Lawmakers in the Colorado House Judiciary Committee voted 11-0 to advance Senate Bill 281, a measure that would allow prosecutors to bring separate careless-driving counts for each person injured or killed in a single crash and to add statutory access to victim services.

Co‑prime sponsor Representative Leah Espinosa told the committee the bill “recognizes that if there are multiple people injured in a careless driving incident…now the bill will allow us to charge for each individual that was harmed in the accident,” and that the amended measure “will allow for victim services for those individuals and the families who are harmed as a result of this offense.”

The bill responds to a Colorado Court of Appeals decision referenced in committee testimony that limited prosecutors’ ability to charge multiple counts from a single incident. Representative Espinosa and co‑sponsor Representative Armagost said the change restores prosecutors’ prior practice and honors the separate harms to each victim.

Family members of victims described personal losses during testimony. Jill White said her 17‑year‑old son, Magnus, was killed on July 29, 2023, while riding his bike and said the state trooper recommended charging the driver with careless driving resulting in death. “That’s a traffic misdemeanor with the same penalties as shoplifting,” White said, arguing the law presently underweights the gravity of some crashes.

Michael White, Magnus’s father, urged mandatory chemical testing after any fatal or serious‑injury crash. “Mandatory chemical testing is about truth, equity, and public safety,” he said, adding that in the family’s case no officer requested a sobriety test or blood draw at the scene despite video evidence later showing the driver had been drinking and using drugs.

District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin, who prosecuted cases affected by the appellate decision, told lawmakers the court’s ruling left families with fewer charges in multi‑victim crashes and urged the change. “This is the only thing that is fair to victims in our criminal justice system,” McLaughlin said.

Law enforcement witnesses including the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police and the Colorado State Patrol said the bill is a step forward; the state patrol provided case counts during testimony, saying it investigates roughly 400 careless‑causing‑serious‑injury cases and about 35 careless‑causing‑death cases per year and covers roughly half of Colorado’s crashes.

Several speakers — including victims’ family members, bicycling safety advocates and prosecutors — urged more work in the interim on related issues, particularly elevating careless driving resulting in death to a felony and making post‑crash chemical testing mandatory. Sponsors said they intend to continue stakeholder work and return with additional proposals.

The committee recorded the formal motion to send Senate Bill 281 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Representative Espinosa moved the bill; Representative Armagost seconded. The roll call showed 11 yes votes, zero no votes.

No amendments to the bill were adopted in the committee hearing. Committee discussion and witness testimony emphasized the bill’s narrow scope — creating separate counts per victim and improving access to victim services — while leaving other proposals for future work.