Text-messaging leads to another bicyclist’s death; new laws in 2008
Text-messaging leads to another bicyclist’s death; new laws in 2008
The man accused this week of killing a 13-year-old bicyclist in a hit-and-run collision in Massachusetts was typing a text message on his cellphone when he lost control of his SUV.
Prosecutors say the 31-year-old man thought he had struck a mailbox in the 12:30 a.m. collision. The boy, Earman Machado, was riding at the edge of the road while his friend walked on the soft shoulder.
The frequency of such accidents have prompted legislatures in New Jersey and Washington to prohibit text-messaginig while driving as of next year. It’s amazing that people need laws to prohibit them from doing something so obviously distracting as text-messaging while behind the wheel. California also enacted cellphone laws effective in 2008.