Mobile web use caused fatal accident: Woman gets 6 years in prison
There are certain things that impair a person's ability to safely drive as much as alcohol or drugs. Using a cell phone is one them. Putting on makeup is another. Being extremely tired is another.
Below is an article describing a woman in California who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing another person because her multitasking (paying bills on her cell phone while speeding) was more important to her than the lives that she was putting in danger.
Calif woman gets 6 years for fatal texting crash: "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."
If instead of using her cell phone, she was drunk or on drugs, nobody would have a problem with a six year sentence. In fact, most people would think it was way too lenient.
This woman is just as bad as any drunk driver. Just as most drunk drivers don't intend to kill somebody, I'm sure she didn't either. But she did intend her actions, and should have been able to foresee the potential consequences, just as a person who chooses to drink and then drive should know the risks.
I'm a defense attorney, so this position will not be a popular one amongst my peers, but I'll say it anyways. This woman deserves every bit of six years, if not more. She needs to serve as an example to millions of others who are doing the same thing as her on the roads every day.
If we enforce DUI laws and abhor the decision to drink and drive, we must treat equally dangerous and negligent actions while driving equally. While I feel sorry for her to have to spend six years of her life behind bars, she did kill another human being because she was too self-involved to care about other people.
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