Governor Corzine has nominated Zulima Farber as his choice for state attorney general.  State Senators at Farber’s initial confirmation hearing queried her about the 12 speeding tickets she has received, and the various driver license suspensions imposed on her after failure to appear in court following some of the speeding citations. 

  Farber told the Senate panel she is embarrassed about her driving record and would consider counseling to remedy the situation.  News reports said that former governor James McGreevey considered Farber but passed her over when the driving record issues came to light. 

   Farber’s nomination is a troubling sign of the low regard driving laws are accorded and the extent to which anti-social behavior at the wheel is seen as normal throughout U.S. society.  While other types of crime are addressed obsessively by politicians and press, dangerous, often deadly, driving behavior is generally winked at by opinion makers (witness wide NJ editorial support for Farber) and broadly tolerated by the legal system, and the problem seems to be getting worse. 

   Since the Campaign has tracked traffic deaths across New Jersey, beginning in the early 1990s, we’ve seen little improvement. Statewide traffic deaths predictably exceed 730 per year. We recently called on officials across the region to find ways to apply a “broken window theory” to traffic crime (MTR #518b), where zero tolerance for basic infractions can help reduce the dangerous driving that takes such a high death and injury toll across the region.  Placing a habitual speeder in the state’s top  law enforcement position hardly seems the place to start. 

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