MOVIES - Feb. 19, 1988

Matthew Broderick defended Thursday a magistrate’s decision to fine him $175 for the lesser charge of careless driving for his role in a fatal car crash in Northern Ireland. “I’m glad the court decided that there was no basis for charging me with reckless driving,” Broderick said in a statement. “There was never any evidence for that charge. They also determined that the details of the accident will never be fully known. However it happened, it was a tragedy.” John Gallagher--whose wife, Anna, 28, and mother-in-law, Margaret Doherty, 60, were killed in the Aug. 5 crash--denounced the decision reached Monday in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.