Massachusetts man convicted of texting-related vehicular homicide
An 18 year old male recently became the first driver in Massachusetts to be charged and convicted for texting related vehicular homicide. On February 20, 2011, the male was driving his car in Haverhill, Massachusetts when he lost control of the vehicle and crossed the street’s center line into oncoming traffic. His vehicle collided head on with a truck driven by a 55 year old man who later died due to massive head trauma sustained in the collision. The 18 year old male stood trial for charges of negligent operation of a motor vehicle, two counts of negligent operation and injury from mobile phone use, a marked lanes violation, reading or sending an electronic message using a mobile phone while driving, and motor vehicle homicide. He pled not guilty to all charges and denied sending or reading a text message at the time of the accident, but prosecutors produced phone records indicating that he had sent a text message two minutes before the time of the accident and received a reply a minute before. The male said the phone remained on the passenger seat throughout the car trip, and he only retrieved it after the accident occurred in order to call his parents. Phone records also indicate he had sent and received a total of 193 text messages on the day of the accident. The jury found the defendant guilty of motor vehicle homicide, and he was sentenced to prison for a term of up to four years.
