Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Roddy Graham's Blog: 5 February 2009 - Shameful phone driving
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Roddy Graham's Blog: 5 February 2009 - Shameful phone driving

Date: 05 February 2009

Roddy Graham is chairman of the ICFM and commercial director of Leasedrive Velo

Twenty-one months for an innocent victim's life - you wonder whether there really is any justice in the world.

I refer to the case of Victoria McBryde, a 24-year-old young lady who was tragically killed as she waited for breakdown assistance following a puncture.

Her stationary car was struck at 70mph and she died from head injuries. The driver who killed her, 21-year-old Philippa Curtis, was using her mobile phone while driving in the dark on wet roads.

In 2007, 25 people were killed through motorists using a hand-held mobile phone while driving. In this latest case, Philippa Curtis had sent and received more than 20 texts before the crash!

During the court hearing, she stated in her defence that she felt that there were times when using a hand-held phone while driving was okay and claimed she could send and receive messages without taking her eye off the road. All I can say is that such comments besides being patently untrue are clearly indefensible.

Apparently, sentencing guidelines were recently tightened up so courts could try to stamp out such recklessness. Clearly, the judge in this case did not bother to read the script.

We've all read of needless fatalities involving illegal use of hand-held mobile phones but this woman should have been made an example of. In this instance, it was not the misguided single use at the wrong moment, the woman was obviously a compulsive texter. To make things worse, she wasn't even wearing any shoes at the time of the incident but had been driving barefoot!



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