GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

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December 27, 2012

Cell phone driver charged after hitting pedestrian

GLOUCESTER — A Gloucester man was charged with negligent driving after the vehicle he was operating while he was calling on his cell phone struck another man within the Gloucester Crossing complex, sending the pedestrian to an area hospital for treatment.

The pedestrian, a 43-year-old Cleveland Street man, was transported to Beverly Hospital after the Sunday crash about 4:54 p.m. for treatment of cuts on his left hand and leg, pain in his shoulders and discomfort in his back. He has since been discharged from the hospital on Monday, Beverly Hospital officials confirmed Wednesday.

Gloucester Police said Wednesday that the 30-year-old driver — identified as Joshua J. Movalli of Woodward Avenue — was charged with negligent driving because he was looking down at a cell phone, making a call, when he struck the man, he told police.

According to the police report, Movalli was driving eastward on School House Road toward the Market Basket supermarket when he stopped at the intersection of School House Road and Gloucester Crossing Road.

Movalli, however, accelerated before looking up from the cell phone, police said. And his vehicle, a Nissan Altima, traveled across the solid center line and onto a sidewalk where it struck the pedestrian. The car then traveled about 30 feet up a grassy embankment with the pedestrian on the hood, Movalli told police.

The pedestrian told police that Movalli had driven up one embankment, across a road then up onto the next hill, where the vehicle struck him. Police did not make a determination of where exactly the vehicle struck the man.

Marjorie Nesin can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3451, or at mnesin@gloucestertimes.com.

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