Most of the time, when you come across a dumb criminal story, it’s harmless. Just a chance to laugh at some idiot. Such as, say, the bank robber in Dorchester, Massachusetts who handed his note to the teller without noticing that the guy in line behind him was a police officer — in uniform.
And then there’s this asshole.
Craig Bigos is accused of texting while driving. He was driving home late one night, sending a text message while he should have been steering. He veered off the road and took out a mailbox. He quickly whipped the wheel around and got back on the road, driving far more carefully and thanking his lucky stars that it was only a mailbox he took out.
But it wasn’t a mailbox after all. It was a 13-year-old boy.
Lawmakers in Massachusetts are considering a bill to outlaw text messaging while driving, and they’re using the death of young Earman Machado is evidence that it’s needed.
It’s not.
Bigos is already being charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and driving without a license. Considering that he didn’t have a license at the time and didn’t stop to confirm what he hit, the thought that a law against text messaging might have kept this from happening is absurd.
Besides, what he was doing was already legal. Every state has laws against distracted driving. Had a cop seen him swerving around while he was thumbing out “IDK. My BFF Jill? LOL!”, he’d have been pulled over and cited for that.
It’s been noted that the cops in Massachusetts already have over 1300 reasons to pull over a motorist. And there were laws already in place that covered what he was doing.
Toss the asshole in jail. Let him rot for a few years. But his case does not point out any great gap in the laws — just routine contempt for existing laws, coupled by lackadaisical enforcement.
In other words, par for the course in the Bay State.
