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Texting and Driving DON'T MIX. Drivers have to be very careful when on the road to ensure that they minimize any and all distractions from their attention to the road. Tragic consequences can very easily occur when you are distracted during driving. It is especially sad when tragedy occurs in preventable circumstances.

June 26, 2010, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

As resported in the news recently, a driver caused a tragedy to occur when her attention was diverted from the road while she was texting and she rear ended another vehicle causing the trafic death of a young man.
 
 
Texting linked to fatal crash
 
An Edmonton woman believed to have been texting when she drove into the rear of a landscaping truck - crushing to death a teen worker - has admitted responsibility.
Taryn Crawford, 25, pleaded guilty to careless driving Thursday in provincial court.
Crown prosecutor Brendan Gaunt told court Crawford had been driving her Honda Civic about 10:25 a.m. on July 24 when "for some reason" she ran into the back of a work truck, pinning Sefatullah Khanzadeh, 19, resulting in "severe crushing" injuries that led to his death.
While there was no mention in the abbreviated facts read in to secure the guilty plea of Crawford texting on her cellphone at the time, it was cited in a recent Alberta Workplace Health and Safety report into the fatality.
The Feb. 23 report says Crawford "was distracted from driving responsibilities and did not see the landscape truck or (Khanzadeh)," and describes what the driver behind her saw after stopping and going over to the car.
"The witness stated that when the passenger vehicle's driver got out of her vehicle, she was seen to be texting on her cellphone," says the report. "The driver of the passenger vehicle did not even know that she had crushed a landscape worker."
The report also notes there were no visible skid marks; indicating Crawford did not attempt to stop before the collision, and says the province will consult with city police about using the incident in a commercial to alert drivers to the dangers and consequences of using a cellphone and texting while driving.
Court heard the work crew was doing weeding work on the centre median and there had been traffic pylons around the truck to direct drivers into the other lane.
At the time of the collision, Khanzadeh had been picking up the pylons and throwing them into the back of the truck while the driver was slowly going backwards.
Several other vehicles were going north on the road pulled over to the outside lane after seeing the truck.
Crawford is slated to be sentenced on June 29 after the matter was adjourned to allow Khanzadeh's family the opportunity to come to court and read their victim impact statements.
Under the Traffic Safety Act, the maximum punishment available is a $2,000 fine and six months in jail, along with a 90-day driving prohibition.
At the time of the death, Khanzadeh's family said he was a hard-working, popular and well-loved young man who came to Canada from Afghanistan with his mother and sister about five years earlier.
The teen had been working for the company for a couple of years to help support his aging mother. He was also a high school student in the city.

 

About Paquette Travers & Deutschmann

Paquette Travers & Deutschmann serve South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann and Doug O’Toole focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us toll-free at 1-866-414-4878.

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