Bereaved Parents Turn Grief Into a Tough Impaired-Driver Law

Holly Bregman’s death a year and a half ago has left her parents with a new purpose in life.

“Something good has to come out of this,” Joseph P. Bregman said in his Encino law office last week. “Otherwise, her death is a total waste.”

Holly, a pretty 16-year-old honor student, was killed when an elderly wrong-way driver smashed into her car on the San Bernardino Freeway. The 84-year-old driver, who also was killed, had been stopped the previous day for driving erratically.

Pursuit of Stronger Laws

Haunted by Holly’s death, Bregman, 51, and his wife, Taube, 49, undertook an effort to strengthen laws dealing with impaired drivers.

Joining the Northridge couple were 300 to 400 grieving friends and relatives. They formed Citizens Resolved to Achieve Safe Highways, or CRASH, a group somewhat similar to the highly successful Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, which was formed by the mother of a girl killed by a drunk driver.

Last week, CRASH won its first victory when Gov. George Deukmejian signed into law a requirement that a motorist judged by a police officer to be impaired report to a Department of Motor Vehicles office within five days for a driver’s test. Impaired drivers are now referred to the DMV, but it often takes 30 to 45 days for them to be retested.

The law goes into effect July 1, 1987.

The Bregmans recognize that the law would not have saved their daughter, because the elderly motorist would have been allowed to drive for at least five days, but they said they view it as a steppingstone to tougher legislation.

Although there was little opposition, getting the legislation passed took much effort, Bregman said.

First, he researched the law to determine how much power law enforcement officers have in getting impaired drivers off the road. He also enlisted the help of experts in fields such as auto safety, medicine and law.

In the meantime, he contacted Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), who represents the Bregmans’ district. “I realized legislation was really the answer,” Bregman said.

Over several months, he and Katz discussed what form the legislation would take. Katz’s staff drafted a bill that would have given law enforcement officers the power to immediately impound the car of a driver they determined was impaired.

But, after an initial hearing before the Assembly Transportation Committee, which Katz chairs, Bregman told the legislator that he thought impounding a vehicle went too far and might abridge a driver’s rights.

“Being an attorney, I saw immediate legal problems,” Bregman said. “You can’t take property away from people without due process. . . . It smacks of Hitlerian-type tactics.”

“We felt it would never pass,” Taube Bregman said.

So the bill was amended to its present form.

While the bill was under study by various legislative committees, Bregman told his daughter’s story in letters to legislators and went to Sacramento to lobby for the bill.

Professional drivers unions opposed the bill, saying it could inconvenience truckers who might not be able to go to a DMV office within five days for retesting.

Bregmans Responsible for Bill

“Without them, I doubt there would have been a bill,” Katz said of the Bregmans.

“They spent a lot of time and effort. . . . They took grief and turned it into something very positive,” Katz said.

Bregman said his group plans to contact the DMV to discuss ways of implementing the law. CRASH would also like to see tests developed that would better detect impaired drivers before or after they are stopped.

Gina McGuiness, a department spokesman, said the DMV has allocated $17,000 to start the retesting program and to develop a system that would notify suspected impaired drivers that they must report to DMV offices. The first year of operation will cost about $47,000, which will be used for staff and administration, she said.

Currently, the department conducts 28,000 re-examinations a year, a fourth of them in response to recommendations from police officers, McGuiness said. The remainder, many of them for elderly drivers, are recommended by doctors or family members, she said.

Drivers over 55 years old constitute 24% of licensed drivers and are responsible for 18% of all accidents, according to nationwide accident statistics. A University of Michigan study found that drivers over the age of 65 have higher rates of accidents per mile than any group except teen-agers.

Seniors Back Bill

CRASH’s bill was not aimed specifically at keeping senior citizens off the roads, Bregman said. In fact, senior citizens groups supported the bill.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Ernie Garcia said that, while the new law is not expected to have much impact on officers in the field, “it will make us feel a little bit more relaxed because we know that if a motorist is driving badly enough to be re-examined, it will be decided upon in a shorter time than before.”

The nonprofit CRASH, which plans to publish a brochure, will soon look for new members, Bregman said.

“Right now it’s primarily a mailing list,” he said.

Lobbying Not Main Function

CRASH is not primarily a lobbying body, Bregman said.

“It just so happens that we spent a lot of time on this legislation,” he said. “We welcome other issues.”

Bregman said CRASH plans a public-education campaign to persuade people to “police your own family” for driving impairments. If a relative is impaired, the family should not be afraid to urge retesting or refraining from driving, Bregman said.

Wrongful Death Suit

Meanwhile, the Bregmans have filed a wrongful death suit in Ontario Superior Court against the DMV, CHP and California Department of Transportation for allegedly failing to protect Holly from the incompetent driver. The agencies have denied liability. Also sued were the elderly driver’s son and the driver’s estate.

Bregman said that, other than making contributions, he was not involved in politics before his daughter’s death. The experience taught him that “the government is accessible,” he said.

Reflecting on his experiences since his daughter’s death, Bregman said CRASH work has been “great therapy” for him and his wife because it kept them busy and gave them a feeling of accomplishment.

“In every tragedy you have to pick up the pieces and regroup and do something that’s positive,” Bregman said. “It’s a prescription for survival.”