“She drove without any concept that people might be in her path”
A California woman who was texting while driving has been sentenced to six years for gross vehicular manslaughter. This is still a relatively evolving area of law so the sentence is noteworthy.
And despite heartfelt claims from Matis-Engle’s friends that she was a caring, loving and gentle person, Beatty said it was clear to her that the woman’s personality changed dramatically when behind the wheel of a vehicle.
“She drove without any concept that people might be in her path,” Beatty said.
Bridgett said that Matis-Engle used her cell phone to conduct three separate bill-paying transactions in the final four minutes before the collision and was in the middle of one of those transactions when she slammed into Winn’s car.
She also said that Matis-Engle was well aware of the construction work on Highway 44 because she drove the roadway every day, but ignored eight highway construction warning signs and was concentrating on her cell phone - and not on her driving - when she slammed into Winn’s car near Dersch Road driving at least 66 mph.
These sentences convey an important truth; that most people involved in negligent driving of this sort aren’t “bad people” or homicidal maniacs, and to demonize them in that regard is counter-productive, as it may reinforce the notion among the rest of us that it’s the “other person” we all need to be concerned with, that our own driving is “above average,” etc. What does need to demonized, rather than blithely accepted and tacitly encouraged, is the culture of multi-tasking while driving. There is something else to note here. The incident happened on a road well familiar to the driver, but the circumstances had changed a bit, and the driver, while obviously thinking everything was under control, was actually under a severe attentional deficit — had there been a camera and eye-tracking software in the car we may have even seen the driver looking ahead (but “looking without seeing,” as it goes). A last point to make is that had the driver been intoxicated, the sentence would surely be higher still. As the science comes in on distracted driving, is the distinction between alcohol and texting going to hold?
(thanks Rich)
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This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 9:55 am and is filed under Traffic safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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April 6th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Ugly story but it is indicative of the risks distracted (ie. careless and negligent) drivers create by their self-centered activities. To realize that the victim died at the accident scene (trapped in the vehicle and it burst into flames) makes the six years (eligible for parole in three) seem too short in balancing the scales of justice.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I can’t agree more. This morning I drove about 10 miles down the highway watching the SUV in front of me spend more time out of the lane (half-way in the breakdown lane) than in his lane. When I finally passed him (he had slowed to well below the speed limit) I saw that he was busy using his PDA. “Intexticated” for sure. What a menace, especially when his SUV is twice the size of my car.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
We need to start taking away driving privileges for bad drivers before they kill people. Is this person going to be allowed to drive when she gets out of jail? Taking away their license is the only way to get these people to take driving seriously.