Get tougher on leaving-the-scene

The Chicago suburbs have witnessed two high-profile cases this summer involving drivers leaving the scene of an accident, and the disposition of those cases fails to make common sense.

In one case, Craig Johnson Jr., son of the Elk Grove Village mayor, was fined $195, placed on court supervision and ordered to perform community service for leaving the scene of an accident and failing to give information after striking a parked vehicle.

He was arrested on June 18, a few hours after the collision, by police who found a piece of his bumper at the scene.

In the other case, Judge Kenneth Popejoy of DuPage County Circuit Court, was fined $500 and ordered to serve a six-month period of conditional discharge after pleading guilty to a charge of reckless driving. He had been accused of driving into a parked car in Glen Ellyn and then, as he fled to his home in Wheaton, narrowly missing a 13-year-old jogger.

He was arrested on June 29, shortly after the crash, at his home after witnesses provided police with a detailed description of his Jeep Liberty.

During his court appearance, Popejoy attributed his decision to leave the scene to "a moment of panic" and described it as "an error in judgment that was inconsistent with my values and how I have lived my life."

We have no doubt that is true. Nor do we doubt that Johnson panicked too. Clearly, panic would be involved in something like that.

And the law provides no evidence of anything more sinister. Our point here isn't intended to suggest that there was.

But we do mean to ask whether the penalty for leaving the scene of an accident is tough enough, whether it carries the proper weight in the balance of justice or provides the proper deterrent.

Let's just suppose you had a driver who was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. If it were just a first-time offense, the penalty for running wouldn't be any worse than the penalty for a DUI conviction. And in fact, our research suggests that you're much more apt to have your driver's license suspended for a DUI than for leaving-the-scene.

In a story on this topic in Sunday's Daily Herald, one attorney pointed out that a defendant has a better chance in court of beating a DUI charge than a leaving-the-scene charge. Maybe so. At the same time, the whole point of leaving the scene is to avoid arrest, and thus people sometimes beat the wrap that way too.

There've been suggestions of favoritism in both these cases. We don't say that. We think law enforcement was put in no-win situations in both.

But we do say the laws need to be examined. The way they're currently balanced gives no incentive to stay at the scene of an accident and face the music. That doesn't make sense.