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as Road Killer |
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The Register UK
reports
Paul Browning was sentenced to five years
imprisonment yesterday after a judge ruled that he had been using his
mobile to send a text message while driving a truck at over 50mph.
Browning veered into a lay by, hitting and killing Paul Hammond.
The judge took the unusual step of ordering a hearing despite a guilty
plea to the charge of causing death by dangerous driving, because he
wanted to determine whether Browning had been using his phone at the
time of the accident.
Investigators obtained a copy of the message
from Browning to his then girlfriend, from the network operator,
Orange. It read: "Oh yes! A real scorcher! Well, just leaving
Benfleet for WThurrock. Job 7 of 11. Oh shit!I'll call u back"
The police also performed an analysis of Browning's SIM card. They
found that the message was sent four minutes after the crash.
SMH reports
another similar case of SMS as road killer.
A young female driver who killed a cyclist while she
was text messaging will walk free after a judge today gave her a fully
suspended two-year prison sentence.
Silvia Nicole Ciach, 24, of Curlewis, pleaded guilty
to culpable driving causing death after her car smashed into a bicycle
ridden by 36-year-old Anthony Marsh on Port Arlington Road, near
Geelong, on December 31, 2001.
The County Court in Geelong was told earlier that
Ciach had not seen Mr Marsh's bicycle because she was writing a text
message to let a friend in Melbourne know she would be meeting her at
one o'clock.
Never talk or text on your mobile when you are
driving.
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