In the early hours of Sunday morning, three young women were driving in Sydney’s west filming each other mucking around on Snapchat as they drove.
In the footage, one of the friends yells at the driver, “Shania!” as she looks towards the road in open-mouthed adrenalin and what appears to be fear, before turning back to the camera and smiling.
After the footage cuts out, Shania McNeill, 21, crashes the car head on. She died at the scene.
You can watch some coverage of the story here. Post continues after video.
Her two passengers – Faeda Hunter, 20, and Hazel Wildman, 23 – were injured in the crash, and took pouting photos of themselves recovering in hospital just a day after watching their friend receive frantic CPR assistance from a passing police officer who couldn’t save her.
In the image, both women are wearing neck braces and are hooked up to medical machines. One of their faces is covered in cuts and blood.
Two men were in the car the trio crashed into, a 61-year-old and a 39-year-old. One was seriously hurt, the other suffered non-life threatening injuries.
A man told The Daily Telegraph he was driving on Richmond Road in Berkshire Park when he saw the girl's car swerved deliberately towards him.
"The first car closest to me moved over onto my side of the road. It was a violent swerve towards me... quite intentional," he said.
"I moved out of the way and it seemed to take a second swipe at me."
It's believed the women might have been playing a game of "chicken" with oncoming traffic.
Shania's family and friends have paid tribute to the Queenslander online calling her a "beautiful soul."
Her aunt Tarsha has set up a crowdfunding page for her funeral, describing her as "one of a kind."
"You were passionate, loved by many including me and you are sadly missed," she wrote.
The page has already raised $13,000, surpassing its goal of $10,000.
Shania's mother and father are due to have a son in a week, their fifth child.
Her aunt says Shania was so excited to meet and love him.
"Tennille, Lee and Shania’s siblings, Angel, Jemma and Jack all live in QLD and we not only need to raise money for the funeral, we need to fly them all down to Sydney for it," wrote Tarsha.
"Waiting for you to just come home! I’m devastated," a friend wrote on Facebook.
"You changed and brought light to my life."
Police are investigating the Snapchat video that reveals Shania's final moments.
It was viewed by 50 people at the time of the fatal crash. It's unclear at this stage if drugs or alcohol were involved.
“Any trend of [using] video or Instagram or any of those social media platforms and sending out video or taping while you’re driving is a trend we’re really trying to stop," Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy told The Daily Telegraph.
“The most disturbing thing with the video is her family and parents will have to look at that video now.
“The fact it’s gone online, the fact they have to live with that, is disturbing,” said the Assistant Commissioner.
There have been more than 9000 infringement notices relating to mobile phone use this year. The Assistant Commissioner is particularly concerned about the 45 people who have been issued twice.
"The question about whether the message is getting through is an interesting one," he told Seven.
* Featured image via Snapchat/Newscorp.
Top Comments
Unfortunately as the younger generation get hooked on social media/technology, their only goal is to be perpetually entertained or create entertainment. They're no longer approaching life with the appropriate priorities, like avoiding dangerous driving, because they need to remain connected to their social network and get their fix. Which is why warning them, fining them, and campaigning for safer driving doesn't help. It's a problem that goes deeper to the mental health and addictions of many people. And yes, I am aware that not every young person is addicted. But it is a vast number of them. So much so that articles like this are coming up constantly about young people displaying outrageous anti-social behaviour, and the police are saying this dangerous driving an on-going problem and young people don't care.
'It's believed the women might have been playing a game of "chicken" with oncoming traffic.
Shania's family and friends have paid tribute to the Queenslander online calling her a "beautiful soul."'
These two sentences are incongruent.
And the audacity to raise funds for the perpetrator of criminal negligence which resulted in innocent people being injured is so outrageous but I am glad to see they have stopped taking donations.
Good people can do stupid, idiotic things as well (some more than most!); most "bad" people are capable of compassion and empathy as well. People aren't all one thing all of the time unless they're a complete psychopath.
The article to me seems to indicate that they had a close call, and instead of changing their behaviour, they kept on doing it and reaped the consequences soon after. I wonder how her friends really feel about all this? I wonder what sort of comments their Instagram post attracted? I wonder if anyone's talking to them about what this really means for their lives? I hope so.
Funeral costs are far more for the family of the deceased than 'the perpetrator'. And I don't think they were soliciting donations from anyone except family and friends. If one of my friends crashed while drink driving and hurt someone I wouldn't condone their actions but I would still want them to have a funeral.
Cat, if one of your friends was playing 'chicken' which is to deliberately swerve into oncoming traffic and risk the lives of innocent people for laughs then I would hope that you would have the common decency to express your condolences to the innocent lives affected by the reckless actions of your friend.
And, yes, they were soliciting from people without being totally honest about the circumstances:
'Her aunt Tarsha has set up a crowdfunding page for her funeral, describing her as "one of a kind."
The page has already raised $13,000, surpassing its goal of $10,000.'
Yes, of course they can. It's called being human. We all make mistakes. Accidents happen. But a "beautiful soul" would not intentionally engage in behaviour where the outcome is all but certainly going to lead to death and destruction.