentionally causes another person’s death while violating any State law or local ordinance governing the flow of traffic or the operation of a vehicle (except for DWI laws, which result in felony vehicular homicide charges when their violation causes death). Examples of misdemeanor vehicular homicide include, but are not limited to the following:

Speeding resulting in death;
Texting while driving resulting in death;
Reckless driving resulting in death;
Moving violations resulting in death; and
Hit and Runs Involving Damage to Person or Property

A misdemeanor vehicular homicide charge is a Class A1 misdemeanor, the most serious of all misdemeanor offenses in North Carolina. If you are convicted for misdemeanor vehicular homicide, you could be incarcerated for up to 150 days and sentenced to pay a fine limited only by the judge’s discretion under North Carolina law. Unlike the statutory sentence the law imposes, the stigma you will suffer and challenges you face as a convicted murderer will impact you for the rest of your life.

Hit and Runs Involving Fatality, Serious Injury or Property Damage

If you have been charged with a hit and run involving a fatality, a serious injury, or property damage, the severity of the sentence you can expect upon conviction ranges from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class H felony, depending upon the severity of resulting injuries and your prior criminal record. If you have fled the scene of an accident resulting in a fatal injury, you are guilty of a Class H felony and can be sentenced to serve up to 25 months in prison. Even if you have fled from the scene of an accident that involves only property damage or minor injury, you are guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor and subject to a prison sentence of up to 120 days.

The range of possible penalties that can be imposed in hit and run cases involving personal injury or property damage is quite broad, but all hit and run charges involving serious or fatal injury or damage to property have the same potential to change the course of your life and destroy your hopes and dreams for the future. At DeMent Askew Johnson & Marshall, we have decades of experience defending all types of hit and run offenses, and our team of hit and run attorneys have the experience and skill you need to protect your rights and your future.

DeMent Askew Johnson & Marshall Can Help

At DeMent, Askew & Johnson, our traffic attorneys have defended tens of thousands of traffic offenses charges in and around Wake and Carteret County, both before district courts and superior courts and the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. We represent clients of all ages and students from all surrounding colleges and universities, including Duke University, Meredith College, North Carolina State University, Shaw University, University of North Carolina, Wake Tech, and William Peace University. We will thoroughly evaluate your case and explore every possible way of protecting your driving privileges and getting the charges against you reduced or dismissed entirely. Call us today to speak with one of our traffic attorneys for a free consultation at 919-833-5555.