SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — Snapchat and a Georgia driver’s family have settled a civil lawsuit days before a jury was set to hear the case.
The case dates back to a 2015 crash where Christal McGee rear-ended a car driven by Wentworth Maynard, who spent weeks in a coma. Maynard’s family sued Snapchat and claimed that Snapchat’s speed filter encouraged McGee to speed.
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Heather McCarty, a passenger in McGee’s car, told Channel 2 Action News in 2016 that McGee was holding her phone with Snapchat open and the speed filter in use before the crash.
“I asked her if that kept up with the speed of the car,” McCarty said. “She said yeah, she was trying to hit 100 mph and post it on Snapchat.”
Snapchat disputed that its feature encouraged dangerous driving and argued there was no evidence McGee was using her phone at the moment of the crash.
Snapchat discontinued the speed filter in 2021 after a series of lawsuits. The company maintains it removed the feature because few people were using it.
In September, a Spalding County ruled it would be up to a jury to decide whether the speed filter influenced McGee’s driving and whether the company could have anticipated the danger.
The judge had set a trial date for Nov. 2, but it will not move forward now that there is a settlement.
The court documents did not list the details of the settlement. Channel 2 Action News has reached out to the Maynard’s family attorney and Snapchat for statements.
A lawsuit settlement does not mean that Snapchat is admitting guilt or fault related to the case.
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