I, for one, welcome our new RINO Overlords /.
Posted on 05/31/2012 7:57:25 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Yesterday in a Haverhill courtroom, jurors heard a taped police interview of Aaron Deveau admitting he was “tired,” “distracted” and speeding when his Blue Chevy Malibu hit the red Toyota Corolla driven by 55-year-old Donald Bowley Jr., who was killed, and Luz Selena Roman, 58, who was severely injured.
But Deveau, 18, denied he was talking on the phone or texting, though he is accused of vehicular homicide in the state’s first texting-while-driving case.
Attorneys here clearly expect many more of these cases — and more survivors of those injured to sue for damages from not just texting teens but the parents of those teens when parents own the car.
Google “Massachusetts,” “texting,” and “accidents.” You’ll find pages of listings for personal injury lawyers saying more or less the same thing: “If you, or someone close to you, was injured in a motor vehicle accident in which texting while driving played a role, contact”:
• The lawyers at Breakstone, White & Gluck, who cite more than 80 years’ combined experience ...
• The attorneys at Colucci, Colucci, Marcus & Flavin, who claim a proven record of success ...
• Danvers Distracted Driver Accident Attorney Stephen D. Walsh, who says he is available to visit you at home or in the hospital ...
If you’re a parent petrified that your own teen may be texting while driving too, here’s the possible nightmare scenario, said Randy Chapman, former chief of the Essex motor vehicle homicide unit. Say your teen, like most teens, texts nonstop. Say you’ve caught your teen texting once, maybe more, behind the wheel. Say you let your teen borrow the car anyway, and your texting teen causes an accident. Then a lawyer listed above could civilly sue for your home, your savings, your everything.
We can all sit in judgment and say texting teen drivers, and their parents, deserve everything they get. Here’s the irony: “People universally say it is wrong, but it’s something people universally do,” Chapman said.
In fact, numerous studies say millions of us, kids and adults, text while driving. That’s many more than would ever drink and drive anymore, though texting while driving “is probably more dangerous,” said David White of Breakstone, White & Gluck.
In the police tape yesterday, Aaron Deveau at one point asked about the two victims, Bowley and Roman, “If anything happens to them, if one of them passes away, what would happen to me?” Well, we know this much: He faces four years in jail. Prosecutors said he sent or received 193 texts messages in the hours before the tragic crash. And we know this, too: 193 texts in a few hours makes him not very different from lots of our own kids.
Just hope yours really listens next time you repeat, for the millionth time, don’t text when you’re driving. Please.
Someone has to die because this jerk is texting unimportant stuff? A cell phone, maybe I could see. Most people can probably phone and drive at the same time but some can't handle it. But texting? Seriously? In MA there is a law against it, a $100 fine I think.
In Feb of 11, a 21 yr old drove his car into the Waters River in Danvers MA. He managed to escape and the car was fished out.
He had been texting.
Aw, no big deal, kid, pay your $100 fine and be careful next time.
There are other distractions of course--and in THOSE cases, prohibitions are very necessary like drunk driving. A while back, an elderly couple were getting donuts from a place in Haverhill to bring to their church. A drunk woman (at 5 am) slammed into the car and the elderly woman died. (I found out later the perpetrator, who is now in jail, is the daughter of a distant cousin of mine). And a couple yrs back a bunch of boozing teens went for a drive in the wee hours. They had attended a booze-free prom and boat cruise but when it ended, they got a bunch of beer someone had bought for them, partied in the woods, and the driver of the car--who had been up for 24 hours straight--slammed into a woman, killing her. Saugus police found a bunch of brewskis in the vehicle.
When will people learn?
This is why you have car insurance. A 300/500K policy plus a 5M umbrella can be useful.
Sue them so hard their ancestors feel it.
1) Operating laptops
2) Reading newspapers
3) Women putting on makeup
4) Routing through briefcases, backpacks etc...
And they act surprised when you hit the horn because they just missed you.
And remember most of these kids think they are 10 foot tall bullet proof geniuses
The use of the mobile phone, whether for a call or texting is the biggest threat on the road today.
I drive about 100 miles a day and consistently have to avoid two incidents.
"Honk if you love Jesus. Text if you want to meet him."
I disagree- I think texting is extremely bad and dangerous TO OTHERS
I have witnessed 2 accidents where a car right next to me (stopped at a red light) was rear-ended by someone texting
In one case the car was next to me when he was hit from behind, in the other the car was one car length ahead of me in the lane next to me, and i was looking out the window as a car plowed into it and i could see the girl texting through the window of her her car as she hit the person in front of her (it could have been me and MY kids she hit0
Texting (and to a lesser extent) cell phone driving is dangerous AND there should be a law against it like there is a law against drunk driving.
I do hate making a new law for every new thing- it should ALL be covered under one ‘unsafe action’ law that covers driving drunk, texting, digging out a slice of pizza while taking it home (someone very stupid, possibly me, got into a fender bender doing that)
I’m against nanny-state laws too. Still, so long as the rest of the public is in favor of telling me that I can’t drink and drive, I see no reason to have sympathy for texting and driving because “everyone does it”. The public wants these nanny state restrictions, they just don’t like it when it applies to something they like to do. Tough teats, said Keats, you get what you ask for.
This is a confluance of both civil and criminal law IMO. Criminally, I see no liability for the parent owner of the car their half whit son used to kill someone. Civilly, you are responsible for your car no matter whom is driving it...remember, one insures a car. Consider that when someone wishes to borrow your car for any reason.
As soon as we legally could get our cars into the names of our kids, the quicker we did it. Maybe they had to pay a higher premium than as a part time driver under our family policy but tought noogies....Frankly, even then some shyster will try to show you still owned the car and were civilly responsible.
The writer tells us the red Corolla was driven by two people. Are there no competent editors at all now?
NOPE!
We are suffering under the first full set of graduates from the latter day publi education system (all the way through college/univesity degrees) wherein all the B$ courses have displace all the basic, important stuff.
As far back as late 70’s, when our kids were in elementary school, the handout they brought home from the Irvine,CA schools were filled with grammar and spelling errors. (Irvine being a city one paid a hefty premium to live in because of the supposedly “best schools in the country.)
Around the same time, a buddy’s high school teacher wife threatened to divorce him if he continued grading their son’s handouts and returning them to the principal of his elementary svhool.
S, NOW those kids are in their late thirties, early forties and are assuming the positions of influence throughout our society.
As a result we have grammar and spelling and word usage travesties occurring daily EVERYWHERE.
I recently saw a a major, full color Veterinary magazine with “site” instead of “sight” used on the COVER!
The dumbing down continues unchecked ..............
I think everyone should be restricted to their bedroom and everything in it should be covered in bubble wrap. its the only way to be sure.
“...denied he was talking on the phone or texting...”
Aren’t phone records public information in legal discovery?
If a lawyer really wanted to rack up some cash, he’d be aiming at the cell phone provider service also!
As far as texting while driving goes, it’s just plain stupid if you don’t have an accident.
If you DO have an accident and someone is hurt, it’s criminal.
It’s the very definition of “reckless driving”.
Sigh.
Nope. Just in-office 'reporters' who depend on SPELL-CHECKERS.
Nuke it from orbit, it is the only way to be sure
In texting lawsuits?
...uh, just when DID Algore invent the internet?
I, for one, welcome our new RINO Overlords /.
Spell-check would never have caught this. It's the "overmodification" issue, common among mediocre writers, whereby an excess of information accretes upon the base clause and royally mucks it up.
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