Snapchat crash: Hazel Wildman sacked, wrote off own car before fatality
A woman who took hospital selfies after her friend died in a car crash moments after taking a Snapchat video had written off her own car and been sacked from her job after partying and sharing her antics on social media.
Hazel Wildman “completely wrote off her Suzuki Vitari” late last year, a spokesperson at her former workplace told news.com.au.
“It was virtually a brand-new car. She had already had a couple of accidents and in the last one it was written off,” a staff member at the dog obedience training centre said.
Known as “Hazey”, Ms Wildman had worked as a kennel attendant at Berkshire Park in far western Sydney for a year, but had been “terminated because of her behaviour … too much partying”.
Ms Wildman, 23, made headlines when she took a selfie with Faeda Hunter, 20, in Westmead Hospital after being pulled from the wreckage of a fatal crash which killed their friend.
Shania McNeill, 21, died after veering into oncoming traffic at Berkshire Park about 1.15am last Sunday in a horror crash filmed on haunting Snapchat video footage. Ms McNeill’s pink Suzuki collided with a Nissan Micra carrying two passengers.
In the footage, a woman can be heard squealing, someone shouts “Shania” and Ms McNeill looks wide-eyed into the camera with her mouth open before the vision cuts out.
According to The Daily Telegraph, police are now investigating reports Ms McNeill was “playing chicken”, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic prior to the crash.
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The Nissan’s driver, an unknown male, and passenger Dennis Sales, 44, were able to free themselves from the wreckage but didn’t escape unharmed.
Mr Sales’s family is “livid” that their father is in an induced coma to help him recover after a head-on smash they fear was caused by a social media stunt, The Daily Telegraph reports.
His son’s girlfriend Amy McLean said Mr Sales, a singer in a band, and another man were returning from a gig when the car veered into their path. Ms McLean described the alleged circumstances surrounding the incident — in which Ms McNeil appeared to be playing chicken moments before crashing — as “absolutely disgusting”.
“We were absolutely livid to know (Ms McNeill) was willing to play with people’s lives like that,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“It’s so upsetting to know this happened because of (her) silly mistake. I’m actually shaking. She would have been doing this to show off to her friends and they were wrong to record it.”
A member of the public and police performed CPR on Ms McNeill, but she died at the scene.
Ms Wildman and Ms Hunter were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
In their hospital selfie, Ms Wildman has a bloodied nose and minor face injuries and both she and Ms Hunter are wearing neck braces.
The casualty ward selfie Ms Wildman posted has brought widespread condemnation on social media.
The office of the Guard Dog Training Centre told news.com.au Ms Wildman had a habit of posting her weekend activities with friends on Snapchat.
“And then on Monday, she would send a text message saying she wasn’t feeling well,” he said. “More and more, she was not coming into work or always being late.
“But there were these photos on Snapchat … we saw what happened.
“She was casual on a five-day contract … but almost every weekend was a long weekend. She’s a happy-go-lucky party girl.
“When I saw (the selfie taken by an injured Ms Wildman in hospital after the crash) I thought, that’s typical her.”
The staffer told news.com.au Ms Wildman had been “driving … and hit a side mirror” when she wrote off her Suzuki some time between June and September last year.
He said she was ”terminated” in December when the dog training centre “was fully booked and the owner just decided to let her go”.
“She’d had warning after warning after warning.”
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