British teen sentenced to prison in fatal SMS texting while driving case
By Will Park on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 PM PST In Announcements, General
As if to put the icing on the New York senator’s SMS text-message-ban cake, a UK Judge sentenced 19 year old Brit Rachel Begg to four years of hard time for rear-ending 64 year o ld Maureen Waites and subsequently killing her. The case would normally seem like an extremely unfortunate accident, except the cause of the fatal collision was the incredibly irresponsible teenager’s repeated use of her mobile phone – 9 times in the 15 minutes leading up to the accident.
According to The Post Chronicle, the teenager lacked the wherewithal to understand that driving at 70mph while tapping out SMS text messages on a dark and rainy night could be a bad idea. That slight oversight resulted in Begg rear-ending Waites, causing her car to spin out and hit a barrier.
It looks like little Rachel’s aspirations to become an accountant will be put on hold, indefinitely. Some people just have to learn the hard way.
[Via: Textually]
