A seven-year crusade by activists to make vehicular manslaughter through negligence punishable by a jail sentence was passed by the General Assembly in the final hours of its 2011 session.

Bike advocates as well as law enforcement officials had strenuously backed the bill, but it was blocked until Saturday by Sen. Brian Frosh, chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

Frosh reported the bill out of committee with a minor amendment, which was passed yesterday by the full Senate. The House of Delegates passed the amended bill last night by a 139-1 vote, according to the General Assembly’s website.

The bill now goes before Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is expected to sign the legislation, which makes negligent driving that results in fatalities a misdemeanor punishable by up to 3 years in jail or a $5,000 fine.

“We’re thrilled,” Carol Silldorff, executive director of Bike Maryland, said this morning. “Now prosecutors will have the option to press for something other than traffic court for really horrendous cases of driver’s neglect.”