Bill creates in-between charge for car accidents

JASON SPENCER, Staff Writer

How do you put a price on someone's life?

It's a question Lily Lenderman has struggled with for nearly three years. She hopes the Legislature can help her find an answer, but so far she hasn't had much luck.

And time is running out.

Lenderman's 29-year-old grandson, Michael, was killed in a car wreck on St. John Street in August 2002. The other driver, who didn't have a license, was charged with failure to yield the right of way and not having insurance.

The man paid a small fine for the failure-to-yield charge, and served a few months in jail for the other. Had he not been found a "habitual" traffic offender, he would have just had to pay the fine.

And that's Lenderman's problem with the law.

"To me, as a grandmother, it seems that the victim … there's no worth," said Lenderman, 76, of Spartanburg. "There's no closure, nothing that would recognize the person to the family -- nothing to say that person was worth more than a $200 fine."

In South Carolina, a person who causes a fatal wreck can be charged with either failure to yield the right of way or reckless homicide.

Some lawmakers argue that's enough -- that anyone can make a mistake.

But other states, like North Carolina, have a charge that falls in between those two in terms of severity -- death by motor vehicle, a misdemeanor.

A similar measure is slowly working its way through the Statehouse.

And that's what Lenderman wants. She's not alone.

"Right now, there is a large chasm between failure to yield a right of way and reckless homicide," 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy said. "There is a large gap in our law."

Spartanburg County Coroner Jim Burnett says change is needed, too. In July 2001, he completed a short study that determined "failure to yield the right of way" accounted for nearly one-third of motor vehicle deaths here, second only to driving under the influence.

"It's not that I want everybody to go to jail all the time," Lenderman said. "But there's got to be some accountability, so people would not just get off with a fine."

Learning from the past?

Michael Lenderman isn't alone.

In June 2001, a well-known lay minister, retired teacher and school board member -- Guynell Jones -- died after a 16-year-old ran a stoplight at Whitestone-Glendale Road and South Pine Street.

One of Jones' passengers, 80-year-old Margie Sprouse, died two days later.

The teenager pleaded guilty to running the stoplight and driving 10 mph over the speed limit. He paid a $200 fine.

And in Duncan earlier this month: A 53-year-old Lyman man was killed when a minivan allegedly pulled out in front of his 1994 Harley Davidson. The Highway Patrol charged a 21-year-old man with failure to yield the right of way and driving without a valid license.

With no change in the law, history will continue to repeat itself, Lenderman says.

In February, five state representatives -- including House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville -- sponsored a bill that would create a misdemeanor death-by-motor-vehicle statute. It includes a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Lawmakers promptly relegated the bill to the House Judiciary Committee, where it has remained.

If the bill has any chance of becoming a law this year, it has to get out of committee, and passed by the House over to the state Senate by close of business today.

Wilkins said he plans to meet with the judiciary group this week, and that the only reason this bill hasn't seen the House floor is because of the sheer amount of work that committee has had to deal with.

Lenderman traveled to Columbia on Tuesday to talk with a handful of other officials. She says she wants to testify if either the House or the Senate holds a hearing on this matter.

But she left the capital feeling that she wouldn't get the answer she was looking for anytime soon.

"That doesn't mean we're going to give up," Lenderman said. "We've got another year. Each time, you learn something."

Politics of life and death

Why should someone serve up to three years behind bars for a simple mistake?

That's the other question in this debate. And it's most likely the one responsible for keeping this bill from going anywhere.

Democratic Sen. Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg defense attorney, says laws like this criminalize things that every driver has probably fallen prey to: Carelessness. Negligence. Accidents.

"Somebody might pull out from a stop sign when the sun is in their eyes, or look both ways, but doesn't see," Hutto said from home Wednesday night. "Sometimes, you just make a mistake. Traditionally in our society, we don't criminalize negligence."

Hutto believes laws on the books to punish intentional acts -- racing or driving too fast under certain conditions -- work the best.

Meanwhile, Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Boiling Springs, is working on introducing a piece of legislation in the Senate that's similar to the House bill, but said, "It's too late to do anything this year."

Under the current law, a reckless homicide charge must be followed by proof that the person in question had a "conscious disregard for the safety of others," Gowdy said.

"It puts law enforcement in a very awkward position," he said. "They write a ticket for the appropriate charge, which seems very inadequate, but there's nothing else they can do about it."

Discussion about a new law has been going on for three years now, Gowdy said.

Hutto says he doesn't see any chance of it passing this year, but that he is willing to listen to the other side.

"Any time that someone dies on the highway is tragic," Hutto said. "But not every time someone dies is a criminal act involved. This says … almost by definition, there is."

For Lenderman, though, that's not enough.

"The reason I'm doing this is for my grandson," Lenderman said. "I just cannot let his death go for nothing. There has to be something worthwhile, or something good to come out it.

"And I'm not going to stop until it does."

Jason Spencer can be reached at 562-7214 or jason.spencer@shj.com.