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Ind. Code § 9-30-5-5

Penalties; death or catastrophic injury; death of a law enforcement animal

Applied in 34 court decisions — leading case Freeman v. State (1995)

Most recently applied in James Woodrow Morrison v. State of Indiana (January 2019)

As added by P.L.2-1991, SEC.18

How often courts cite this section

199520002010201930
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Sec. 5. (a) A person who causes the death or catastrophic injury of another person when operating a vehicle:

(1) with an alcohol concentration equivalent to at least eight-hundredths (0.08) gram of alcohol per:

(A) one hundred (100) milliliters of the person's blood; or

(B) two hundred ten (210) liters of the person's breath;

(2) with a controlled substance listed in schedule I or II of IC 35-48-2 or its metabolite in the person's blood; or

(3) while intoxicated;

commits a Level 4 felony.

(b) A person who causes the death of a law enforcement animal (as defined in IC 35-46-3-4.5) when operating a vehicle:

(1) with an alcohol concentration equivalent to at least eight-hundredths (0.08) gram of alcohol per:

(A) one hundred (100) milliliters of the person's blood; or

(B) two hundred ten (210) liters of the person's breath; or

(2) with a controlled substance listed in schedule I or II of IC 35-48-2 or its metabolite in the person's blood;

commits a Level 6 felony.

(c) A person who commits an offense under subsection (a) or (b) commits a separate offense for each person or law enforcement animal whose death (or catastrophic injury, in the case of a person) is caused by the violation of subsection (a) or (b).

(d) It is a defense under subsection (a) or (b) that the person accused of causing the death or catastrophic injury of another person or the death of a law enforcement animal when operating a vehicle with a controlled substance listed in schedule I or II of IC 35-48-2 or its metabolite in the person's blood consumed the controlled substance in accordance with a valid prescription or order of a practitioner (as defined in IC 35-48-1.1) who acted in the course of the practitioner's professional practice.

Official source: Indiana General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Indiana statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.