Claim: Photographs show automobile accidents that occurred as the result of motorists texting while driving.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, October 2013]
The caption under the photo on facebook says "This guy was texting while driving ... they found the phone still in his hand.
They found his head in the back seat!! Make sure all the young people you know, heck ALL the people you know, see this."
Origins: This sobering image of a collision between a Chevrolet Corvette and a tractor-trailer has been circulating on the Internet for several years, often accompanied by captions claiming that the accident was the result of a distracted motorist who was texting while driving (and ended up being decapitated), and urging viewers to share the message with others:
An eye-opener for you sitting o send SMS while you are driving, because that was what this driver did. His mobile was still in his hand, but his head was in the backseat They found his cell phone still in his hand he was texting his head was in the back seat. PLEASE dont text while driving. Share this if your against Texting & Driving.. Do not play with the phone while driving! Harm to others! When rescue personnel found the deceased, the deceased had been decapitated, his hand still holding the phone. The original accident took place when the deceased was using a mobile phone.
This guy was texting while driving ... they found the phone still in his hand. They found his head in the back seat!! Make sure all the young people you know, heck ALL the people you know, see this
The pictured accident is a real one which took place on
Joseph Gianelli, 58 of Irvington, N.Y., was pronounced dead at the scene after his Chevrolet Corvette struck the rear of a tractor-trailer at about The truck, operated by Clouis Oquinn Jr., 52, of Virginia, was parked on a northbound shoulder when the Corvette plowed into it. Oquinn was not injured, officials said.
A Westchester County man died Thursday afternoon in a crash on Route 287.
A similar caption has been circulated in conjunction with a photograph of a pickup truck that likewise crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer:
You see that crumpled mess of gray steel and wheels under that bus and on the back of the big truck? That WAS a pickup truck! The driver of that pickup truck was a
In this case the captioning was accurate. The accompanying photograph captures the aftermath of an accident that took place near Gray Summit, Missouri, on
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said it's clear the pickup driver was manually, cognitively and visually distracted. Investigators said the young driver sent six texts and received five texts just before his pickup crashed into the back of a tractor truck, beginning a chain collision. The pickup was rear-ended by a school bus, which in turn was rammed by a second school bus. The pickup driver and a 15-year-old student on one of the school buses were killed. Thirty-eight other people were injured in the
A federal safety official says a 19-year-old pickup truck driver involved in a deadly highway pileup in Missouri sent or received
Last updated: 4 June 2015