Snapchat filter blamed for car crash

ATLANTA — A September 2015 car crash in Georgia is at the center of a lawsuit because of Snapchat.

The photo and video app that allows users to post content with various filters led to debilitating injuries, according to a new lawsuit.

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CNN Money reported that Wentworth Maynard was driving down a highway near Atlanta, when 18-year-old Christal McGee was driving using a filter that places the rate at which a vehicle is traveling over an image.

"McGee wanted to post an image of herself going fast," according to a statement from the plaintiff's law office. "She argued that she was, 'Just trying to get the car to 100 miles per hour to post it on Snapchat.'"

The statement said that McGee was taking three co-workers home -- one of whom was pregnant.

The lawsuit, filed in state court of Spalding County in Georgia, said McGee was driving distracted and did not see Maynard's car merging onto the highway.

McGee's car struck Maynard's car, which sent his vehicle across the left lane and into an embankment.

"It crushed the back left side of Maynard’s Outlander and caused trauma to his body and brain that would alter the rest of his life," the statement said.

BuzzFeed News reported that McGee posted her injuries after the crash to Snapchat with the caption, "lucky to be alive," the complaint said.

Maynard now uses a wheelchair and spent weeks in intensive care for a severe tramatic brain injury, according to the suit.

Maynard and his wife are suing Snapchat and McGee to pay his medical bills following the accident, which the suit said has caused him to miss work, as he was working as an Uber driver at the time of the accident.

A Snapchat spokesman told CNN Money he could not comment on an ongoing lawsuit, but added that Snapchat has a warning not to use the miles per hour filter while driving.

Cox Media Group