Was a Fatal Pennsylvania Crash Caused by a Camera Phone?

by | Jan 20, 2011 | Car Accidents |

Getting into a car accident is a frightening experience. Not only are there physical ramifications, such as broken bones, but there are also legal issues that can surface such as filing for claims to help pay for damaged property or medical bills.

Recently a fatal car accident took the lives of four high school students in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. The four boys were in a vehicle that slid into oncoming traffic and was hit by another vehicle. The two individuals in the other vehicle were treated for their injuries and released.

Thus far, local law enforcement is still investigating the crash after reports surfaced that the four boys may have been trying to videotape their car on the road. It is believed that the four boys had been speeding over a dip in the road in an attempt to jump it like a ramp. There have been previous reports of kids trying to jump the dip.

The four boys who were killed were all on the high school football team. They were in a vehicle that was owned by another individual. The road that they were driving on is a state road. There is no information regarding the type of dip in the road, whether it is meant as a speed bump or simply a hole that the state has not yet filled in.

Police are still trying to determine whether the boys were in fact trying to record their attempt to jump the dip. Investigators want to look through the boys’ phones to see if there are any videos that were taken at the time of the accident. What that would mean is unclear at this point.

According to the Pennsylvania DOT, that particular stretch of road does not have a lot of speeders nor have there been a lot of crashes reported.

Source: Intelligencer Journal online, “Police: Teens may have filmed video,” Cindy Stauffer and Tom Murse, 18 January 2011

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