Is Snapchat partially to blame for accidents caused by “Snapping” while driving? A new lawsuit places some responsibility on the company after an 18-year old driver, Christal McGee, of Hampton, Georgia, caused an accident while using the filter that records speed while in motion. The complaint was filed by Wentworth Maynard, an Uber driver who was hit by McGee while she was traveling at 107 miles per hour.

The accident occurred in September 2015 when McGee was driving home from work in her father’s Mercedes with three of her coworkers in the backseat, one of whom was pregnant. She began to speed down Tara Boulevard, a highway with a 55 MPH speed limit, and pulled out her phone to use the app once she hit 100 MPH. The suit alleges that she was trying to earn a new “trophy” on Snapchat, which is what motivated her to hit that speed. At the same time, Maynard’s car began to pull onto the highway, and the distracted McGee was unable to slow down sufficiently to avoid a collision.

The resulting accident left Maynard with permanent brain damage, detailed in a blog post on a local law firm’s site. McGee’s passengers fared better, and were only treated for “cuts and bruises.” McGee herself faced a head injury, but was conscious enough to post a Selfie from the ambulance letting people know that she was “lucky to be alive.”

Christal McGee caused a serious accident while speeding & using snapchat then took a selfie in the stretcher. #fail pic.twitter.com/ZlKlO1nEFn

— Jess Clackum (@JessicaClackum) April 28, 2016

Maynard’s suit claims that Snapchat should have been aware that the filter would have led to users “putting themselves and others in harm’s way in order to ‘capture a snap’.” It’s not the only case of its kind: the post also mentions similar cases in Brazil and the UK where accidents occurred while using the filter. So, is Snapchat to blame for inviting such behavior in the first place?

The company provided the following response to TechCrunch:

No Snap is more important than someone’s safety. We actively discourage our community from using the speed filter while driving, including by displaying a ‘Do NOT Snap and Drive’ warning message in the app itself.

While Snapchat isn’t responsible for the reckless behavior of its users, it also probably shouldn’t be rewarding “trophies” for it. And why does the “MPH” filter even exist in the first place? The Snapchat craze joins texting and calling as an additional form of distraction for drivers, maybe making the roads a little less safe for us all.

Mariam Jaffery

Mariam was an Executive Assistant at Law Street Media and a native of Northern Virginia. She has a B.A. in International Affairs with a minor in Business Administration from George Washington University. Contact Mariam at mjaffery@lawstreetmedia.com.

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Hey y’all!

Kristine Rodas’ suit against luxury car company Porsche had a major setback last week. Rodas, widow of Roger Rodas who was killed along with actor Paul Walker in a tragic car accident in November 2013 that involved a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT in Valencia, California

Back in May, Roger Rodas’ wife filed a lawsuit against Porsche citing negligence as the cause of death. Court documents describe the Porsche Carrera GT that her husband was driving as an “ultra-high-performance-super-sports car for the road,” that goes from zero to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 205 miles per hour. The complaint argues that such a high-powered sports car should have a higher standard of crash protection, and that a mechanical malfunction forced Rodas to veer off the road. The lawsuit claims that a “properly functioning crash cage” would have prevented the deaths by preventing “intrusion into the passenger compartment,” damage to the fuel tank, and the splitting of the vehicle in half. A separate investigator was hired to evaluate the wreckage and claims that the car was only going 55 mph instead of the 100 mph that the LA County coroner, LA County Sheriff’s Department, and the California Highway Patrol all cited.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez dismissed four of the five grounds for the lawsuit, finding that the complaint did not include enough specifics. The case was not fully dismissed however, and lawyers are allowed to amend the lawsuit as filed.

It seems to me that if three separate investigations were done as soon as the incident happened and they all came to the same conclusion, the new investigation would not be warranted or even accurate. The California Highway Patrol as well as the LA County Sheriff’s Department also noted that there were no mechanical defects of the vehicle involved in the crash, but rather it was due to pure negligence on the driver’s part.

I understand that Rodas is grieving and she wants someone to pay for the death of her husband and Walker, but she is pointing the finger at the wrong people. A thorough investigation was conducted when the incident occurred and questions were answered. It’s hard to grasp the loss of a loved one but sometimes you have to realize that a life was lost because of a lifestyle. Roger Rodas chose a life of racing cars and was probably aware of the dangers involved on that path. I feel sorry for the Walker and Rodas families, but this lawsuit is dragging out the tragedy.

The day after Rodas’ legal setback, fellow Fast and the Furious franchise actor Vin Diesel posted a photo on Facebook of Paul Walker in the new FF 7 trailer. The movie is set to come out in April 2015 and I will absolutely be there standing in line hours before the midnight showing.

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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