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Supreme Court Upholds Texting While Driving Conviction

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The New Hampshire Supreme Court has unanimously uphelda Barnstead man’s conviction for second-degree assault after he veered into the oncoming lane while checking a text message.

Chad Belleville, who’s serving a seven-year sentence, drifted across a center turning lane on Route 28 in Pittsfield on a cold December night in 2010. He narrowly missed one car, and slammed into a second, causing permanent brain damage to a 17-year-old passenger. Belleville immediately erased his cell phone’s call history, but later admitted to the police that he had been checking a text message when the accident occurred.

His lawyers argued that there was insufficient evidence to show he was driving negligently, but Wednesday the State Supreme Court concluded that this was more than just a case of momentary inattention, like from changing a radio station or sneezing. The justices rejected the appeal, calling Belleville’s conduct a quote “gross deviation from the conduct of a law-abiding citizen.”

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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