HAVERHILL, Mass. — Luz Roman hopes her boyfriend's death will send a message to other drivers.

“Please don't text and drive. Be more careful of your surroundings when you are in the street. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for (other) people, for everybody, because we are all in this together,” Roman said outside Haverhill District Court Tuesday as jurors inside began deliberating the fate of the man charged with causing the accident that left her with permanent injuries and led to the death of her boyfriend, Donald Bowley Jr.

Bowley, 55, of Danville, N.H., was behind the wheel of his car with Roman in the passenger's seat when they collided with the vehicle of Aaron Deveau, 18, of Haverhill, Mass. A jury must now decide whether Deveau was texting at the time of the crash in February 2011.

The 58-year-old Haverhill woman said it's a miracle that she lived.

“I'm still suffering. My whole life I'll be trying to recover from the injuries,” she said. “I was hoping that when I came here they would tell me that nothing happened and it was all in my mind. It wasn't. This is real.”

Roman, who testified last week, still thinks about Bowley — her boyfriend of four years.

“He was wonderful, caring, dedicated, interesting, wise. He's going to be missed by all of us,” she said.

Bowley's sister, Donna Burleigh of Kingston, has attended the trial each day along with her brother's children, Dawn Bowley, 32, Donald Bowley III, 28, and Daniel Bowley, 26. They were joined Tuesday by his granddaughter, Samantha, 10, and his brothers, Oscar and Bruce.

“It's been extremely difficult. Losing someone you love is not easy. Seeing him in the condition that he was in is not easy. I just hope that no one else has to experience the pain and the anguish that we have gone through,” Burleigh said.

jschreiber@newstote.com