Aaron Deveau, 18, was the first driver to be charged and convicted of motor vehicle homicide by texting under Massachusetts law.
Prosecutors said Deveau, who pleaded not guilty, was texting on Feb. 20, 2011, when his vehicle swerved across the center line of a Haverhill street and crashed head on into Donald Bowley's truck, killing the 55-year-old father of three.
"My brother received such severe head trauma that ... there was no hope for him," the victim's sister Donna Burleigh testified in Haverhill District Court.
Deveau was charged with motor vehicle homicide and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, using a mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle, reading or sending an electronic message, a marked lanes violation, and two counts of negligent operation and injury from mobile phone use.
Deveau's lawyer argued that there was no evidence the crash caused Bowley's death. When Deveau testified Tuesday he said he was distracted by the amount of homework he had to do and was not sending or reading a text message in the moments before the crash. He said he sent his last text message while parked in the parking lot of the grocery store where he worked. According to Deveau's testimony, his phone remained in the passenger's seat until after the crash, when he called his parents.
But prosecutors argued that Deveau was not paying attention when the vehicles collided. Phone records indicated he sent a text message at 2:34 p.m. and received a response at 2:35 p.m. Police said the crash occurred at 2:36 p.m.
"The defendant sent and received 193 texts on Feb 20, 2011," a prosecutor told the court.
In a videotaped statement recorded after the crash, Deveau, then 17, had a question for police: "If anything happens to them, if one passes away, what would happen to me?"
Texting while driving is a crime in Washington, D.C., and 38 states, including Massachusetts. Deveau faces up to four years in prison.

He deserves to go to prison. If texting was such a distraction that it caused him to veer into oncoming traffic, then he should have been smart enough to realize that doing it is a dumb decision. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

Texting is several times worse than simply talking on the phone. Your eyes are away from the road for a much longer time. You won't be able to notice approaching curves or hazards. Let this be a lesson to everyone.

While it's sad that someone died, at least the texting thing is finally getting the attention it deserves.

I had seen a PSA commercial about texting while driving.
It was a POV shot of someone driving, they look at their phone, and look back up, look at their phone and look back up, look at their phone and look bac---CRASH!!!!!

I haven't seen it in a while, I guess people thought it was too graphic.

holy crap ... the man deserves to go to jail! I say, not fair to take a life for a text message, that just shows a little awareness and little interest in the welfare of its own, is not it punishable to use the mobile while driving? should be in all fromas, right? either call, text message or whatever you go by, least I hope from now on the rules become harder about this problem, it is, and more people take real awareness of this.

bump

>>6
Thanks. Was about to bump that off to.

bump for sheer stupidity