Last updated at 19:26 20 July 2007

A teenage girl killed another driver after taking her eyes off the road to send a text message.

Rachel Begg saw Maureen Waites's car too late and smashed into the back of it, killing the grandmother instantly.

The 19-year-old, who was texting as she drove home after a date with a boyfriend, told police she had not touched her mobile phone.

But tests revealed she had used it nine times in the 15 minutes before the 70mph crash.

Begg was sentenced to four years of youth detention after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that the crash happened on a wet dual carriageway in total darkness.

Robert Woodcock, prosecuting, said: "Her eyes cannot have been on the road ahead, for if they had been, she would have seen Mrs Waites. Her eyes must have been cast down, and having sent the last message, she realised she was horrifically close to Mrs Waites and probably panicked."

Mrs Waites, from Wingate, County Durham, had been on the way to Newcastle Airport to pick up her sister. The court was told the 64-year-old, who lectured in hairdressing and ran her own salon, made the journey frequently to pick up friends and family.

She had been married to husband George for nearly 50 years. Her daughter, Helen Adams, said: "As a family we are saddened that a 19-year-old girl has been given a term of imprisonment. However, she has shown no remorse or any form of sympathy for our loss.

"The sentence does not reflect the fact that she has taken our mother's life, which was wholly avoidable.

"We sincerely hope that lessons will be learnt from this sentence today."

The 38-year-old solicitor added: "People must stop using mobile phones while driving. The consequences can be fatal and it causes nothing other than heartbreak."

Jools Townsend, of road safety charity Brake, described the sentence as "deplorably low".

"Rachel Begg will probably be free in just two years," she added.

"A woman has lost her life and a family has been devastated by her violent and sudden death, all for the sake of sending a text message."

She called on the Government to make the courts impose tougher sentences on drivers caught using mobiles and to extend the law to cover hands-free kits.

The fine for using a hand-held phone while driving was doubled to £60 earlier this year. Motorists now also face three penalty points.

Surveys show that a third of drivers flout the law by making or receiving calls at the wheel.

Begg, who had been working at a bank prior to training as an accountant, had passed her driving test 18 months before the incident on the A696 last November. The court was told the teenager from Ponteland, Northumberland, suffered post-traumatic stress as a result of the crash in which she damaged her neck.

Judge John Milford banned her from driving for five years and ordered her to take an extended re-test before she would be allowed to return to the roads.

He told her: "To send a text message is even more perilous when the message is at night in a darkened car."

The charge of causing death by dangerous driving carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.