A young bank worker who caused a fatal accident while sending a text message while driving at 70mph was jailed last week for four years.
Rachel Begg, 19, who hoped to become an accountant, used her mobile phone nine times during a 15-minute journey before ploughing into the back of a car driven by a 64-year-old grandmother, Maureen Waites.
Begg was taken to hospital with neck injuries and denied initially that she had been using the phone. But police checks showed that she had made and received calls during the journey, as well as reading and sending text messages.
Begg, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving, wept in the dock as the final moments before the accident last November were described in court.
Brake, the national road safety charity, condemned the four-year sentence as ‘deplorably low’. Jools Townsend, head of education, said: “Rachel Begg will probably be free in just two years. The justice system needs to get tough on drivers who take needless risks with terrible consequences.”
