Minnesota Teen Crashes Watching Stranger Things While Driving
We have officially taken our obsession with Stranger Things too far. A Minnesota teen crashed while watching the hit show and driving. Yes, you read that right.
Stranger Things has been incredibly popular since it dropped in 2016. However, it has been back in the headlines and all over social media again once again because season four just dropped in its entirety.
People can not stop talking about the show - or watching. The fourth season broke a ton of different records since it was released, with Netflix users watching more than one billion hours of the latest season by just a few days after it dropped.
On Tuesday (July 12th), the show snagged thirteen Emmy nominations, which is the highest honor in television. Netflix also crashed after the last few episodes were released over the Fourth of July weekend. You get the point by now.
The popularity of the show isn't slowing down, as is evident in a scary story that was just released on Tuesday. Several news outlets report that a teenager was watching the show while driving, resulting in a serious crash.
The Anoka County Sheriff's Office shared a press release Tuesday, revealing details about the crash. In their press release, officials state that they do come across the occasional driver watching watching movies or videos while driving but this is an extreme case.
Officials say the crash happened in the county last weekend when a female teenager collided with a semi after being distracted from watching Stranger Things. Her car hit the centerline and rolled, leaving her car with major damage. Thankfully, the teenager only has minor injuries.
Things could have been much worse. The driver of the semi was paying attention and swerved to avoid hitting the teenager, with the Anoka County Sheriff's Office saying this likely saved her life.
The press release also says that people on the road at that time saw the driver in the oncoming lane before the crash. These witnesses say she was "fully" in the oncoming lane and not just swerving in and out of it.
Once officials got to the scene, they questioned the teenager, who said she was not on her cell phone before the crash. However, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office says that they noticed her car's Bluetooth system was "still streaming audio" of Stranger Things. She eventually admitted that she was watching the Netflix hit while driving.
The driver was given a citation but this is a good reminder to focus on the road. It goes without saying that under no circumstance should you be streaming a show while driving, nor should you be texting or watching videos.
The Anoka County Sheriff's Office says they hope parents will take this as a learning opportunity and talk to their kids about distracted driving and how dangerous it can be. Absolutely no show is worth hurting yourself or someone else.
Speaking of dangerous driving, two Minnesota teenagers were busted recently for going well over 100 MPH on our roads. The bust happened near the end of June. Meanwhile, a man from Willmar crashed twice after getting into someone else's truck in a grocery store parking lot and fleeing the scene. Yikes.
In other Stranger Things-related news, one of the show's main stars was filming a movie in Jordan, Minnesota. Joe Keery, also known as Steve Harrington to fans of the show, was in town for a few weeks filming the movie.
Some lucky fans even caught a glimpse of him filming when it started in mid-June. Sadly, filming is done now, having wrapped earlier this month. The film is called Marmalade and it is described as a dark comedy. As of now, there is no release date or projected release date for the film.