OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 653 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 653’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Introduced
Primary Sponsor: Rep. Lorenz
Effective date:
Margaret E. Marcy, Attorney
SUMMARY
▪ Creates a new vehicular assault offense by prohibiting causing serious physical harm to
another person or another’s unborn as the result of committing a minor misdemeanor
traffic offense.
▪ Specifies that this form of vehicular assault is a first degree misdemeanor generally, but a
fourth degree felony under specified circumstances.
▪ Imposes a driver’s license suspension of one to ten years for the new vehicular assault
offense, based on the circumstances.
▪ Correspondingly, increases the penalties for vehicular manslaughter that is committed as
the proximate result of committing a minor misdemeanor traffic offense so that those
penalties are equivalent to the penalties for the new vehicular assault offense.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Vehicular manslaughter and assault
Background
Under current law, a person is prohibited from causing the death of another person or
another’s unborn as the proximate result of committing a minor misdemeanor traffic offense
(e.g., failing to stop at a stop sign or before turning at a red light, speeding, violating the
right-of-way laws, etc.).1 There is not, however, a corresponding prohibition against causing
serious physical harm to another person or another’s unborn as the proximate result of
1 R.C. 2903.06(A)(4).
August 26, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
committing a minor misdemeanor traffic offense. The bill creates that prohibition and specifies
the penalties for the new vehicular assault offense.2
Vehicular assault penalties
The bill makes the new offense, vehicular assault, a first degree misdemeanor, generally.
If at the time of the offense, the offender was driving under a suspended driver’s license or
previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a vehicular assault offense or any
traffic-related homicide, manslaughter, or assault offense, the offense is enhanced to a fourth
degree felony.3
The penalty implications of the bill’s new offense are listed in the table below.
Penalties for vehicular assault4
Base offense Enhanced offense
Degree of offense 1st degree misdemeanor 4th degree felony
Financial sanctions Up to $1,000 Up to $5,000
Confinement Jail term up to 180 days Prison term between 6 to 18 months
Driver’s license Class 4 suspension (1 to 5 years) Class 3 suspension (2 to 10 years)
suspension
The penalties and the enhancement for the new offense are the same as the current law
vehicular assault offense for causing serious physical harm to another person as the proximate
result of committing a speeding offense in a construction zone.5
Serious physical harm
Under current law, serious physical harm, for purposes of the criminal law, means any of
the following:
1. Any mental illness or condition that would normally require hospitalization or
prolonged psychiatric treatment;
2. Any physical harm that carries a substantial risk of death;
3. Any physical harm that involves some permanent incapacity (partial or total) or that
involves some temporary, but substantial, incapacity;
2 R.C. 2903.08(A)(4).
3 R.C. 2903.08(A)(4) and (C)(4).
4 R.C. 2929.14; R.C. 2929.18, 2929.24, 2929.28, and 4510.02, not in the bill.
5 R.C. 2903.08(A)(3) and (C)(3).
P a g e |2 H.B. 653
As Introduced
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
4. Any physical harm that involves some permanent disfigurement or that involves some
temporary, but serious, disfigurement; or
5. Any physical harm that involves acute pain of such duration as to result in substantial
suffering or that involves any degree of prolonged or intractable pain.
Vehicular manslaughter penalties
The bill’s penalties for the new vehicular assault offense are greater than the existing
penalties for vehicular manslaughter (causing the death of another person, as the proximate
result of a minor misdemeanor traffic offense). Thus, the bill increases the current law penalties
for vehicular manslaughter so that the penalties are the same as the penalties for the new
vehicular assault offense.6 The following table explains the implications of that penalty increase.
Penalties for vehicular manslaughter7
Current law Under the bill
Degree of offense Base: 2nd degree misdemeanor Base: 1st degree misdemeanor
Enhanced: 1st degree misdemeanor Enhanced: 4th degree felony
Financial sanctions Base: Up to $750 Base: Up to $1,000
Enhanced: Up to $1,000 Enhanced: Up to $5,000
Confinement Base: Jail term up to 90 days Base: Jail term up to 180 days
Enhanced: Jail term up to 180 days Enhanced: Prison term between 6 to
18 months
Driver’s license Base: Class 6 suspension (3 months to Base: Class 4 suspension (1 to 5 years)
suspension 2 years)
Enhanced: Class 3 suspension (2 to
Enhanced: Class 4 suspension (1 to 10 years)
5 years)
HISTORY
Action Date
Introduced 08-13-24
ANHB0653IN-135/sb
6 R.C. 2903.06(A)(4) and (D).
7 R.C. 2929.14; R.C. 2929.18, 2929.24, 2929.28, and 4510.02, not in the bill.
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As Introduced


Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 2903.06, 2903.08