Social media app implicated in alleged distracted driving accident, P.1

Some of our readers, perhaps many, have heard of the social media platform called Snapchat. For those who haven’t, Snapchat is an image messaging application that allows users to take videos and pictures which are live for only a matter of seconds before they disappear. The app doesn’t support saving received messages, but it is possible to capture screenshots of the images.

Snapchat has been criticized for encouraging people to send inappropriate content without repercussion. Now, it seems, the company is being sued for encouraging distracted driving.

A Georgia man who was struck by a teenager using the program is accusing the company of negligence. The accident apparently occurred when the 18-year-old’s vehicle was travelling at over 100 miles per hour—specifically 107 m.p.h., according to accident reconstruction specialists. The teen apparently had three friends in her vehicle at the time of the crash. He claims she had been using a Snapchat feature which allows users to clock the speed of vehicles in an attempt to push her vehicle to higher speeds. As a result of the crash, the man apparently suffered a traumatic brain injury.

The teen and her friends claim that the man, a driver for Uber, drifted into their lane and caused them to crash into his vehicle and run off the road. The fact that she was found to be significantly speeding, however, does not help her case. Neither does the fact that moments after the accident, she sent an image on Snapchat of herself being carted away on a gurney.

In our next post, we’ll continue looking at this case and this car accident case.