Rhode Island residents who receive citations for various traffic offenses may know that they may be required to pay a fine for the event. However, they may not know that the law in Rhode Island allows judges the ability to impose additional consequences on them if they have received multiple violations within a certain time period. This law is known as Colin’s Law.
According to the state’s legal code, a driver who has been cited four distinctly different times over the course of a year and a half may be ordered to perform extensive community service and participate in up to 60 hours of driving education courses in addition to paying a hefty fine. Depending on the nature of the circumstances, the driver may also lose their right to drive via a license revocation or a license suspension.
The law was put in place after a motorcyclist named Colin died after being involved in an accident involving a driver who had previously used marijuana. According to the Providence Journal, the woman’s driving record included multiple offenses that occurred before the accident with the motorcyclist. It is not known what those offenses were for or when they occurred.
The woman served more than five years of her 10-year sentence before being released on probation. Earlier this year, a report indicated she had violated her probation for the second time, leaving the door open for the family of the deceased motorcyclist to push for her return to custody. That violation was based on the woman’s use of a drug to control anxiety.