Mlnlaw.comAn 18-year-old girl is being sued after she allegedly crashed her car while playing with Snapchat’s ‘speed’ filter – leaving the driver in the car she hit with permanent brain damage.
Christal McGee had finished her shift when she agreed to drive a few of her coworkers home. Using the ‘speed’ filter on Snapchat – which uses GPS technology to determine how fast the user is moving – she had her phone in one hand and began to drive fast.
According to The Law Offices of Michael Lawson Neff (MLN Law), one of her passengers, who was pregnant, asked her to slow down, to which McGee replied: “Just trying to get the car to 100 miles per hour to post it on Snapchat.”
The teen was distracted by the app and slammed head on into Wentworth Maynard’s oncoming car at 107 mph, the lawsuit states. McGee even took a snap after the crash, showing her in an ambulance with the caption ‘Lucky to be alive.’ Absolutely unbelievable.
Mlnlaw.comThe passengers in McGee’s car were left with minor injuries according to MLN Law, but Maynard fared much worse.
As a result of the crash, he’s been left with permanent brain damage, his lawyer said. He can no longer be left alone as a result of his injuries, and his family members have become his caretakers.
Maynard’s wife, Karen, said in a statement:
Wentworth would get up on his own, make his breakfast, go to work, and cook dinner. Now he’s so tired he falls asleep in his wheelchair during the day.
We used to sit on the sofa and watch TV in the evening, and Wentworth would hug me. Now, he can’t do that anymore.
Mlnlaw.comNow, Maynard is suing the 18-year-old and Snapchat. The lawsuit is targeted at both parties because, according to Maynard’s lawyers, Snapchat should have known the filter had dangerous implications. Too right.
T. Shane Peagler, one of Maynard’s attorneys, said in a statement reported by New York Daily News:
This is a product liability case because Snapchat put something very dangerous in the marketplace without any warnings or safeguards, and basically said, whatever happens, happens.
Here’s to hoping Maynard wins the case – the actions of that girl was unbelievable and beyond irresponsible.
Don’t expect the speed filter to stay on Snapchat much longer, either.
