Gwinnett County Woman Charged with Vehicular Homicide for Texting While Driving
As an Atlanta car accident lawyer, I have written several times in the last 3 months about the dangers of texting and driving. In each blog, I have talked about the injuries or deaths caused at the hands of drivers operating motor vehicles while texting. I have also talked about the citations issued to the drivers of the vehicles, and in one blog, I wrote about the legislation introduced in the Georgia state house to make texting and driving illegal.
Now, even before any legislation has been passed, according to an article in the AJC on line, the Gwinnett county police department has charged a 48 year old woman with vehicular homicide arising from the death of a pedestrian the woman ran over while allegedly texting and driving on a rainy night on October 30, 2009. Along with a charge of vehicular homicide, the woman was also charged with reckless driving, failure to exercise due care and engaging in actions which distract from the safe operation of a motor vehicle.
Although the article made clear that the charge is going to be fought hard by the woman and her lawyer, what is important is that this appears to be the first time in Gwinnett County a vehicular homicide charge has been levied against a driver when someone is killed while the driver is texting and operating a motor vehicle. I believe this will become common place in all Georgia counties, especially once the General assembly passes legislation making texting and driving illegal.
Driving and texting is clearly a deadly combination. Now, a driver who negligently kills another motorist or pedestrian can expect to be charged with vehicular homicide and may spend many years in jail. If you are texting and driving, please think of these consequences before you do it again. It is clearly not worth it.
