§39.1.  Vehicular negligent injuring

A.  Vehicular negligent injuring is the inflicting of any injury upon the person of a human being when caused proximately or caused directly by an offender engaged in the operation of, or in actual physical control of, any motor vehicle, aircraft, watercraft, or other means of conveyance whenever any of the following conditions exists:

(1)  The offender is under the influence of alcoholic beverages.

(2)  The offender's blood alcohol concentration is 0.08 percent or more by weight based upon grams of alcohol per one hundred cubic centimeters of blood.

(3)  The offender is under the influence of any controlled dangerous substance listed in Schedule I, II, III, IV, or V as set forth in R.S. 40:964.

(4)(a)  The operator is under the influence of a combination of alcohol and one or more drugs which are not controlled dangerous substances and which are legally obtainable with or without a prescription.

(b)  It shall be an affirmative defense to any charge under this Paragraph pursuant to this Section that the label on the container of the prescription drug or the manufacturer's package of the drug does not contain a warning against combining the medication with alcohol.

(5)  The operator is under the influence of one or more drugs which are not controlled dangerous substances and which are legally obtainable with or without a prescription and the influence is caused by the operator knowingly consuming quantities of the drug or drugs which substantially exceed the dosage prescribed by the physician or the dosage recommended by the manufacturer of the drug.

B.  The violation of a statute or ordinance shall be considered only as presumptive evidence of negligence as set forth in Subsection A.

C.  Whoever commits the crime of vehicular negligent injuring shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both.

Added by Acts 1983, No. 633, §1; Acts 1985, No. 747, §1; Acts 1988, No. 279, §1; Acts 1997, No. 1020, §1, eff. July 11, 1997; Acts 2001, No. 781, §1, eff. Sept. 30, 2003; Acts 2001, No. 1163, §5; Acts 2003, No. 758, §1, eff. Sept. 30, 2003.

NOTE:  Section 6 of Acts 2001, No. 781, provides that the provisions of the Act shall become null and of no effect if and when Section 351 of P.L. 106-346 regarding the withholding of federal highway funds for failure to enact a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level is repealed or invalidated for any reason.