Teen Driver Sued, Faces Criminal Charges Over Alleged Use of Snapchat
Christal Mcgee, 19, was behind the wheel of a Mercedes that crashed.
— -- A Georgia teenager faces multiple charges and is at the center of a lawsuit after she was involved in a car crash while allegedly using the speed filter on Snapchat.
An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday by a judge in Clayton County, Georgia, for Christal McGee, 19, who was behind the wheel of a Mercedes last September when her car rear-ended a car driven by Wentworth Maynard.
According to ABC Atlanta affiliate, WSB-TV, two passengers in McGee’s car said the teenager was using the speed filter on Snapchat just before the crash.
“She said, ‘Well, I’m just going to hit 100, and then I’m going to slow down,’” one of the passengers, Heather McCarty, told ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV last month.
McGee was charged Wednesday with reckless driving, super speeder, driving too fast for conditions and serious injury by vehicle, a felony, according to WSB.
McGee was injured in the crash, even posting a photo of herself with her injuries on Snapchat after the crash. Maynard spent weeks in a coma and suffered permanent brain damage because of the crash, according to his family.
Maynard’s family has filed a lawsuit against both McGee and Snapchat, claiming negligence and hardship.
“The family would like Snapchat to take the speed filter down immediately so no other family will have to go through what they're going through,” the Maynard family’s attorney, Michael Neff, told ABC News.
Snapchat's speed filter works by having users take a photo on Snapchat and a filter then recording the speed of motion on the screen. The filter has become popular for teens to send photos of those speeds to each other to compete for the highest number.
Snapchat issued a statement to ABC News in response to the lawsuit, saying, “"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."
McGee admitted to driving 90 miles per hour in newly filed court records obtained by ABC News.
McGee’s lawyers claim she was not using Snapchat before the crash. In court filings, the teenager’s attorneys said the damage to the victim was caused solely by his own negligence.
A 30-day stay in the Maynard family's lawsuit against McGee and Snapchat was granted on May 26th after Snapchat contended in court filings that "Activity Logs demonstrate that McGee was not in fact using the Snapchat Application at the time of or immediately prior to the collision."
Attorneys for the Maynard family are now assessing the Snapchat records.