Cultural Phenomena or Signs of an Archaic System?

Español: ¿Fenómeno Cultural o Señales de un Sistema Perverso?

While my first Op-Ed “The Cost of Doing the Right Thing” (below) described a personal experience, this follow-up piece aims to stimulate further debate and focuses on defining the fundamental problem and suggest possible solutions.

The Dilemma:
¿Should I stay or should I run? That’s the dilemma drivers face when they hit pedestrians. Looking over the corpse of a man I had just hit, I dialed 911 and cooperated fully with the authorities. What more can you expect of a driver in a tragic accident?

The Incentives:
[El Salvador’s] transit system, on the other hand, requires that the few of us that decide to stay do jail time, at least for 72 hours. We also incur in legal, conciliatory and transportation expenses until our confiscated vehicles and licenses are returned, often over a month later. The second paragraph of Article 177 of the Transit Code , in summary, states that “If the driver does not flee, shows no sign of drug use, informs the authorities and takes the victim to a hospital … s/he will not be taken into custody...” While the article’s language clearly intends to encourage citizens to behave responsibly and discourage hit & runs, it accomplishes the exact opposite. When the pedestrian dies on the scene, s/he can no longer be helped, so the driver must go to jail. That is, the few that decide to stick around go to jail.

What happens to those who flee? Let’s be honest: nothing. Consequently, only 10% of drivers in such circumstances reveal themselves, according to the prosecutor in my case, a striking signal of the need for reform. If only 10% of salaried citizens actually paid taxes, would we not reform fiscal policies? If our employee only showed up 10% of the time, would we not explore alternatives?

Reducing the Tendency to Hit & Run:
The same logic applies to traffic accidents. The goal of reducing the tendency to hit & run appears overwhelming for those that consider the decision as primarily a cultural phenomenon. I couldn’t disagree more. Drivers [in El Salvador] with nothing to hide decide to run not because of the culture, but primarily because they fear the practice of jailing citizens in cases of involuntary manslaughter. In essence, the policy leads good people to evade responsibility.

Could a different policy incentivize more responsibility and transparency? There are alternatives like bail or passport confiscation. In the United States, for example, the police on the scene gather statements from the driver, witnesses, test the driver for alcohol, and check the driving record of the perpetrator. Then they make a decision. If the evidence leads the officer to think the driver had been negligent, they detain the driver. If, on the other hand, the officers believe the driver behaved reasonably, they file a report and send the driver home. In the US, a much lower percentage of drivers flee. Do gringos stay because of they are “good people” or because they know that coming forward does not equate to risky jail time and that fleeing would greatly aggravate their punishment?

In addition to modifying the policy, more and better use of technology can offer better results at a reasonable cost. Installing cameras in those intersections with the highest indices of human and material loss could facilitate transparency and the administration of justice in situations where confusion and “survival of the slickest” attitudes currently prevail. Such hard evidence will help protect pedestrians from those that attempt to “escape” and drivers from extortion and false accusations of negligence. This need for transparency applies throughout our lives, from the accountability of the Presidential House (currently a hot topic in ES) to more commonplace situations like traffic accidents and filing taxes.

Conclusion:
Transparent and responsible behavior does not stem from our genes, but from our upbringing and relevant public policies. If we want citizens to behave responsibly, let’s create and implement policies that incentivize responsible behavior and punish evasive and elusive decisions


Gian Paolo Einaudi
Originally published in La Prensa Gráfica on January 8th, 2010: ¿Fenómeno Cultural o Temor a Las Consecuencias?