A TEENAGE driver who sent a text message on her mobile phone moments before she crashed into another car at 70mph and killed a grandmother has appealed against her jail sentence.

Rachel Begg, who was sentenced to four years for death by dangerous driving, had been using her phone only seconds before she crashed into 64-year-old Maureen Waites' hatchback.

In the 12 minutes before the crash, near Newcastle Airport last November, 19-year-old Begg used her phone nine times to send and receive calls and texts.

As a result, Begg was not watching the road and her VW Polo crashed into the back of Mrs Waites' Citroen, killing the mother-of-two instantly.

Yesterday, Mrs Waites' grieving family said they were not shocked at the teenager's attempt to get her sentence reduced.

However, her daughter, Helen Adams, who is a solicitor in Hartlepool, said she believed it would be wrong for Begg's sentence to be cut.

"I'm not angry or upset about the fact she has appealed - I'm upset she killed my mother," said Mrs Adams. "People cannot possibly comprehend what it's been like for us. I am still very, very upset that she has shown no remorse for what she did."

Mrs Adams said she believed Begg viewed the crash as an accident.

But she added: "It was an accident that she caused because she was not looking through the windscreen. I don't wish to be vindictive, but we are still deeply saddened that she has never made any form of contact, through any channels whatsoever, to show any remorse.

"People need to realise how easy it can happen and how people's lives can be snuffed out when mobile phones are used by drivers.

"We believe the four-year sentence was a just sentence for the current legislation. The time should be used to try to get her to realise the impact she has had on our family.

"Our family is devastated and her family will be devastated, too."

Begg had been visiting a friend in Newcastle and was driving to her home in Whinbank, Ponteland, when she ran into the back of Mrs Waites' car on the A696 dual carriageway.

The grandmother, of Wingate, County Durham, who owned a hair salon in Shotton Colliery, was on her way to pick up her sister, Paula, from Newcastle Airport when the crash happened late at night.

At the time of sentencing at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge John Milford said: "The cause of this accident was that you had failed to see her until it was too late, for the simple reason you had been sending a text message to your male friend."

Begg's legal team have not commented on her appeal