Tennessee State Representative Ron Gant (R-Piperton) has introduced House Bill 190, which would increase penalties for aggravated vehicular assault and aggravated vehicular homicide for those defendants registering a blood alcohol level between .15% and .20% and meeting the other qualifications of the applicable laws. These changes to Tennessee Code Annotated Sections 39-13-115 and 39-13-218, in conjunction with Senator Paul Rose’s (R-Dyersburg) companion Senate Bill 457, would lower the blood alcohol concentration for increased penalties, bringing these in line with the increased penalty provisions currently in place for DUI defendants registering between a blood alcohol level between .15% and .20%.
Aggravated vehicular homicide is a Class A felony that carries from 15 to 60 years in prison, while aggravated vehicular assault is a Class C felony in Tennessee, which has penalties from 3 to 15 years in prison. These are extremely serious offenses and would only apply if a defendant has previously been convicted of driving under the influence or boating under the influence.
About the Author: Steven Oberman has been licensed in Tennessee since 1980, and successfully defended over 2,500 DUI defendants. Steve was the first lawyer in Tennessee to be Board Certified as a DUI Defense Specialist by the National College for DUI Defense, Inc. (NCDD). Among the many honors bestowed upon him, Steve has served as Dean of the NCDD and currently serves as chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers DUI Committee.
He is the author of DUI: The Crime & Consequences in Tennessee, updated annually since 1991 (Thomson-West), and co-author with Lawrence Taylor (1942 – 2023) of the national treatise, Drunk Driving Defense, 9th edition (Wolters Kluwer/Aspen). Steve has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee Law School since 1993 and has received a number of prestigious awards for his faculty contributions. He is a popular international speaker, having spoken at legal seminars in 30 states, the District of Columbia and 10 foreign countries. After being named a Fulbright Scholar, Steve was honored to teach as a Visiting Professor at the University of Latvia Faculty of Law (Law School) in the capital city of Riga, Latvia for a semester during 2019. In 2023, Steve accepted an offer to teach for a semester as a Visiting Professor at Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law in Budapest, Hungary. Steve was designated a Fulbright Scholar for a second time and taught American Criminal Law and American Trial Advocacy at The University of Ljubljana Faculty of Law in the capital city of Ljubljana, Slovenia for the 2024 spring semester. Since then, Steve taught American Trial Advocacy to Masters Students in Criminal and Criminal Procedure Law for the Winter Semester in 2025 at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Faculty of Law in Madrid, Spain. If you would like to contact the author, please visit his website at www.tndui.com.
