BUTLER COUNTY — A new piece of legislation named in honor of an Ohio student is making its way through the Ohio Statehouse.
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House Bill 203, named the Aspen Runnels’ Law, was introduced on March 26. The bill could create harsher penalties for distracted driving in a school zone.
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As our news partners at WCPO in Cincinnati reported, the bill comes after two crashes involving Lakota Local School District students walking to and from school.
The student the bill is named after, Aspen Runnels, died after being hit while in a crosswalk at an intersection near Lakota East High School in May 2024.
Runnels’ mother, Christina Alcorn, told WCPO that she hopes this “will be a deterrent.”
As currently written, H.B. 203 would:
- Increase the penalties for vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault involving speeding or the commission of a traffic offense in an active school zone.
- Require doubled fines for certain traffic offenses that occur in an active school zone.
- Establish additional requirements for driver’s license reinstatement for an offender who committed vehicular homicide or assault in an active school zone.
- Establish requirements governing the posting of signage in school zones warning motorists of the bill’s increased penalties.
WCPO reported that Alcorn and Trisha Parnell have been pushing for harsher penalties for distracted driving while in a school zone.
Parnell’s daughter, Maddy Beare, was hit by a car near Lakota West High School in 2018.
H.B. 203 is currently in the Ohio State House Judiciary Committee.
We’ll continue to track the bill as it moves through the statehouse.
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