Massachusetts Teen Sentenced to Prison for Causing Fatal Crash After Texting
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Saying he needed to deter others from texting while driving, a Massachusetts judge on Wednesday sentenced a teen to prison for causing a fatal crash.
Judge Stephen Abany sentenced Aaron Deveau to 2½ years in prison, but said he would suspend all but one year of the sentence, report the Associated Press and the Boston Globe.
Deveau was 17 at the time of the February 2011 accident that killed 55-year-old Donald Bowley Jr. of New Hampshire. Deveau was texting minutes before his car crossed the center line and collided with Bowley’s vehicle, prosecutors had alleged. Deveau had testified he had placed his phone on the passenger seat and was thinking about homework when the crash occurred.
Deveau was convicted of vehicle homicide and negligent operation of a motor vehicle while texting.
Deterrence “really seems to come to play in this case,” Abany said on Wednesday. Drivers need to “keep their eyes on the road.”
