motor vehicle homicide
US state-level offence of causing a death through the use of a motor vehicle
Motor vehicle homicide is a term in US law for the criminal offence of causing another person's death in connection with the use or operation of a motor vehicle. The term is not a self-contained, generally defined crime in US federal law, but is widely used at state level, where most states have enacted separate provisions criminalising negligent or grossly negligent killing by means of a vehicle.
At state level, the precise designation and sentencing range vary considerably. Some states use the term 'vehicular homicide', others 'vehicular manslaughter' or precisely 'motor vehicle homicide'. Common to these provisions is that they typically require the perpetrator to have acted negligently, with gross negligence, or under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and that this conduct directly caused the death of another person.
In the Karen Read case, in which police officer John O'Keefe was found dead outside a house in Canton, Massachusetts, in January 2022, it is Massachusetts state law that is relevant. The prosecution maintained that Karen Read had struck O'Keefe with her car and left him in the cold, where he died, and charged her with, among other things, second-degree murder and manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol. At the retrial in 2025 she was acquitted of the homicide charges and convicted only of drink-driving. Massachusetts operates with a separate provision on motor vehicle homicide that distinguishes between gross negligence and driving under the influence as an aggravating circumstance. In practice, cases such as the Karen Read case are prosecuted exclusively at state level.
