GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1997

S	1 

SENATE BILL 394

Short Title:  Modify Victims Compensation Act/AB.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Senators Rand; Ballantine, Cooper, Gulley, Hartsell, Miller, Perdue, Plyler, Reeves, Soles, and Warren.

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Referred to:  Judiciary.

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March 17, 1997

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO AMEND THE CRIME VICTIMS COMPENSATION ACT TO INCREASE THE ALLOWABLE EXPENSE FOR FUNERALS AND TO MAKE VICTIMS OF HIT AND RUN ACCIDENTS AND VICTIMS OF TERRORISM ELIGIBLE FOR COMPENSATION.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. G.S. 15B-2(1) reads as rewritten:
"(1)	'Allowable expense' means reasonable charges incurred for reasonably needed products, services, and accommodations, including those for medical care, rehabilitation, medically related property, and other remedial treatment and care.
		Allowable expense includes a total charge not in excess of three thousand five hundred dollars ($3,500) for expenses related to funeral, cremation, and burial, including transportation of a body, but excluding expenses for flowers, gravestone, and other items not directly related to the funeral service."
Section 2.  G.S. 15B-2(5) reads as rewritten:
"(5)	'Criminally injurious conduct' means conduct that by its nature poses a substantial threat of personal injury or death, and is punishable by fine or imprisonment or death, or would be so punishable but for the fact that the person engaging in the conduct lacked the capacity to commit the crime under the laws of this State. Criminally injurious conduct includes conduct that amounts to an offense involving impaired driving as defined in G.S. 20-4.01(24a), and conduct that amounts to a violation of G.S. 20-166 if the victim was a pedestrian or was operating a vehicle moved solely by human power or a mobility impairment device.  For purposes of this Chapter, a mobility impairment device is a device that is designed for and intended to be used as a means of transportation for a person with a mobility impairment, is suitable for use both inside and outside a building, and whose maximum speed does not exceed 12 miles per hour when the device is being operated by a person with a mobility impairment.  Criminally injurious conduct does not include conduct arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle when the conduct is punishable only as a violation of other provisions of Chapter 20 of the General Statutes.  Criminally injurious conduct shall also include an act of terrorism, as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2331, that is committed outside of the United States against a citizen of this State."
Section 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to claims arising from criminally injurious conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997.