19 year old Briton Rachel Begg has been sentenced to four years in a young offender institution for causing death by dangerous driving. Begg, who had only been driving for 18 months when the incident occurred last November, was sending text messages as she sped along a road near Newcastle. In the rain. At night. Doing 70mph.
Police checked her cell phone records and found that she had used her phone nine times in 15 minutes, and wasn't paying any attention to the road when she came up behind 64 year old Maureen Waites and rear ended her. Waites' car span off the road and into the barrier, killing her instantly.
The judge in the case, Judger Milford, said "The cause of this accident was that you failed to see her, until it was too late, for the simple reason that you had been sending a text message to your male friend,? he said. ?To send a text message is even more perilous at night in a darkened car."
