Despite penalties, many fear message may not be heeded
By Billy Baker Globe Staff / June 7, 2012
HAVERHILL - They have heard it from their teachers. They have heard it from their parents. They have seen the commercials and the billboards. For a while, Haverhill High School even had a smashed-up car out front as a visible warning of the dangers of texting and driving.
After a judge imposed the maximum sentence Wednesday on a local teenager who became the first person in the state convicted of causing a fatal crash while texting, it is still not clear the message is sinking in.
"There are still people out there who will say, 'Too bad for that dude, but it won't happen to me,' '' said Ashley Cochran, 19, as she sipped an ice coffee in a Tedeschi's parking lot with her friend Chrissy Levesque, 17. "We have a lot of friends who pick up a text while they're driving, and I say, 'Don't do it,' but they say, 'I'll be fine, I'll be fine.' ''
Levesque said texting while driving is definitely a problem among young people and said her own sister was the worst kind of offender. "She'll be smoking a cigarette, taking a sip of her coffee, and texting at the same time.''
Aaron Deveau - who was 17 in February 2011, when he drifted over the center lane on River Street and slammed head-on into a car driven by Donald Bowley Jr., 56 - was convicted of motor vehicle homicide and negligent operation of a motor vehicle causing serious injury while texting. Bowley died 18 days after the crash. His girlfriend, Luz Roman, was injured.
During the trial, prosecutors used phone records to argue that Deveau was texting just before the accident, an assertion he denied on the witness stand.
In issuing the sentence, a year in prison, District Court Judge Stephen Abany said his primary concern was that it be a deterrent to others.
But punishing him as a warning to others did not sit well with Nick Calogerro, 17.
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