Cell phones are a distraction for drivers

By MARC KOVAC

SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR

COLUMBUS — The next time you’re reaching for that cell phone while driving, you should stop and think about Sharon Montgomery.

She’s a Columbus-area woman whose husband was killed and who nearly died herself in a multi-car accident caused by an inattentive driver who was preoccupied with a telephone conversation.

“No, the phoning driver didn’t mean to kill John,” Montgomery told lawmakers last week. “When he and his granddaughter got in his van that evening, he didn’t set out to kill anyone. But he did kill. And, no, it was not an accident.

“Accident are unforeseeable and/or unavoidable. Making a conscious decision to divert his attention from the traffic around him had the foreseeable and avoidable consequence of slamming into the car in front of him, pushing it into our path.”

Montgomery told her story to state senators during a Criminal Justice Committee hearing last week, speaking as a proponent of legislation that would increase penalties against individuals whose unsafe driving results in serious injury or death to another.

Penalties

Senate Bill 158, sponsored by Republican Sen. Joy Padgett of Coshocton, outlines mandatory fines, license suspensions and points assessments, and it postpones the completion of accident investigations until the seriousness of victims’ injuries are determined. The legislation would eliminate an existing “artificial distinction” that exists in Ohio Revised Code between negligent and reckless charges, Montgomery said. “Killing someone in a crash because of negligent driving is a misdemeanor,” she said. “Killing them because of reckless driving is a felony. The victim is just as dead ... the survivors are in just as great a need for justice and assistance ... [and] the public needs just as much protection from this kind of dangerous driving whether we name it a misdemeanor or a felony.

“Naming the cause a felony meets the requirement to impose a sentence commensurate with and not demeaning to the seriousness.”

Seven years ago, Montgomery and her husband had to be extricated from their “tank of a car,” a 1988 Lincoln, after hitting another vehicle that was rammed into their path by the aforementioned phone-chatting driver.

The aftermath has been a nightmare, she told lawmakers. The guilty driver’s insurance would not cover the resulting medical bills, leading to prolonged interaction and disputes with her husband’s employer-provided plan. While dealing with her own health issues, Montgomery had to handle her family’s other business and personal matters, including the ultimate decision to stop life support for her husband.

Life insurance claims were delayed because of a paperwork issues. Montgomery began suffering from panic attacks. There were growing stacks of bills, unreturned phone calls left with law enforcement and unanswered questions.

“The criminal justice system did nothing about all my suffering, John’s death and the half-million dollars all this cost,” Montgomery said. And the man responsible for the accident? He was uninjured, his vehicle was repaired, he paid a $75 fine and went on with his life, Montgomery said.

“His income and standard of living remained the same,” she said. “... In all these years, the guilty driver has gone on with his life, with no harmful effects of the crash he caused. He even still uses his phone while driving and admits to having more crashes. He has never even apologized” and why should he?

“What he did was ‘no big deal.’ It was ‘just an accident.’ He knows this — the state told him so.”

X Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s correspondent in Columbus.