A Boston judge’s unprecedented sentencing hopes to save lives by deterring texting while driving. He sent an eighteen-year-old driver to jail for two years and suspended his right to drive for 15 years.
The teenager was texting while driving. He was not paying attention and crossed the center line. He hit a truck head-on and killed the driver. While the teen says he was distracted by homework and wasn’t texting, phone records show otherwise. “The way we’re beginning to understand the danger of [distracted driving] is by people getting hurt and dying. And that needs to change,” says David Teater, senior director of the transportation initiative at the National Safety Council.
This ruling may seem harsh but the Judge said that “people really want to be safe on the highways [and drivers need] to keep their eyes on the road.”
Other judges have followed the lead of the Boston judge. A man in Ohio was sentenced to three and a half years in prison after causing a texting while driving death. A 16-year-old girl in Kansas City is under house arrest for causing the death of an elderly man while texting while driving.
Be smart and put away the phone until you’ve stopped and turned off the car. You could save a life – maybe even your own.
For More Information:
- Texting death nets Kansas City girl jail time, house arrest, News-Press Now
