On August 5, 1987, while driving a rented BMW 316 on Tempo Road outside Tempo, Northern Ireland, actors Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey (his girlfriend at the time), Broderick, who was driving, crossed into the oncoming lane and collided head-on with a Volvo. The driver, Anna Gallagher, 28, and her mother, Margaret Doherty, 63, were both killed instantly.
Broderick suffered a fractured leg and ribs, a concussion and a collapsed lung. Grey’s injuries included severe whiplash, which later required surgery to avoid paralysis. Broderick later told police that he had “no recollection” of the crash and “did not know why he was in the wrong lane.”
He was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and faced up to five years in prison, but was convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving and fined £100 ($175 US).
The victims’ family called the verdict “a travesty of justice”. The victims’ brother and son, Martin Doherty, later forgave Broderick amid plans to meet him in 2003, however as of February 2012 when Broderick was cast in a Honda commercial for the Super Bowl, the meeting had yet to take place.
Two lives were ended that day and the perpetrator only had to pay a fine more akin to a littering ticket. Broderick has continued to be a high-profile actor worth millions of dollars while this family has had to live with that night for over 35 years.
What is justice? When a person’s life is taken true justice would be to reverse time so that the loss of life did not occur. As that is impossible, justice is holding the responsible person or persons at fault with appropriate punishment under the circumstances.
Easy to explain, very often impossible to achieve.
- Allan Opsitnick
Opsitnick & Associates, Attorneys at Law 