Millions of Selfies while Driving Posted on Social Media
For the past several years, there has been a mass media campaign throughout the country about the dangers of texting and driving. Many safety advocates say the number of people who text and drive are at epidemic proportion, despite all the education and warnings to the public. Over 1 million of the auto accidents that occur every year were caused by someone using their cell phone.
There is now another alarming trend developing on the nation’s roads, and that is people who take selfies while their driving. A selfie is a photograph a person takes of themselves, typically with a smartphone, and posts to one of their social media accounts. Popular social media sites for selfies include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The person will often add a comment with their photo using a hashtag. A hashtag is a word or a phrase that follows the pound (#) symbol.
A recent survey found over 3 million selfie posts with the hashtag “#driving” on the social media site Instagram. Other photos with hashtags indicating the person was driving when the photo was taken included 50,000 which had “#drivinghome” and 9,000 photos tagged with “#drivingtowork.” Another 3,500 photos had the hashtag “#drivingselfie.”
There have been numerous reports of drivers involved in fatal crashes while engaging in this practice. Details of one particular tragic incident went nationwide after police revealed that evidence showed the victim had been posting selfies and comments minutes before the car she was driving crossed over the center line and crashed head on into a truck which was traveling the opposite way. The 32 year-old woman was killed instantly.
If you have been injured in an accident caused by a distracted driver, contact an experienced New Braunfels personal injury attorney to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.
