As Christal McGee drove home from work with three coworkers on September 10, 2015, she decided to see how fast her dad’s Mercedes C230 could go.
As WREG reports, her lawyers said in a statement that Christal’s goal was to hit 100 miles-per-hour and use the “speed filter” on Snapchat to brag about it to her followers.
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Snapchat is a social media app that allows people to send ten-second pictures and videos to each other while adding a time, speed, or temperature stamp.
As the 18-year-old and her friends cruised down the road, Wentworth Maynard was merging on to the four-lane highway. Christal hit Wentworth’s Mitsubishi Outlander so hard that he crossed all four lanes before slamming into an embankment.
When the ambulances arrived, they put Christal on a stretcher to be transported to the hospital. That’s when she used Snapchat to boast one more time.
According to WREG, Christal and the three other people in her car — including one who was pregnant — only suffered minor injuries, while Wentworth suffered a traumatic brain injury that put him in the ICU for five weeks.
He can no longer get around without the help of a wheelchair or walker.
Wentworth is now suing both Christal and Snapchat in order to seek compensation for his medical expenses. According to his attorney, Michael L. Neff, Wentworth is suing Christal for negligence and Snapchat for product liability.
“This is a product liability case because Snapchat put something very dangerous in the marketplace without any warnings or safeguards,” he says. “[They] basically said, whatever happens, happens.”
Neff also says that this particular Snapchat filter has been at the forefront of a handful of other accidents.
Regardless of the outcome in this lawsuit one thing is for sure, using your phone while behind the wheel can lead to more harm than good.