Advocacy & Safety - Message to Texting Drivers

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_on_re_us/text_crash

CALIF WOMAN GETS SIX YEARS FOR FATAL TEXTING CRASH

Sat Apr 4, 1:02 pm ET
REDDING, Calif. – A woman who crashed into a line of stopped vehicles while text-messaging on her cell phone has been sentenced to six years in a California prison for killing a woman in one of the vehicles.
Deborah Matis-Engle was sentenced Friday by a judge in Redding, Calif.
Investigators said Deborah Matis-Engle was speeding and text messaging when she slammed into the vehicles stopped at a construction zone in August 2007.
Shasta County prosecutor Stephanie Bridgett said the 49-year-old woman had paid several bills by cell phone in the moments before the crash.
She was in the middle of one of those transactions when she struck a vehicle that burst into flames, killing 46-year-old Petra Winn.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Stotter said he will appeal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_on_re_us/text_crash

Do you think any text messaging drivers will read this post? if not, what is YOUR point for the A & S readers?

I'm replying to this thread on my phone while driving.

Driving while texting ought to carry the same penalties as DUI.

Driving while texting ought to carry the same penalties as DUI.

Of course. Enforcement is a problem now though. Technology will change that in the future I'm sure.

Only 6 years?

I saw a public bus driver looking up a number on her PDA in one hand and dialing her phone with the other. How was she steering the bus, with her knees? This was a full sized mass transit bus on a narrow two lane road.

Do you think any text messaging drivers will read this post? if not, what is YOUR point for the A & S readers?



The "message" that I was referring to was the six year sentence.

Only 6 years?

That was for killing a motorist... killing a cyclist probably would not have brought that sort of sentence.

A good, proportionate result

It doesn't amaze me what drivers do. Years ago I saw one driver in her car...for all intents and purposes it was her mobile office cubicle with post-its on the steering wheel.

On a side note I never could get the knack or the balance for riding a bike hands-free...

That was for killing a motorist... killing a cyclist probably would not have brought that sort of sentence.


I hope that isn't true, but I did want cyclists to see the article as a kind of "reference point".

I hope that isn't true, but I did want cyclists to see the article as a kind of "reference point".

Well cyclists have been killed by texting motorists... and the motorist has not gotten "6 years."

There was just such a report here on BF about a year or so ago.

The "message" that I was referring to was the six year sentence.
You may find that your experience on BF will be enhanced by judicious use of the ignore list.

Yesterday, I was riding on a curvy back country road, and a motorist failed to negotiate a corner properly. This put him in a direct collision course with me before he corrected. His car was almost entirely in the wrong lane. At first I thought it was an idiot trying to intimidate me, but then I saw he was laid out sideways leaning on his elbow on the passenger seat and had his phone supported by his neck. I suspect if one of the speed demon motorists that frequent that road had been in my position there would have been a serious accident.

You may find that your experience on BF will be enhanced by judicious use of the ignore list.

The ignore function is especially useful for posters unable to understand that not every poster will share their opinion or point of view. Its use is often promoted by self appointed guardians of the Conventional Wisdom and/or morons who comment ofn the content of posters whom they are allegedly ignoring