Snapchat Is Being Sued After This Teen Caused A Crash While Using The App
Snapchat is being sued after a Georgia teen got into a car accident while allegedly using the app's speedometer filter.
According to court documents, the lawsuit involves an incident that took place back in 2015 while Christal McGee was driving her Mercedes-Benz in Clayton Country, Georgia. McGee allegedly turned Snapchat on while driving 107 mph, in an attempt to take a picture with the app's speed filter, when she collided with a Mitsubishi Outlander on a road where the speed limit is 55 mph.
A lawyer for Maynard Wentworth, who was driving the Outlander, says McGee was driving so fast, when she struck the Wentworth's car, “it shot across the left lane into the left embankment.”
Maynard reportedly spent five weeks in an intensive care unit being treated for severe brain damage resulting from the crash, leaving him unable to work or even walk without the assistance of a walker.
Maynard and his wife, Karen, are suing McGee and Snapchat to pay for the medical bills from the crash.
This is the actual Snapchat McGee apparently sent after the crash.
The lawsuit's argument against Snapchat is the company did not remove the speed tracker feature from its list of filters, despite knowing it caused other accidents like McGee's. The lawsuit specifically cites a case where a lady in Brazil got into a car accident while driving 110 mph and using Snapchat's speed filter.
The danger in keeping the filter on Snapchat even led to a Change.org petition to remove the speed tracker from the app.
Admittedly, this might seem like a classic case of a person suing a major company over nothing to get summa dat sweet, sweet settlement cash money, but here is a screenshot from factual allegation number 27 in the court document.
A TROPHY FOR SPEEDING?!?!! You get a TROPHY for SPEEDING on Snapchat!?!?! If this trophy thing is true, Snapchat is literally DARING teenagers -- who are the DUMBEST people, by the way -- to break laws and do it in the most dangerous fashions. This is the equivalent of Twitter offering free, exclusive stickers to people who send in Vines of themselves throwing knives that almost hit their friends' faces.
Of course, some dumb teen is gonna be like,
FREE, EXCLUSIVE STICKERS?!?!?!?! SIGN MY UNDERAGE-YET-STILL-OLD-ENOUGH-TO-NOT-NEED-PARENTAL-CONSENT ASS UP!!! GIMME, GIMME, GIMME DEM FACE KNIVES!!!!
In Snapchat's defense, it DID explain in a press release these trophies are like pretending you have every intention to buy a subscription to TIDAL after the 30-day free trial (i.e. they're more for show than anything else).
The press release read,
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.
"No Snap is more important than someone's safety." Guys! Pffft! See! You dummies!
You're supposed to try and drive 100 mph SAFELY for Snapchat! It's not meant for you, teens! It's just meant for pilots in that school from "Top Gun" and someone who safely jumps from a burning building onto a trampoline being held by 10 firefighters from the 1920s.
Now that that's settled, WHERE MY DANG FACE KNIVES?!?!?!
Citations: Snapchat sued over filter allegedly involved in high speed car wreck (Mashable)
