Archieved Articles

Jessica's Law?

By Kelly Rouba Copyright 2007 ThisAbled.com

“Don’t kill us,” Jessica Rogers and her friend Melissa Fuller screamed as they watched their friend Daniel Robbins, Jr. dangerously weave through traffic so he could catch up to a car that cut him off four miles back.

The two teenage girls then turned to each other and giggled at having shouted the same words simultaneously, but they soon found themselves in a situation that was no laughing matter.

When Daniel began his war path on the streets of Hamilton, NJ, it was pouring rain and close to 8 p.m. on March 23, 2005. Also in the car was Daniel’s younger brother Shaun, who was Jessica’s boyfriend at the time. We were going back to their house when the other car cut us off, Jessica said.

Angered by the incident, Daniel decided to go after the other driver. Both Jessica and Fuller begged Daniel to slow down, but he ignored their pleas. He finally caught up to the driver and attempted to illegally pass the car. “(The driver) wouldn’t let us in and swerved to the right and we slammed into a telephone pole,” said Jessica, who was sitting in the back right seat.

Her father Scott Rogers added, “The passenger side kind of wrapped around the pole. And there were no seatbelts in the car.” However, Daniel claims that photos taken after the accident prove his car had four seatbelts and the girls just chose not to use them.

When police arrived at the scene, they found that Daniel, then 19, was uninjured. After finding a small quantity of marijuana, they arrested him and charged him with drug possession.

Shaun, 18, has minor injuries and Fuller, 17, suffered a broken jaw, pelvis, and hand. She also lost several teeth. Jessica, who was 16 at the time, fell unconscious and remained that way for nearly two weeks. She was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital, where doctors determined that her neck was broken and her spinal cord was bruised as a result of the impact of the crash.

“They really weren’t sure (if I’d survive), it was iffy. I stayed in the emergency room there for a couple hours and then they took me to (Thomas) Jefferson (University Hospital in Philadelphia),” Jessica said, adding, “I was in so much pain they comatized me. I guess my body couldn’t handle it”.

Jessica remained at the hospital for three weeks and underwent several surgeries. Surgeons replaced her C5 vertebrate with a cadaver bone and also performed a metal fusion of her C4-7 vertebrate using one plate, two rods, and seven screws.

At one point after his daughter came out of the coma, Scott remembers counting more than 19 tubes and wires protruding from her body. “She was on morphine, so she was so out of it,” Scott said.

In April, Jessica was transferred to Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia. She remained in the hospital for three months before she was allowed to return home to be with her parents and two older siblings on July 7. But because she is a quadriplegic, Jessica’s home had to be adapted in order to accommodate her wheelchair. The family also had to hire a home health aide to help her with dressing and showering.

That September, Jessica returned to Hamilton High School West for the start of her junior year. Because of her high level injuries and her intense physical therapy schedule, Jessica eventually had to drop out of school. However, Jessica still managed to earn her GED and plans to start classes at Mercer County Community College this fall.

Although her condition has improved slightly after many more surgeries over the past two years, Jessica does not know if she will ever be able to walk again. And the day Shaun called the Rogers family to let them know Jessica was being rushed to the hospital because they had been in an accident is one they will never forget.

Scott also vividly remembers Daniel telling him the incident was simply a freak accident. “At that time, Dan had lied to us. He told us he had lost control of the vehicle,” Scott said, noting that the police later told him that it was actually Daniel’s road rage that caused the crash. “He had to know it was eventually going to come out”.

Dan’s Story

At the time of the accident, Daniel was in his fourth year of a local culinary arts program. “I was supposed to be in night school that night and it was my brother’s birthday and we were all hanging out,” he said. “So I left my brother, Jessica, and Melissa at my grandmother’s house where we were staying and said, ‘I’ve got to go to night school.’

“So I went to night school. My teacher wasn’t there. Jess kept calling me, saying ‘come out, come out. Melissa wants you to hang out with her for (Shaun’s) birthday. So I said, ‘alright,’ and I ditched night school and went to hang out with them. And the accident happened.”

While Daniel is still remorseful over what happened that night, he insists the accident was not a result of road rage. What really happened, he claims, was an act of teenage immaturity. “These girls and my brother were actually anticipating and egging me following this other vehicle” before the accident occurred, he said. “I feel bad. I was responsible. My brother looked at me and I looked at him and he said ‘let’s go.’ A young kid’s mind is going to be like let’s have fun.”

And Daniel disputes the claim that the girls were upset by his erratic driving. “The girls said they were scared for their lives. I stopped probably three times at three different lights,” he said, noting that he believes the girls could have gotten out of the car then if they were worried about their safety. However, Jessica claims it was too dangerous to leave the car.

To date, Daniel feels that “nobody paid much detail to the accident, to the true facts. All they really looked at was the end result. If I had recklessly and road ragingly been driving, I would have passed this guy way before Yardville-Hamilton Square Road.”

“If I was really in a road rage manner don’t you think I would have blown past that guy probably a mile before the accident? I am not a bad person at all. I would never wish harm on anybody. After the accident, my God, I was back and forth to every single hospital, Philly and Jefferson. I was sending the girls roses; (I was) by their side.

Case Goes to Court

In the fall of 2006, the case went to trial. “Daniel was so cocky the whole time. He was telling people he was going to get off,” Scott said.

Instead, Daniel was found guilty of assault by auto in the fourth degree. But, “it means that there is no jail-time presumption. They were going to charge him, but he wasn’t going to go to jail,” Scott said.

In response, local Assemblyman Bill Baroni (R-Mercer/Middlesex) suggested that the Rogers start a petition recommending the judge sentence Daniel to jail. Two days before sentencing, the Rogers presented the judge with a petition signed by more than 1,500 area residents.

After evaluating the case, the judge ruled that Daniel would go to jail for six months and then remain on probation for five years. “He wouldn’t have even went to jail if it wasn’t for the petition,” Scott said, adding that Daniel also lost his license for two years and has mandatory community service hours to complete.

After the judge made his ruling, “(Dan) said ‘I’m sorry the girls got hurt, but I’m not sorry for the way I was driving because teenagers nowadays have to drive that way to prove who they are’,” Jessica added.

However, according to Daniel, that is not what he meant. “They got it twisted. That’s where they made me look bad. It wasn’t the fact that I wanted to prove a point that teenagers want to drive like restless maniacs. At the given circumstances at the time, it was just a teenage irresponsible action.”

This past May, Daniel was released from prison this May. He served 102 days in jail and more than half of that was in a Halfway House, Scott said. Stunned by Daniel’s early release, the Rogers began working with local legislators to increase penalties for other drivers who demonstrate acts of road rage.

Jessica’s Law

Road rage is when “you get into a frenzy and you really can’t control yourself (while driving). You’re just going through the motions,” Scott said. “(Injuries) never (seem to) happen to the one who has the road rage himself; it’s always the passengers that get hurt.”

Currently, in the state of New Jersey, drivers can get tickets for careless driving, but road rage is not considered a crime. The Rogers hope to see that change by instituting Jessica’s Law, which would make road rage a primary motor vehicle offense. “It would make it so you could get a road rage ticket without getting into an accident,” Scott said, adding that road rage offenses would carry more weight than careless driving.

Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex/Mercer), who is chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, co-sponsored Jessica’s Law along with Baroni. In June, the committee unanimously voted in favor of the law.

According to Greenstein, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety recently released the results of self-reports in polls, which show that half of the drivers in New Jersey are angry behind the wheel and/or try to punish others. Additionally, more than 60 percent of drivers nationwide, who were recently surveyed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), believe that aggressive driving is a threat to them or their families.

Under Jessica’s Law, the bill states that drivers can be found “guilty of an ‘act of road rage’ if they simultaneously or in immediate succession commit two or more of the following actions while operating a motor vehicle in close proximity to another vehicle during a single, continuous period” of driving for up to five miles.

Road rage is classified as speeding 25 miles per hour or more above the posted speed limit; improper or erratic traffic lane changes; tailgating; improperly passing another vehicle off the pavement or main-traveled portion of the roadway; failing to yield to the right of way; ignoring traffic control devices; making audible verbal threats or insults, flashing headlights; and making demeaning gestures or other such actions, which could cause other drivers to believe that the action was designed to display anger, intimidate, or threaten them; among other offenses.

In a recently released statement, Greenstein said, “Drivers who put their own selfish needs before the safety of the public must be held accountable. Road rage is more than a cultural phenomenon; it is a real threat to others.”

As it stands, first-time offenders will be subject to license suspension for 15 to 30 days and they will also be required to attend a road rage or anger management class. Drivers involved in subsequent offenses within the following two years will also face stiffer fines of up to $1,000 and have their license suspended for up to 120 days.

Jessica’s Law would also allow for tougher penalties under the assault by auto statute. Drivers found guilty of causing serious bodily harm could be charged with a third-degree crime, which could carry as much as a five-year prison term for the driver.

“These are much more serious penalties than in the current law,” Greenstein said.

Scott expects Jessica’s Law to appear before the general Assembly sometime this fall. “If this law can just save one person from getting hurt, it will be worth any ounce of energy we put into it,” Scott said.

In the meantime, Jessica would like to see driver’s education instructors include more in-depth lessons on road rage as part of their curriculum. “I’d like to see (the state) re-do the driver’s education manual and have a section on road rage. It’s a big deal. They need to catch (teens) before they drive…because they could end up like me. They could end up in a wheelchair or, worse, they could die.”

Dan’s Response

Today, Daniel admits that he could have been a much more responsible driver behind the wheel that fateful night. “It was an irresponsible teenage move,” he said.

Like Jessica, Daniel is in support of mandating that individuals with learner’s permits learn about road safety either through driver’s education curriculum or through programming outside the school.

“I feel really terrible (about what happened). It kills me inside,” Daniel said. Since the accident, he has been “learning how to cope with things and deal with things.”

And Daniel is also considering doing some public speaking about the importance of safe driving in hopes that it will prevent others from following in his footsteps.

For more information, visit www.jessicalynnrogers.com.