A teenage girl who was using the social media app Snapchat during a 107mph crash is being sued by the man who was severely injured in the accident. The girl was reportedly trying to get her Mercedes to 100 miles per hour so she could post it on Snapchat.
The teenage girl, Christal McGee, was driving on a highway in Clayton County Georgia with three friends in her car at around 11:15pm, when she decided to use Snapchat’s speed filter. The speed filter is an option to add a speedometer which tracks how fast you’re moving to any photo or video you take with Snapchat. The Telegraph reports that, according to one of her friends in the car, McGee was “just trying to get the car to 100 miles per hour to post it on Snapchat.”
McGee succeeded, reportedly getting the Mercedes Benz she was driving as high as 113mph, using her cell phone the whole time. According to the criminal complaint filed against her, because she was distracted by her phone, she did not notice the gray Mitsubishi pull out in front of her containing Maynard Wentworth and his wife.
When she collided with the car in front of her, McGee was driving 107mph on a road with a speed limit of 55mph. The force of the accident pushed the Wentworths into the left lane and then into the left embankment.
Maynard Wentworth suffered severe traumatic brain injury and spent five weeks in the intensive care unit in the hospital after the crash. He is now unable to work or take care of himself and needs a walker and wheelchair to get around.
McGee meanwhile was injured enough to be taken away from the crash in a stretcher, but was still able to post another shot of herself and her bloody face on Snapchat with the caption “Lucky to be alive.”
Maynard is suing both McGee and Snapchat, claiming that the company’s speed filter contributed to the crash.
Snapchat does have a warning that pops up when using the speed filter which says “Please, DO NOT Snap and drive,” but they also give users points for submitting photos showing their speed.
“The issue really is about distracted teenage drivers. It’s about Snapchat encouraging teenagers to drive at fast speed for social status,” Michael Lawson Neff, an attorney for Wentworth told NBC News. “It’s a national safety issue.”
This is not the first time that Snapchat’s speed filter has been reported as a factor in a crash, but Snapchat has defended itself, saying that the app includes a warning to not use it while driving.
Source: telegraph, ktla, nbcnews, nydailynews
“No One” can fix “STUPID.” These young people need to be reined in by their parents and if the parents can’t do it or doesn’t want to do it, then its left up to the law and other responsible people to curtail these little trouble makers.
Yes Bill you are correct. However the way we were raised by our parents can’t be done in today’s times. The government won’t let us. The kids scream child abuse or neglect.
This crap was given birth when parents got punished for disciplining thier kids. today is Don’t want to know don’t care then they blame others for their kids short comings.But in their defense it takes two incomes to run the household and they can’t be there all the time when a kid is in need of help. Still tho this is a perfect example of how lack of common sense ends up .
That’s not 100% true. I was born in 94… People said iur generation wasn’t disciplined correctly, but me and my 2 older siblings used to get WHOOPED growing up. My oldest sibling uses the same paddle my mom used to discipline my neice and she understands why she is being punished. If you explain to the child at an early age that actions have consequences, there would be no issue.
Amen, to that. Also they should consider making C class drivers subject to the same requirements and regulations that we are. That way it might instill a more healthy respect for what driving is.
Your story makes no mention of the 3 lives that were lost in this accident including a UPS road driver.
That wasn’t this accident. http://ktla.com/2016/02/28/ups-driver-killed-in-chain-reaction-crash-on-5-fwy-in-commerce-idd/
This is another. http://6abc.com/technology/did-snapchat-play-role-in-deaths-of-3-young-women/1196846/
The folks that were impacted are the ones who were just minding their own business and idiots like this girl are the reasons people need to drive and pay more attention all around them, as a truck driver driving more then 28 years my days are coming to an end because idiots who think they can drive like Jeff Gordon, and other Nascar Drivers
What happened to this man’s wife nothing was mentioned about her inju9
Stupidity cannot be fixed. Then to post a after wreck picture of herself. This young lady truly needgs a reality check and run a scan to see if she’s got a brain in her head .
Stupidity cannot be fixed. Then to post a after wreck picture of herself. This young lady truly needs a reality check and run a scan to see if she’s got a brain in her head .
Hopefully, the little girl will suffer as much as her victims. I don’t blame Snapchat or her parents. The full blame should rightly be directed at the girl for demanding that SHE be the center of attention.
No..I hope she is healthy as can be when she comes out of this. Then spend the rest of her life paying the victims of this horrific criminal act then their surviving family members. 50% sounds about right. 50% each of the victims that is. Her mother and father have to have some kind of money to be able to give her a Mercedes.
Although this girl was and is wrong do not assume they have money because of the Benz. I have a 2011 c300 benz and it only cost $15k my wife drives a 2014 jaguar which only cost me $18k. I do believe the girl should pay the man but that is why we have insurance. You can sue the girl all you’d like but you can’t get blood from a turnip.
Quite frankly, I think this girl should be spending 8 hours every day of her life with this man. She completely obliterated everything about this man’s life before the accident. Now that he needs someone to take care of him, she should be there EVERYDAY and watch the mess she made because she thought taking a pic while driving was so important. (And then the balls to post a pic while strapped to a back board.)
wanna bet they sue her for everything she has and more.
Your right. If she has a license to drive a car and it’s not a junker , she is old enough to take responsibility for her actions no matter the outcome. This may end up being jail time for her.. Seems to me she was given everything she asked for and has no idea what responsibility is. Hopefully she will get her first life’s lesson .
I agree. After all, she could’ve handed the phone to one of her two friends. But the main thing is, Snapchat has much deeper pockets than this girl does.
She’s not a politician or a movie star so send her up the river .
The whole thing is just ridiculous we have speed limits and laws for a reason and to post stuff on social media or even send a text can all be traced back to when the crash happened. Also if you wanna go that fast find a track. You cannot blame the plug for you getting electrocuted because you stuck a fork in it. Snapchat is merely the plug and the girls phone was the fork. It’s solely her fault and no one else needs to be pulled into it. But to have a speed thingy in snapchat to show how fast the vehicle is going is just asking the idiots in this world to be stupid and see how fast they can go. We were all that age once and wanted to see how fast we could go but we were not holding a cell phone in one hand and the wheel in the other. Everyone is young and dumb at some point is all I am saying but we need to make it so I can only voice dial when the vehicle is in motion I realize that would also effect the passengers but their devices are also a distraction to the driver. I use mine for radio and voice dial all calls so it’s not taking my thoughts off driving and my job at hand.
Chalk it up to another Brainless Moron using social media…..
I think Social Media is making people De-Evolve!!
What about was they people who pulled out in front of her… watching the road?? They not see the car coming down the road?? Oh wait! It don’t matter if your doing 55 ot 107mph if you pull out in front of someone and your doing 10mph or less when you pull out… your much to blame for thr wreck I have stupid people pull out in front of me all the time… resulting in having to slam on the brakes from avioding hitting the retard…..
It was dark. It’s hard to judge the speed of an oncoming vehicle in the dark, and if you see a vehicle way off in the distance, you think it’s safe to pull out. The teenage twit was going over TWICE the speed limit, and who would assume an oncoming car was going more than maybe 60 or 65 on a 55-posted road.
When you see a car coming at you from the side and from a fair distance you cannot tell if it is doing 65 or 105 at night. Reality . Fact. The girl is at fault 100% . She even admitted it using social media. This whole scene was 100% avoidable.Because the girl allowed stupid to drive this is the result.Her freinds allowed it to happen too by not stopping her .
The speed limit on that road was 55Mph GSP doesn’t care about what the other people were doing if she was DRIVING INSTEAD OF BEING DISTRACTED she would have seen then ahead instead of at the last minute she looked up. And these teenagers are what they want to put behind the wheel of a semi SMDH!
She needs to learn a lesson and her freedom being taken is a great start
To not put at least part of the blame on social media is a mistake.
They put out a legal disclaimer to ‘please don’t snap and drive’, yet they reward the user for doing just that!
Not unlike every auto manufacturer now who installs bluetooth, usb, touchscreens, navigation, and a myriad of other ‘conveniences’ which require taking the drivers’ attention away from safe operation of the vehicle.
Unfortunately, safety will alaways take a backseat when there is a buck to be made.
A good precedent could be set if the innocent victim in this crash is able to successfully sue the a$$ off this site and the girl’s family.
All those things you mentioned are considered tools. How you use them is what makes the end result good or bad.That tool was misused by an uncaring stupid self centered young girl with lots of issues. Like in the past to many that have been the offspring of wealthy she will get light punishment and community service and be right back to it again.
Ok, she was clearly stupid and wrong, but did the other driver not see her?? Why did he pull out? No mention of that here. It was night time so she had her headlights on presumably? Not defending her actions in any way. Just curious as to how this actually occurred. Seems like the other driver should have had some responsibility as well. Why didn’t he see her?
Because that reen girl was speeding, that’s why.
because old people, like me, are get blinder every year .Every time we go for a D.O.T. exam they say can you read the letters on the chart . I usually start at the top and read off every letter,starting with I D O N T S E E A N Y L E T T E R S C O U L D Y O U M O V E T H E W A L L C L O S E R . This is a joke but that’s how its beginning to get out here. Driving is a 100% consentration on what you are doing . You make one wrong move and it could cost someone their life and yours too.
And may I add ,what others are doing also.
Well… let’s see here. When pulling out on a highway you’re judging if you have enough time by how far away they are and taking in to account the speed limit on the highway. Now let’s factor in the fact it was night and she was doing damn near double the speed limit. See where I’m going with this?
I agree Richard A snapchat should be included and ordered to pay out the wazoo!! Just because you post a disclaimer shouldn’t even be considered a way out not when your offering tips on how to use speedchat while speeding. But the moron be hind the while here should never ever be able to drive a motor vehicle again that’s for sure.
Got that right – give a kid a tin of black powder and a book of matches, with a warning on the side of the container that says to not blow anything up, and call it adequate.
I hope the yuppy idiot that came up with the FlashChat thing, gets to have his day in bankruptcy over this.
Encouraging teenagers to drive like maniacs by awarding them social status for it? Like the black powder and matches – what other outcome did they think was the likeliest?
Sue the girl, yes. Sue snapchat, NO!!!!! By that logic, every car maker, every gun maker, ever pharmaceutical maker, every power tool maker, etc should be sued any time someone misuses one of their products and causes injury or damage to themselves/others. That is flawed reasoning.
I used to have a radar detector but because of laws I can’t afford to have one now. When I had this radar detector I knew it could save me from a ticket , which it did many a time. The one time It didn’t I should have sued the manufacturer to get my money back from the police . It is a common sense thing to say that if you speed you will get caught . The manufacturer of the radar detector had nothing to do with my speeding or not so I didn’t sue them for any money. The snapchat also has a warning . you choose to disregard it then you are at fault not snapchat.
This is how irresponsible today’s teens are, generation “Y”, has no moral compass, feels they are owed by everyone around them, and needs a safe place from words. The rest of us need a safe place from this generation of failures! This girl nearly died and maimed others due to her action , and yet still has the nerve to post again after the incident! Throw her in jail for a very long time, or she will only do it again!
You mean somebody besides a trucking company can actually be sued for an accident?
LOL!!!
No criminal charges??? I suppose she would claim affluenza, though. Can that be used as a defense in civil court? I agree that the little twit should have to pay that man for the rest of his life. That is so heartbreaking.
She is suing Snapchat for making her to drive like a maniac. She was using a filter that posts the mph on top of your selfie.
She should blame Mercedes Benz for making a car capable of such speeds, the government, who designed the road, the road constructor, the tire manufacturer, and God, who in fact is guilty of all that happens on Earth and the whole Universe.
/sarcasm generator hitting the rev limiter
She is not suing anyone. The people she ran into and nearly killed are doing the suing. I hope they win. I also hope she is banned from using any “social media” site ever again.
In fairness, there’s nothing to say the speed filter option can’t be used by a passenger in the vehicle.
Meanwhile a local start-up car reviewer (he does car reviews on YouTube) drives like a little old lady because he’s known of people having YouTube footage of them speeding used against them later. (For the record, he puts a goPro on his head and either narrates stream of conscious or adds fx in post. He never interacts with the device once he starts driving.)
As for this kid, the parents should be ordered to pay for the victims in perpetuity. It’s their fault for raising such a spoiled brat.
Since she insisted on speeding that fast, all the dumba$$ had to do was have one of her 3 friends get the speedometer picture instead of her doing it. Would have saved a lot of pain and suffering by all the victims.
Thinking as a lawyer, they will sue each other for causing the wreak. Her for wreakless driving and him for failure to yield to on coming traffic.
What ever happened to common sence? Guess you just cant fix stupid… But the state can.. By taking away her drivers license and if the could.. Ban her from driving again.. A license is a privilage.. Not a right.. And this idiot abbused that privilage..
You hit the nail on the head with that comment.
It has always been a privilege not a right.
Driving is certainly is not an opportunity to test your speed when others are at risk of losing their lives.
Ban her from using and “social media” sites as well.
Does anybody else see a problem with a teen driver driving a MERCEDES or ANY CAR that will hit 100+?
Sounds like daddy has some money or maybe HAD some! Bet he’s trying to hide it now.
Something is also telling me that this family is thinking of 100 reasons this isn’t the girl brat’s fault.
Enablers!
You’ll probably see her name in the news again someday and maybe for something worse.
Although I could have afforded to buy my kids a Mercedes they all started out with beater/school/work cars that would barely hit 55.
I don’t care how responsible your teen is, they are all bad drivers and until they get 5 to 10 years experience on the road! Buying this Girl a Mercedes that will go 113+ MPH was irresponsible.
I see millions in civil damages coming to the victims…and, I hope it drains not only the girl’s parents bank accounts and assets (who gives their teenager a Mercedes to drive?), but those of Snapchat…I hope it puts them out of business!
It’s sad that it takes an accident like this to show how stupid something is…who at Snapchat thought it was a “good idea” to give points to speeding “chats”?
I wouldn’t call this young woman stupid. I think that many of this generation, believe that the world revolve around them. They have no consideration for others.
There seems to be another side to this story…Will be curious to see what the police discover in the accelerometer data from the crash cars…
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/31833989/georgia-couple-sues-snapchat-for-car-accident-witness-says-lawsuit-is-based-on-lies
She probably had sleep apnea. She should be tested.
I think she should loose her privilege to drive a motor vehicle until Mr. Wentworth is fully healed. She’s lucky she didn’t kill someone and it is quite obvious she has no remorse for what she caused judging by her arrogance in posting her post crash picture.
Why is there a speed function on snap chat? They are the ones that should be sued!
Not saying the girl isn’t at fault, but right of way is right of way, regardless of speed. When I was 17, an old man pulled out in front of me. I t-bone him at a speed of 30-35 mph. The responding officer told the man “even if [i] had been going 100, it still would’ve been his fault.”
This is a tragedy all the way around. Yes the young girl is 100% at fault but I remember and you probably remember speeding when you were young. I’m glad snap chat wasn’t around when I was 16 years old because let’s face it, most of us young guys would have tired to do this same thing.
I think snap chat needs to remove the speed tracking feature from the app.
Youth does not excuse stupidity or refusal to use due care and diligence. Yes, I mean “refusal”, not “failure”.
When she recovers, book her for attempted murder and sue the crap out of her, then make sure she gets a job and pays restitution to the victim she crippled by her insane stupidity and negligent driving ! She had a choice to drive like that. Maybe her parents can find a crooked lawyer or a soft peddling judge that they can bribe to take away some of her charges. What a disgusting moron of a teenager. She is just lucky the man she crippled didn’t die because of her stinking stupidity.
Morons like this girl should be permanently banned from driving and ever using any computer at any time. At the very least, they should be banned from ALL “social media” sites. This girl and her “friends” are lucky to be alive and she’s lucky she doesn’t have a murder charge against her.
Some posters here don’t seem to realize that if YOU are going over the speed limit and someone pulls out in front of you, the accident is your fault. Speed limits are not posted just for the road you are on, but also how side roads and intersections impact driving on that road. Something to think about before you decide to speed again. I can’t speak for all states but that is how things are in PA.
I think the Feds should mandate e-logs in cars. It’s all about safety.
I get that the teen girl was driving in an irresponsible manner. But there is another cause of this accident that has not been mentioned. The people who pulled out in front of her.
A good driver will carefully check in both directions three times before pulling out. If there is an on coming vehicle, the driver should wait for it to pass especially at night. It is very difficult to determine how far away an incoming vehicle is at night and how fast it is coming. Rather than depend on the driver of the incoming vehicle to slow down or avoid you, the best option is to wait until the road is clear. Why expose yourself to this kind of accident unnecessarily?
I think this girls punishment should fit the crime. It’s shouldn’t be monetary. She should have to care for this disabled man for the rest of his life. She should be forced to attend all of his Dr’s appointments, therapy sessions, etc. Then she may feel the gravity of what she has done.
Now if that accident happen in MT
The girl could be looking at 25yrs-life.
For reckless driving, excessive speed,
Reckless endangerment.
How I know I got a reckless driving some yrs ago. Had to appear in front of a judge. And that’s when I found what the pentalites were. Lucky I got it dropped.
Really why can’t they be regulated like truckers and sued like they are trucking companies. One person got 17 million out of a trucking company. I think turn about is fair. When four wheels rent a camper rent a bus rv with no training. No requirement for hours driven no sleep.no drug alcohol testing . But then throw a fit about truckers. When our they going to have to comply with the same rules we do? We can even get the one in public housing to be required to take a drug screen. Which if you went to work at MC Donalds you have to take. But not if you get help from the government to live in public housing.
If you sue snapchat then you should sue Mercedes for making a car that can go 107mph, and the salesman that sold her the car. And the salesman that sold her the phone etc….
this is a model on birth control; staying away from this freak
Hopefully she is handcuffed to her hospital bed waiting to b transported straight to the big house,such irresponsible young adult!!
With texting,internet and smart phones in general. You would think congress would in act a federal law forcing the use of the texting,internet disabling box to be installed on motor vehicles in america. That will put a stop to using a smart phone while driving.
I honestly feel with her taking the after picture that she feels no remorse. Yes I do feel the parents are to blame partly for her stupidity, not to mention one of her three friends could of assisted her by holding the phone. I being a working mom, still take time to explain and show them what could happen if they do the wrong thing the wrong way.
Everyone’s blaming the parents and it’s not fair. We don’t know what kind of parents she has.Teenagers do stupid things. Hell,adults do things just as dumb like driving drunk or pulling a gun in road rage incidents.It’s tragic but we’ll see if she is punished.My guess is her parents have money and she’ll get probation plus she’s a minor.A guy hit my son doing 75 and killed him they only gave him 22 months.
It turns out this story is just wrong… http://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2016/04/28/couple-suing-snapchat-over-accident-dnt.wgcl
Please explain to the world how a teenage driver gained access to a Benz for a late night speed run. Another case of affluenza. The parents need to take the hit on this one. They need to go to jail and the “child” needs to become a guest of child protection services.
Social media and smartphones are the end of a normal society.The fact is that “social media” is making people “anti-social” You cannot go anywhere these days without seeing 90% of people (or more) with their heads down looking at their devices.They are totally distracted.Gone are the days of spoken conversation.Even at places like Walt Disney World or Universal Studios,the people are not taking in the sights and “magic” they’re walking around heads down in their phones.The fact that these devices are controlling people is scary. It truly is an addiction! Now if this is a true story , it is just one of many. Not only do they drive and text or whatever, but they do it when walking down the streets. I do not have a mobile phone , nor do I want one. I have a $10. flip phone with $25.00 worth of minutes in case of an emergency in my vehicle. I have a computer for my email, and games ,When I am HOME. I have a digital camera to get pictures and my selfies are taken with that! I do not want to be prisoner to technology.I want to talk to people, look them in the eyes when we speak, because the eyes are the windows to the soul.And if I can’t see you,I can’t feel who you are ! Have a great day and be safe out there!