537.021 VEHICULAR ASSAULT IN A CONSTRUCTION ZONE.
(a) No person, while operating or participating in the operation of a motor vehicle, motorcycle, snowmobile, locomotive, watercraft, or aircraft, shall cause serious physical harm to another person or another’s unborn as the proximate result of committing, while operating or participating in the operation of a motor vehicle or motorcycle in a construction zone, a speeding offense. This subsection applies only if the person to whom the serious physical harm is caused or to whose unborn the serious physical harm is caused is in the construction zone at the time of the offender’s commission of the speeding offense in the construction zone and does not apply as described in subsection (d) hereof.
(b) Whoever violates this section is guilty of vehicular assault. Except as provided in this subsection, vehicular assault is a misdemeanor of the first degree. Vehicular assault is a felony if, at the time of the offense, the offender was driving under a suspension imposed under Ohio R.C. Chapter 4510, or any other provision of the Ohio Revised Code or if the offender previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a violation of this section or any traffic-related homicide, manslaughter, or assault offense, and shall be prosecuted under appropriate state law.
In addition to any other sanctions imposed, the court shall impose upon the offender a class four suspension of the offender’s driver’s license, commercial driver’s license, temporary instruction permit, probationary license, or nonresident operating privilege from the range specified in division (A)(4) of Ohio R.C. 4510.02.
(c) The court shall impose a mandatory jail term of at least seven days on an offender who is convicted of or pleads guilty to a violation of this section and may impose upon the offender a longer jail term as authorized pursuant to Section 501.99.
(d) This section does not apply in a particular construction zone unless signs of the type described in Ohio R.C. 2903.081 are erected in that construction zone in accordance with the guidelines and design specifications established by the Director of Transportation under Ohio R.C. 5501.27.
(e) As used in this section:
(1) “Mandatory jail term” has the same meaning as in Ohio R.C. 2929.01.
(2) “Traffic-related homicide, manslaughter or assault offense” has the same meaning as in Ohio R.C. 2903.06.
(3) “Construction zone” has the same meaning as in Ohio R.C. 5501.27.
(4) “Speeding offense” has the same meaning as in Ohio R.C. 2903.06.
(f) For the purposes of this section, when a penalty or suspension is enhanced because of a prior or current violation of a specified law or a prior or current specified offense, the reference to the violation of the specified law or the specified offense includes any violation of any substantially equivalent municipal ordinance, former law of this State, or current or former law of another state or the United States.
(ORC 2903.08; Ord. 87-05. Passed 5-9-05.)