South Kingstown Woman Sentenced to Probation for BlackBerry Crash

A South Kingstown woman has been ordered to complete probation and community service after pleading no contest in Washington County Superior Court to charges of hitting a woman with her truck while she was trying to check the messages on her BlackBerry.

Dianne Wales, 39, of 53 Wingate Road, South Kingstown, pleaded Tuesday to South Kingstown charges of causing serious bodily injury with a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident.

For each charge, Superior Court Associate Justice Edwin Gale ordered Wales to complete 50 hours of community service and to contribute $1,000 to the Violent Crimes Indemnity Fund. She was also ordered to serve three years probation, to surrender her license for 18 months and to pay $2,480 in assessments.

According to South Kingstown police reports included in court documents, the accident occurred on Nov. 4, 2009. Wales struck Wakefield resident Sheila Brogna while she was looking down, checking an e-mail on her BlackBerry.

Wales told police that she stopped her silver Ford Escape shortly after the accident and looked back, but didn't see anything, and continued driving. Police wrote that when they told Wales she had hit a person, she broke down and began sobbing.

According to an article in The South County Independent, Brogna's sister, Elizabeth Abbott, said she would never have full use of her left foot because of the accident.