Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash
Social media has many benefits. You can stay in touch with family and friends around the world; share your near-perfect life with others, and even keep up with the Kardashians (if you really have to …).
But it isn’t without its perils; meeting random weirdos and falling out of moving cars are just two of the hazards.
A very lucky young lady in the UK experienced that latter when she ended up lying on the tarmac in the middle of the busy M25 freeway in the county of Surrey early on Saturday morning.
Turns out she had been leaning out of the car window to film a Snapchat social media video when she leaned out too far and fell onto the roadway.
Remarkably, she sustained only minor injuries in her fall from the moving car. Fortunately no other vehicles hit her as she lay there, either.
Police and paramedics went to the scene and the woman, who has not been named, was treated and allowed to go home.
It is only by luck she wasn’t seriously injured or killed,” Surrey Roads Policing Unit said in a Twitter post, adding the hashtag #nowords.
The post has attracted a large number of comments, many calling for the arrest of the woman.
“The worst thing about this is that had she been hit – the poor driver who hit her would have to live with that for the rest of their life,” said one Twitter user.
“No one expects to be dodging human bodies on a motorway and an emergency stop may have caused a serious pile-up and further loss of life.”
Another post asked if police “told them the error of their ways?” The Surrey constabulary responded: “every chance they worked it out before we spoke to them about it”.
In Australia, a 21-year-old woman died in Queensland in April 2019 after she was involved in a head-on collision while apparently being filmed for social media driving dangerously.
According to a report by news.com.au, Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy at the time said the problem of people using social media like Snapchat while driving has become a dangerous trend.
“The message needs to get through that if you continue to do this, you or your friends could continue to die,” he stated.