By Carolyn Grindrod | The Center Square
Oklahoma could become the latest state to saddle a drunk driver who kills a child’s parents with the financial responsibility for the orphaned youth.Rep Jim Olsen, R-Roland, says that House Bill 1003 could create a harsher reality for those who chose to get behind the wheel while intoxicated and cause the death of a parent in a DUI-related crash in the Sooner State.
Olson said the bill mirrors stricter DUI-related legislation being advanced in other states, more commonly known as “Bentley’s Law,” named after a Missouri child whose parents were tragically killed by a drunk driver.”
What this bill does is attempt to hold people accountable if they make a very bad decision to drive drunk and out of the consequence of someone’s decision to drive drunk, they kill parents or a parent,” Olsen told The Center Square. “Put more plainly, we don’t want people going around driving drunk, but if you make that decision [then] okay, you then get to participate in the expense of raising that child or those children, who lost a parent as a consequence of your actions, until they are at least 18.”
Child support payments could be extended to the age of 21 if the child is actively attending post-secondary school.The determination for child support is similar to other statutes for accessing the financial need basis of the child. These include evaluating the resources and needs of the children and any surviving parents, the child’s or children’s determined standard of living, and any physical, emotional and educational needs of the child or children.
“I think we all carry some sense of duty to the health and well-being of the children in our community, and when someone divests a child of his or her intended life by taking a parent away from that child, it does not seem unreasonable for the legal system to hold that individual accountable to that child for his or her irreparable loss.”
Audra Petrolle, family law attorney at Rose Law Group
