Car Accident Caused by Speeding and Reckless Driving Case in California

People v. Cook (2015) 60 Cal.4th 922, involved in an automobile accident caused by defendant's speeding and reckless driving and resulted in the deaths of three persons and the serious injury of a fourth person. (Id. at p. 924.) "A jury found defendant guilty of three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, one count each for the three persons who died. ( 192, subd. (c)(1).) A s to the first count, the jury also found true three allegations that defendant personally inflicted great bodily injury. Two of the great bodily injury allegations related to the two victims who died and were the subject of the other two manslaughter convictions. The third related to the person who was injured but survived." (Id. at pp. 924-925.) The defendant was not charged and convicted of any crime committed against the surviving victim. (Id. at p. 925.) In Cook, the Supreme Court framed the issue as "whether the sentence for the gross vehicular manslaughter of one victim may be enhanced for defendant's infliction of great bodily injury on other victims." (Cook, supra, 60 Cal.4th at p. 924.) It stated: "Subdivision (g) of section 12022.7 means what it says--great bodily injury enhancements simply do not apply to murder or manslaughter." (Id. at p. 935.) The court concluded that "no great bodily injury enhancement can attach to a conviction for murder or manslaughter." (Id. at p. 938.)