Tennessee bill would require drunk drivers to support victims’ children

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Drunk drivers convicted of vehicular homicide in Tennessee would have to pay child support under a bill sitting on the governor’s desk.

But that child support wouldn’t be for their children. It would go to the children of their deceased victims.

Tennessee could become the first state to enact a bill some say is long overdue.

State lawmakers unanimously passed a measure last week to require convicted drunk drivers to pay child support to the surviving children of parents they killed while behind the wheel.

They would be required to pay the child support until the child reaches 18 years old and has graduated high school.

State Senator Mike Bell, R-Riceville, sponsored the bill in the Tennessee Senate.

“Now I know this process can already take place through the civil courts, but this allows it to take place through the criminal courts,” said Bell.

The bill was originally named after a Missouri child whose parents were killed by a drunk driver in 2021.

The Tennessee version is also named after the children of a Hamilton County police officer who was killed by a drunk driver in 2019.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving released a statement in support of the bill.

“Too often, offenders are able to move on with their lives even after killing someone, while victims and survivors are reminded every day of their loss,” the statement said.

Melinda Campbell lost her husband, Michael, to a drunk driver in 2015.

She now sits on the Tennessee Advisory Council of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and supports the bill because she understands what families of the victims go through.

When her husband died, she was left to raise two sons alone.

“I had calculated that our household income dropped about 70 percent and that’s huge because the bills didn’t go away,” said Campbell.

Bell says it will be up to a judge to consider all factors when determining how much a drunk driver would have to pay, including the financial needs and resources of each of the victim’s surviving children, their surviving parent, and their standard of living.

The bill now sits on Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.

According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, 272 people died in alcohol-related crashes in Tennessee in 2021, including 45 people in Shelby County.

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