Teen Snapchats Herself Going 100mph; Smashes Into Car

[Teapot]

A Georgia teenager faces multiple charges and is at the center of a lawsuit after she was involved in a car crash while allegedly using the speed filter on Snapchat.

An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday by a judge in Clayton County, Georgia, for Christal McGee, 19, who was behind the wheel of a Mercedes last September when her car rear-ended a car driven by Wentworth Maynard.

According to ABC Atlanta affiliate, WSB-TV, two passengers in McGee’s car said the teenager was using the speed filter on Snapchat just before the crash.

“She said, ‘Well, I’m just going to hit 100, and then I’m going to slow down,’” one of the passengers, Heather McCarty, told ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV last month.

McGee was charged Wednesday with reckless driving, super speeder, driving too fast for conditions and serious injury by vehicle, a felony, according to WSB.

McGee was injured in the crash, even posting a photo of herself with her injuries on Snapchat after the crash. Maynard spent weeks in a coma and suffered permanent brain damage because of the crash, according to his family.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/teen-driver-sued-faces-criminal-charges-alleged-snapchat/story?id=39551935

This is pretty shocking, to say the least. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Cosmic]

Social networks can be addicting. I'm personally not into snapchat or facebook, but I do use Skype and forums a lot. People just need to learn to not use these apps while driving, especially when in a semi-dangerous situation.

Hopefully, we'll have self-driving cars before too long.

 

[Geoffrey]

I'm personally not into snapchat or forums, but I do use Skype and forums a lot.

What?

Anyways, she gave all the evidence the prosecutor needs to convict her in her snapchat. It's just as bad as texting and driving. I do it occasionally, but very seldom and I make sure I'm at a stoplight/going very slow/etc.

 

[Cosmic]

I'm personally not into snapchat or forums, but I do use Skype and forums a lot.

What?

Anyways, she gave all the evidence the prosecutor needs to convict her in her snapchat. It's just as bad as texting and driving. I do it occasionally, but very seldom and I make sure I'm at a stoplight/going very slow/etc.

I meant to say Facebook as one of the "not intos" instead of forums. 😛

But I agree. That's another issue with putting everything up on a social network: there are digital records. Although, snapchat will at least hide things from view after they're seen. I wonder if that presented any challenges to the case? They probably still retain the data for a while though for legal reasons.

 

[Geoffrey]

Yeah, I'm sure Snapchat keeps what's sent over their service for a period of time in a database. And all it takes is one person to screenshot her snap and they don't even to go through that process.

 

[Cosmic]

Yep. Generally, one should assume that any picture taken with a phone, or anything uploaded to any service, could be retained indefinitely. Snapchat's auto-delete is more to make communications seem much more temporary and "in the moment," than it is a security mechanism.

 

[Thomasss]

Sometimes I worry about my generation...we just had to "one up" texting and driving. She should lose her license and she shouldn't be eligible for one for at least 10 years, because obviously she isn't mature enough to realize driving that fast isn't even okay on a freeway or highway.