By Steven Symes 
We see cases of distracted driving all the time, unfortunately, but this one involving a teenage girl plowing into a school bus at full speed while using Snapchat is something else. Multiple children were hurt in the crash, causing chaos in a small northern Minnesota community, and all because someone couldn’t bother paying attention while behind the wheel. The teen driver was hit with two dozen charges afterward, including five felonies.
Who’s at fault in this interstate accident?
The bus driver said the 19-year-old girl didn’t hit her brakes at all, with the onboard recorder showing she plowed into the bus at about 50 mph, with the brake pedal untouched before impact, reports KSTP. She was that engrossed in her Snapchat app she obviously didn’t see the giant yellow school bus in front of her, which is unbelievable.
While staring at her phone, the driver in her Toyota RAV4 blew through a stop sign and T-boned the school bus. That impact rolled the school bus, the children inside having to crawl through the escape hatches in the roof to safety.
As for the Toyota SUV, its front end was obliterated. The teen driver was lucky to make it out alive, and that she didn’t kill any kids, quite frankly. She and the school bus driver were injured, along with 10 children.
The report notes that in Minnesota, just like in many other states now, it’s illegal to hold your phone in your hand while driving. Some drivers just don’t pay attention to the law and do whatever they want while blasting down the road at high speeds as if nothing bad will ever happen.
For some reason, people keep thinking texting, using social media, even watching Netflix is okay while they’re driving. Your eyes need to be on the road, checking in front of you, watching for anything behind, and monitoring what’s going on at both sides all the time. You can’t do that if you’re looking at your phone.
Image via KSTP 5 Eyewitness News/YouTube