Peter Ververs was 23 years old when he was struck and killed while walking near his home on Skinner Road in the town of Marion in 2006. Two decades later, the driver who hit him has never been identified, and New York's five-year window to file criminal charges in his case has long since closed.
Police say the driver who struck Ververs fled without helping him, according to the sponsor memorandum behind a bill named in his honor, as reported by nystateofpolitics.com. Investigators were unable to identify a suspect before that prosecution deadline expired, the same sponsor memorandum states. New York State Police said the investigation was formally closed in 2011 after the statute of limitations for criminally negligent homicide ran out, according to RochesterFirst.
RochesterFirst and Finger Lakes Daily News report that Ververs was struck and killed on October 22, 2006, while walking near his home in Marion. What is not in dispute is that Ververs was engaged to be married, and that he and his fiancée, Desire Cruz, were expecting a child, according to the legislative justification behind the bill now bearing his name.
Pete's Law Aims to Erase the Five-Year Clock
State Sen. Pamela Helming, a Republican from Canandaigua, introduced Senate Bill S.9726 in April, with Assemblyman Brian Manktelow, a Republican from Lyons, introducing a companion measure, A.11067, around the same time. Right now, prosecutors only have five years from the date of the incident to charge someone in a deadly hit-and-run, per nystateofpolitics.com's reporting. Pete's Law would amend New York's Criminal Procedure Law to allow prosecution at any time for leaving the scene of a fatal crash, eliminating the restriction tied to section 600 of the state's Vehicle and Traffic Law.
The bill does not broadly erase statutes of limitations for every traffic offense, and it would not automatically reopen prosecutions under every potentially related charge. Helming's sponsor memorandum argues that families should retain the possibility of accountability when identifying a driver takes longer than five years, pointing to advances in forensic science, DNA analysis and investigative technology that lawmakers say make solving old cases increasingly possible. Under current law, those advances can't overcome an already-expired deadline for the offense the bill addresses.
Pete's Law also formally recognizes Cruz's advocacy in pushing the legislation forward. The Senate bill carries Republican co-sponsors Anthony Palumbo, George Borrello and Dean Murray. If enacted, the law would take effect 120 days after signing, though it does not expressly establish retroactive application to previously time-barred offenses — meaning, as RochesterFirst has reported, it would not necessarily reopen Ververs' case or allow expired charges in it to be prosecuted.
Bill Still Stuck in Committee
As of October 25, Senate Bill S.9726 remained in the Codes Committee, and its Assembly companion, A.11067, was still awaiting action in its own Codes Committee, according to Fingerlakes1.com. The bill has yet to be brought to the floor for a vote in either house of the Legislature, nystateofpolitics.com reports. Helming told 13WHAM she plans to take the legislation back up again in January when lawmakers return to session, with the station noting the bill has sat in committee in both houses since Helming introduced it in April.
For Cruz, the stalled timeline underscores what she sees as an unjust gap in the law. “The truth is, as his family, we cannot accept the free pass given to someone who's taken such a loved man's life,” she said, according to nystateofpolitics.com. Her comments echo renewed attention around the anniversary of the crash, which Finger Lakes Daily News and RochesterFirst have both covered as Ververs' family continues pressing lawmakers two decades on.
The push in Marion reflects a broader pattern seen nationally. Hit-and-run drivers were involved in 23% of pedestrian fatalities in 2021, a share that has held roughly steady for decades, according to research cited by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The bill's text identifies its purpose as amending the Criminal Procedure Law regarding prosecution for leaving the scene of a fatal accident, formally titled to enact Pete's Law, according to the New York State Senate bill page.
