A man from Georgia claims the car accident that left him with permanent brain damage was caused by a teen too busy taking selfies to pay attention to the road. The teen was using Snapchat’s speed filter at the time of the crash last September.
The Snapchat app has a filter that adds a user speed to their photo and significantly, Snapchat awards them with a “trophy” for posting how fast they were going.
The at-fault teen, age 18, admitted trying to get her Mercedes Benz up to 100 miles per hour in order to post a photo using the speed filter. When she crashed into the Georgia man’s car, she was going about 107 miles per hour – nearly double the speed limit. The victim of the crash, who the teen hit, spent 5 weeks in the hospital following the crash, lost 50 pounds, and requires a wheelchair or walker to get around. He can no longer work or take care of himself. After the crash, in which the at-fault teen was injured, she continued to use the Snapchat app and took a selfie with blood dripping down her face immediately after the accident.
Although Snapchat says it discourages people from using its speed filter while driving with an in-app warning message, it seems apparent that Snapchat encourages teenagers to drive at fast speeds to gain social status.