Woman who caused crash while texting heading to prison

A Cedar Rapids, Iowa woman who was texting when her car collided with another vehicle has been given two years in prison.

Station KCRG reports that 22-year-old Kaitlyn Richards also was fined $625 at her sentencing hearing Tuesday in Iowa City. She’d pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors dropped a charge of vehicular homicide in exchange.

The judge rejected a recommendation of probation, but Richards didn’t withdraw her plea upon learning that she’d be imprisoned.

Richards admitted that she was texting on Jan. 24, 2016, when her car ran into the rear of a sport utility vehicle on Interstate 80 in Coralville.

The impact pushed the SUV into the path of a semitrailer, and the SUV driver was killed by the truck’s impact. The SUV driver was identified as 54-year-old Patricia Mittauer, who lived in Swisher.