Layton crash blamed on teen attempting the Bird Box Challenge
Jan 11, 2019, 10:24 AM | Updated: 12:28 pm
Sandra Bullock with a blindfold over her eyes in the film "Bird Box." A Layton teenager crashed into oncoming traffic while trying to imitate the film. (Photo: Netflix / Deseret News)
(Photo: Netflix / Deseret News)
LAYTON — A 17-year-old girl drove into oncoming traffic and caused a serious accident while attempting to complete the “Bird Box Challenge”, Layton police say.
Police say the girl was driving with a beanie lowered over her eyes. People nationwide taking part in the viral challenge have been attempting to do tasks while blindfolded. In this case, police say, she was trying to see if she could navigate her truck with her eyes covered.
She could not.
No injuries have been reported. Serious damage, however, has been done to both vehicles, and police are looking into pressing charges.
The Bird Box Challenge
The wreckage of the 17-year-old girl’s truck, crashed on Layton Parkway after she attempted the Bird Box Challenge. (Photo courtesy of the Layton Police Department)
The Bird Box Challenge is inspired by the Netflix film “Bird Box”, in which the characters are forced to navigate their surrounding blindfolded lest they be psychologically attacked by a mysterious, supernatural force.
It can be dangerous. Several people have walked out into public and tried to navigate their way down sidewalks or within their homes, often bumping into walls or mailboxes in the process.
It’s rare, however, that somebody actually gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle and attempts to drive down a public road with their eyes blindfolded.
Apparently, however, this Layton teen decided to take the challenge to the next level. Police say that, with a friend in her passenger seat, she lowered a beanie over her eyes and tried to make her way down Layton Parkway. She soon lost control of her truck and skidded into the other lane, crashing into an oncoming vehicle before ramming into a light pole.
By the time police were called to the scene, the girl had lifted the beanie over her eye. She tried to convince the police that she had just gotten distracted talking to her friend.
The driver she had crashed into, however, had gotten a good look at her before their vehicles collided. He told the police that he had seen with driving with her eyes covered and, when police looked into it, they were able to confirm that she had, in fact, been trying to complete the Bird Box Challenge.
Police say they will be screening reckless driving charges with the city’s attorney office.
They do not recommend trying the Bird Box Challenge for yourself.
“I thought the Tide Pod Challenge – I mean, I really was speechless on that one,” Layton Police Lt. Travis Lyman told KSL Newsradio’s Heather Kelly, “but this one is really the same.”
