---
type: "Bill"
title: "Increase Penalties Careless Driving"
description: "Current law states that a person who commits careless driving and thereby causes the death of an individual commits a class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense. The act expands current law to include careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury and states that if a person commits careless driving and thereby causes the serious bodily injury or death of more than one individual, each individual injure or killed is a separate violation. The act also clarifies that careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury or death is an included crime for the purposes of the \"Victim Rights Act\"."
jurisdiction: "us/states/co"
legislature: "Colorado General Assembly"
session: "2025A"
identifier: "SB 25-281"
citation: "Colorado SB 25-281 (2025A)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cecelia Espenoza", "John Carson", "Marc Snyder", "Ryan Armagost"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-04-07T06:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2025-06-02T06:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/24086161-04d7-42e8-9e18-2e08ebd07a54"
source_url: "https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb25-281"
source_hash: "232711f187b6c8f4110eafb9df47199b2509350864ece46f7ce4bd4484ea1bed"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-co"]
---

# Colorado SB 25-281 (2025A) — Increase Penalties Careless Driving

Current law states that a person who commits careless driving and thereby causes the death of an individual commits a class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense. The act expands current law to include careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury and states that if a person commits careless driving and thereby causes the serious bodily injury or death of more than one individual, each individual injure or killed is a separate violation. The act also clarifies that careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury or death is an included crime for the purposes of the "Victim Rights Act".

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Committee Amendment** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2025a_sb281_h_jud_001.pdf)
2. **Engrossed (04/29/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_eng.pdf)
3. **Final Act (05/12/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_enr.pdf)
4. **Introduced (04/07/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_01.pdf)
5. **PA1 (04/22/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_s_jud_01.pdf)
6. **PA2 (04/29/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_s_app_01.pdf)
7. **Reengrossed (04/30/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_ren.pdf)
8. **Rerevised (05/05/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_rer.pdf)
9. **Revised (05/03/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_281_rev.pdf)
10. **Signed Act (06/02/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2025a_281_signed.pdf)

## Votes

- BILL — **35–0** (pass) · upper
- BILL — **59–5** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Cecelia Espenoza — primary (person)
- John Carson — primary (person)
- Marc Snyder — primary (person)
- Ryan Armagost — primary (person)
- A. Boesenecker — cosponsor (person)
- A. Valdez — cosponsor (person)
- B. Kirkmeyer — cosponsor (person)
- B. Pelton — cosponsor (person)
- C. Barron — cosponsor (person)
- C. Clifford — cosponsor (person)
- C. Kolker — cosponsor (person)
- C. Simpson — cosponsor (person)
- D. Michaelson Jenet — cosponsor (person)
- D. Woog — cosponsor (person)
- I. Jodeh — cosponsor (person)
- J. Amabile — cosponsor (person)
- J. Bridges — cosponsor (person)
- J. Caldwell — cosponsor (person)
- J. Coleman — cosponsor (person)
- J. Gonzales — cosponsor (person)
- J. Marchman — cosponsor (person)
- J. McCluskie — cosponsor (person)
- J. Phillips — cosponsor (person)
- K. Mullica — cosponsor (person)
- K. Wallace — cosponsor (person)
- L. Cutter — cosponsor (person)
- L. Frizell — cosponsor (person)
- L. Liston — cosponsor (person)
- M. Baisley — cosponsor (person)
- M. Ball — cosponsor (person)
- M. Catlin — cosponsor (person)
- M. Duran — cosponsor (person)
- M. Froelich — cosponsor (person)
- M. Martinez — cosponsor (person)
- M. Weissman — cosponsor (person)
- P. Lundeen — cosponsor (person)
- R. Keltie — cosponsor (person)
- R. Pelton — cosponsor (person)
- R. Weinberg — cosponsor (person)
- S. Bird — cosponsor (person)
- S. Bright — cosponsor (person)
- T. Exum — cosponsor (person)
- W. Lindstedt — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-06-02T06:00:00+00:00** Governor Signed `executive-signature`
- **2025-05-12T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the Speaker of the House
- **2025-05-12T06:00:00+00:00** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2025-05-12T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2025-05-05T06:00:00+00:00** House Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2025-05-03T06:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Special Order - Passed - No Amendments
- **2025-05-03T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Judiciary Refer Unamended to House Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2025-04-30T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In House - Assigned to Judiciary `introduction`
- **2025-04-30T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2025-04-29T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee
- **2025-04-29T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Appropriations Refer Amended - Consent Calendar to Senate Committee of the Whole `committee-passage`
- **2025-04-21T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Judiciary Refer Amended to Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2025-04-16T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Judiciary Lay Over Unamended - Amendment(s) Failed
- **2025-04-07T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Judiciary `introduction`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/24086161-04d7-42e8-9e18-2e08ebd07a54`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Colorado legislature records).