Clean & Sober, Yet Convicted & Jailed
George Damaa doesn’t remember the accident that put him in the hospital in a coma, with multiple injuries, and killed three other people, including his girlfriend, in 1995.
He apparently hadn’t been speeding, or drinking or doing drugs, and had a clean driving record and no criminal background. Although there was no reason for him to veer into oncoming traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway, he did. The only issue was why, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Prosecuted in a misdemeanor case, even though no one knew exactly what had happened, he was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail. Later, an expert he hired said that a glitch in his high-end vehicle’s computer incorrectly applied the brakes and put it into a spin after it hit a piece of road debris. Damaa lost his appeal on that theory, however, as well as his separate claims that his lawyer, now deceased, bungled his defense and that the manufacturer of his car sold him a defective vehicle, the newspaper recounts.
Meanwhile, survivors of one victim, a television producer, collected millions from the insurer of the eight auto dealerships for which Damaa worked as a general manager. They still blame him for the accident, however, and Damaa, now 63, still suffers from brain damage, depression and remorse.
Many people don’t realize how easily serious criminal cases can be brought over accidents caused by model citizens that seemingly don’t involve any intentional wrongdoing, and, at most, may have resulted from ordinary, everyday mistakes such as going through a yellow light as it is turning red or being inattentive to what is happening on the road, according to the Times article. And, in California, “the number of such criminal prosecutions is rising, in part because the state has aggressive legal standards and in part because, prosecutors say, advances in accident investigation technology allow them to more precisely understand the causes of fatal accidents.”
One expert estimates that 1,000 people annually are prosecuted throughout the U.S. for vehicular homicide in accidents that didn’t involve any substance abuse.
“They are the saddest cases we ever see,” says Tom Higgins, who supervises criminal prosecutions for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. “Every time I file one of these cases, I think, ‘There but for the grace of God go all of us.’ “
