Woman Posts To Facebook While Driving With Tragic Consequences

Here’s another example of technology tragically taking over our lives in ways which seem so simple to prevent.

This woman, Courtney Sanford, was on her way to work. The song “Happy” came on the radio and the young woman had the sudden impulse to take a “selfie” photo of herself while driving to show everyone on Facebook that she was in her car listening to this particular song, and that it made her happy.

Regrettably, Courtney did not pull over to take the picture. While still driving, she opened her phone’s photo application, framed the shot, smiled, snapped the photo, and then posted it to Facebook. While Courtney was submitting her post, her car veered across the center median into oncoming traffic traveling at 45 miles per hour.

Courtney’s Corolla collided with a 24,000 pound recycling truck, the car left the road, impacted a tree and burst into flames.

Courtney was killed instantly. She worked in the healthcare industry and was a college graduate with two degrees. Four days after the crash her parents, grandmother, and her two brothers laid her to rest. Courtney was 32 years old.

Courtney posted her selfie to Facebook that fateful day at 8:33 AM. Police and Fire crews received the first 911 call one minute later, at 8:34 AM.

At the scene of the accident Courtney’s cell phone was retrieved from the wreckage with her Facebook post still on the screen. Her last words were “The happy song makes me HAPPY”.

When discussing the accident with the media, Police Lieutenant Chris Weisner made the grim comparison between Courtney’s accident and the many public service advertisements aired to warn against the dangers of texting while driving.

Weisner said “we’ve all seen these graphic advertisements on TV, this was real life”.

A video of Weisner’s interview, with footage from one of these ads, is provided below.

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The story of Courtney’s accident and its unfortunate cause has been widely reported on television, in newspapers, and online. It is one of many similar stories that happen all too frequently.

Courtney was a young, attractive woman in the prime of her life. Her death is made all the more tragic because it was so totally preventable.

All of the images of Courtney used in this article have something in common, they are all “selfies” taken with a cell phone. Selfies have become commonplace in our society, we all take them, some of us even do so while driving. If you do, please stop, there are too many flower bouquets planted along the sides of our highways already.

Please SHARE this story with your friends to raise awareness and to keep our loved ones safe.

Credits: damn.com