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August
26, 2002, 9:00 a.m.
Drivers
Beware!
Lizzie Grubman
got a harsh punishment. More should.
By Eli Lehrer
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 t's
hard to feel sorry for Lizzie Grubman. The ditzy, rich public-relations
diva ran her father's Mercedes SUV over a crowd outside a nightclub after
a bouncer told her not to park in a fire lane. At least 16 people sustained
injuries. She sped away from the carnage and turned herself into police
the next day.
Late last week, Grubman
copped a plea bargain that will land her in prison for two months followed
by five years on probation and a few months of community service. The
New York Post reports that she also faces $8 million in civil lawsuits.
Although Grubman had high-priced legal talent on her side, it didn't help.
Non-intoxicated drivers without criminal records who negligently kill
people rarely do much more time in the clink than Grubman will. Malcolm
Gladwell has
argued that the events were an error, albeit a negligent one, on Grubman's
part. Were it not for the fact that she called the bouncer "f***ing
white trash" and left the scene of the accident, it's unlikely that
the district attorney would have even bothered with a criminal investigation.
Grubman, however,
was too tempting a target. As a p.r. agent, she belittled reporters all
the time. As a person, she had life handed to her on a platter: Too academically
disengaged to bother with finishing conventional high school, she never
earned a college degree. Her "success" as a p.r. agent came
almost entirely from her father's connections in the entertainment industry.
It's satisfying to see someone like her come down.
Satisfying but not
entirely fair. Just as it's unfair when a drug-using Hollywood celebrity
makes a repentant speech in court and gets to play tennis at a posh drug-rehab
resort while a screwed-up inner-city gangbanger does hard time, it's unfair
when a person's prominence results in extra punishment. It violates the
fundamental principle of equality under the law. In Grubman's case, however,
the punishment seems about fair for what she did. Had Grubman inflicted
same injuries by accidentally discharging a gun, she would likely be looking
at a year or two behind bars. The real problem isn't that Grubman is being
punished too harshly; it's that other negligent drivers get punished too
little.
In many states, fleeing
a crash — even a fatal one — is just a misdemeanor while driving
while intoxicated is a felony. A driver who sobers up before turning himself
in can often get less punishment than one who tries to help the people
he injured. If Grubman was drunk, and there's no hard evidence she was,
she may have actually saved herself jail time. Traffic crashes kill far
more people than murders and, while crime has declined spectacularly since
the early 1990s, traffic deaths have fallen only slightly. (Almost all
of the decrease, furthermore, stems from airbags and increased vehicle
sizes rather than better enforcement or improved driving.)
Law-enforcement policies
work best when they hold people responsible for their own behavior. British
Academic Donald E. Lewis's landmark 1985 study shows that doubling the
punishment for a crime reduced its likelihood of its being committed by
about half. There's no reason why this shouldn't apply to traffic offenses:
a bevy of studies, most prominently one the Los Angeles Police Department
commissioned in the 1980s, prove that aggressively ticketing motorists
tends to reduce speeding, red-light running, and thus, accidents. But
few police agencies pay heed. Right now, indeed, even the language tilts
against holding individuals responsible for car crashes: Most people,
even police officers, call them accidents, thus suggesting that nobody
is at fault.
Better enforcement
could also help reduce car crashes: The California State Highway Patrol's
corridor-safety
program implements effective community-policing principles along many
of the state's most dangerous freeways. CHP has handed out more tickets
but also improved traffic flow, put up new signs, and assigned many of
its best officers to the project. The result: many fewer deaths and injuries.
The New York courts
have given Lizzie Grubman an unusually harsh, and in some respects unfair,
punishment. But at least she's being held responsible. Her prison sentence
provides a good warning to negligent motorists all over the country.
—
Eli Lehrer is a senior editor of The
American Enterprise.
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