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Teens die while using Facebook Live behind the wheel

Everyone on the road knows that distracted driving can lead to deadly results, but that doesn’t stop people for using their phones, eating, operating a GPS, touching up makeup and many other potentially dangerous activities. It may seem like even though people are aware of the consequences, it doesn’t stop them from distracted driving, especially when it comes to their phones. Social media usage had become a deadly distraction for people behind the wheel.

Two teens dead after using social media on the road

A horrifying example of what can happen when a driver is distracted occurred last week in Pennsylvania, leaving two teens dead. Chainiya Morrison-Toomey, 19, was driving while using Facebook Live, a popular live video broadcasting service, which captured the crash and the seven minutes of blackness afterward.

Her passenger, Brooke Miranda Hughes, 18, is heard asking “are you live?” shortly before a tractor-trailer hit the back of the car. The rest of the live video was a flash of lights, a screech of tires and then the blackness. The video on Morrison-Toomey’s page has been viewed upward of 7,000 times.

The two teens were pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the truck was uninjured. The teen’s car was driving slowly in the right lane of the highway with a spare tire on one of the wheels, which wasn’t flat. It’s still unclear whether the driver of the tractor-trailer will be charged with any crime.

Distracted driving kills

Distracted driving has been proven to be with countless horrifying cases of people being catastrophically injured themselves or others, or causing the deaths of innocent people on the road. The only consolation for any family whose loved one was involved in a fatal crash like Morrison-Toomey’s is that her actions didn’t kill the other driver. It’s all too often that a distracted driver may end up fatally injuring the other people in the vehicle they crash into.

The most important thing for all of us to remember is that just a few seconds spend checking an email, taking photo or video or reading a text can result in a debilitating injury or death for themselves or anyone else on the road. Don’t take the risk – you can put your phone out of your reach while you’re in the car, or set your music or GPS before you start moving to help lessen distractions. If you must use your phone, pull over to a safe spot before taking that call or sending that text. Your life, and the life of others, could depend on it.

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