Using a phone while driving is a dangerous habit that can be fatal and land you in serious trouble with traffic cops.

In 2024, around 315,167 injuries and 3,208 deaths were caused by people using devices while driving, according to data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Understandably, cops issue many citations for distractions related to mobile phone usage.

However, drivers often appeal the citations, and one content creator has proved that she definitely did not deserve to be penalised.

Creator Katie’s interaction with the cop charging her went viral on TikTok, gaining over 39.5 million views because he accused her of using her phone with her right hand, but she does not have one.

Why was the cop wrong to pull over the driver?

The video begins with Katie saying: “Turns out you can still get a ticket for driving with a device in your right hand, even if you don’t have a right hand.”

The clip then cuts to footage of the interaction.

While he leans into her car window, the officer can be heard saying: “All right, ma’am, so you’re gonna receive a citation for a wireless communication device, handheld while driving.”

Explaining his reason for pulling her over, he says: “We gotta put the phone down as we operate a motor vehicle.”

Seeking clarification, she says: “Oh, and you put on the [ticket] that you saw me with my right hand holding it?”

He agrees that he saw her using the phone with her right hand, even after she reiterates: “You saw me holding my device with my right hand?”

Then the cop instructs her that in order to contest the citation, she can take the matter to court.

What was she charged with?

One-handed Katie was charged with 'Wireless Comm. Device/Handheld While Driving – First Offense' under Florida Statute 316.305(3)(a), with a civil penalty of $116.

There is no doubt that Katie will never have to pay the fine or have any trouble trying to convince the court that the charge was unwarranted.

Also, besides the fact that there was no way the driver could have been holding a phone with her right hand, there were other issues with the cop stopping her.

According to Florida Statutes, a person isn’t allowed to manually type or enter letters, numbers, symbols, or other characters into a device while driving, so holding a phone is not necessarily enough to justify a traffic stop if a driver is not actively using it.

Featured image credit: RichLegg/Getty Images

A TikTok user known for documenting her progress leading up to a half-marathon shared a chilling video that showed her being followed by a man in a car during one of her runs - once again bringing the importance of women's safety into the spotlight.

Samantha McIntyre is no stranger to posting on the video-sharing platform, regularly keeping her followers up-to-date on how her journey to running a half-marathon is progressing to her 318,000 followers. This run, however, was different than usual - with the experience making her "really nervous."

In the viral video - which has over two million likes - the 24-year-old notices the same red truck passing her multiple times.

"There's this guy in a red car that's driven by me twice, and every time he drives by me he has his arm out the window and he's, like, looking behind when he's driving by... it's making me really nervous," she says in the video, halfway through her run.

"I haven't seen him in 10 minutes, but I don't know if I'm being paranoid. Just documenting this, just in case," she adds.

Following this, McIntyre describes the model and make of the car. In the next clip, she says that the car is parked up ahead of the track, which made her "nervous" - especially as she says in the video that she needs to pass the suspicious driver on the way back to her own vehicle.

McIntyre shows viewers a small clip of the car parked under a tree in the distance, before stating: "It's just one of those things where you think it's not going to happen to you [...] I don't want to risk anything."

She then ends up calling her parents to come and pick her up, crying to the camera and sobbing: "I don't know what to do."

Upon seeing the car beginning to pull out of its parked position, the fast-thinking woman runs to a nearby house and asks the owners if she can wait in their yard for her parents. Police located the man but no charges against him have been filed.

This situation is all too familiar with most women, who always have to be cautious and hyper-aware of their surroundings when going out alone, regardless of the time of day.

Some men have even joked about stalking women as "harmless psychological fun," with one person posting on an old Reddit thread that they liked to stalk women to deliberately scare them - despite not wishing to harm them.

"The feeling when you follow a girl and she notices you, and she tries to [lose] you or picks up the pace. That is kind of a good feeling. You become important to her. You are no longer some random insignificant face in the crowd [...] If you know your limits and don't actually harass - let alone rape - that girl, it should be harmless psychological fun," the post read.

Credit: Reddit.com

McIntyre's video serves as a stark reminder to all women to trust their gut feeling - especially as her frightening experience came weeks after 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher, from Memphis, Tennessee, was kidnapped and murdered while on a morning jog, TODAY reported.

"Please be aware of your surroundings when you are going on runs. Carry protection with you, just be safe. If you have a gut feeling that something doesn't feel right please go with that gut feeling," McIntyre added at the end of her video.

While the ideal situation would be that women wouldn't have to constantly be super vigilant as soon as they leave the safety and comfort of their homes, the current world we all live in still requires us to do this. After all, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Featured image credit: Dmitrii Melnikov / Alamy

A woman has been told by fellow social media users to seek help after sharing a concerning video online of a bizarre symbol she found outside her home.

Taking to TikTok to share the clip, user '@bby.jade__' captioned her post "What does this mean?"

In the video, the woman can be seen walking outside of her home, explaining that she had previously gone to throw out her garbage earlier that morning. However, when she reached her garbage container, she found that somebody had scrawled "1F" on top of it in the snow.

Concerned, she went to social media for answers, but many TikTok users were quick to inform her that she needed to contact the police and seek help after revealing the alleged meaning behind the symbol.

After raking up over 6.6 million views, people were quick to leave the woman advice in the comments section.

"It means: 1 female," one person wrote. "They are telling the people who are supposed to rob you or whatever, that you live alone."

Credit: TikTok

Another user wrote: "stay safe contact the police it means 1 female to [people] who are planning to rob you [sic]".

Credit: TikTok Credit: TikTok

This advice was echoed by another social media user, who wrote: "1F means one female, ur being targeted, so what u need to do is put fresh snow on the lid and write '3M' on it which means 3 males so its less likely [sic".

Credit: TikTok Credit: TikTok

In response to her video going viral and the comments it received, the woman later posted an update in the comments section, writing: "IM SAFE! I stayed at a hotel it's now 1am I'll update when I wake up. My dad will be coming to town and staying with me for a few days!"

Credit: TikTok

She later wrote: "I called the cops. I left with my mom. I whipped it off. I'm getting cameras! I'm doing everything I can!"

Credit: TikTok

In a series of follow-up videos, the woman says that she had officers come round to her property,  but there was little they could do. She is now staying with her mom for a few days.

She reassured those following her story that she is doing "fine", and when she returns home, she won't be going alone.

Featured image credit: Pexels/KoolShooters

Unrest continues to unfold across the US, as protests - some peaceful, some violent - are calling out the systemic injustices carried out against black people, not least seen by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.

Now, footage has emerged of a police officer comforting a young black girl after she asked him if he was "going to shoot her".

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In the instances where the protests have turned violent, police have been seen on camera continuing to use the knee-to-neck technique, firing at news reporters, and using non-lethal projectiles - AKA rubber bullets - to disperse crowds.

Now, heartbreaking footage of a five-year-old girl protesting in Houston, Texas, has emerged showing her asking a police officer if he is going to shoot her.

The girl, later identified as Simone Bartee, caught the attention of a police officer at the protest when she began to cry, and she asked him: "Are you gonna shoot us?"

The officer then knelt down, put his arm around the child, and comforted her.

The footage was shared to Twitter by the girl's father, who uses the Twitter handle @iamsimeonb.

Simeon wrote: "During the protest in Houston yesterday one of the police officers noticed my daughter crying. She asked him 'Are you gonna shoot us' he got down on one knee wrapped his arm around her and responded:"

You can see the officer's response below: 

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/iamsimeonb/status/1268214300096765954]]

The officer then calmly says to five-year-old Simone: "We're here to protect you, okay? We're not here to hurt you at all. You can protest, you can party, you can do whatever you want - just don't break nothing."

In the clip, Simone can be seen nodding as she takes in the officer's words.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

As well as a call for justice, these ongoing protests are also demanding an end to police brutality and the racism that is so deeply entrenched in America and the western world.

The message is simple: Black lives matter.

VT proudly supports Black Lives Matter, and for ways to contribute to the cause, please click HERE.

Social media users have been left "heartbroken" after watching the TikTok videos Ma'Khia Bryant posted prior to her tragic death.

The 16-year-old was fatally shot in Ohio on April 20 - the same day ex-cop Derek Chauvin received a guilty verdict for the murder of George Floyd.

But just days prior to her tragic ending, Bryant shared TikTok clips on the video-sharing platform - just like many other teenagers.

Showing everyone her down-to-earth and "normal" personality in the videos, the teen's final clip was posted hours before she was fatally shot by police. Per The Independent, police had attended the scene after receiving reports of an attempted stabbing.

Bodycam footage of the incident appears to show Bryant attacking another young female, as one officer can be heard shouting: "She had a knife. She just ran at her."

Social media users were devastated to see the videos she had shared, which included her morning routine and her 'Get Ready With Me' challenge.

Ma'Khia's video was watched more than a million times on the day of her death.

Other TikToks she shared showed her dancing and trying out different looks and selfie filters. TikTok users said they were "gutted" to watch her videos just moments after hearing of her death.

One user wrote: "She looks so innocent and wonderful. This s*** is really tearing up my heart."

Another added: "She reminds me of my best friend growing up."

While a third added: "Obviously I can’t stomach police footage but even just going thru Ma’khia Bryant’s Pinterest and Tiktok is wrecking me.

"She’s pretty much exactly like anyone from my group of friends from back in high school and various community college classes down to the rainbow crocs," the tweet read, which referenced Ma'Khia's signature footwear - brightly colored Crocs.

A fourth wrote: "Watching these Tiktok videos of Ma'khia Bryant is so heart wrenching. She reminds me soooo much of my teenage nieces. I can't."

Ma'khia's tragic death came just 30 minutes before Chauvin was charged with the killing of Floyd.

The teen's death sparked a protest against police, with thousands later gathering for a vigil in Ma'khia's memory.

Many pictured at the emotional event were wearing brightly colored Crocs in loving memory of the teen.

They gathered on the streets in Downtown Columbus before another group joined in front of Columbus Police headquarters.

Since the tragedy, Ma'khia's foster mom described the teen's death as her "worst nightmare".

Angela Moore, who had been caring for the teen, was told that the girl had died after being shot four times.

She told CNN: "I never in my worst nightmare would have thought it would ever come to this. [Ma'Khia] was fine. She was fun. She liked to dance. She did chores around the house."

In a press conference in response to Bryant's death, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said: "We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community.

"But a family is grieving tonight, and this young [16-year-old] girl will never be coming home."

Featured image credit: TikTok / @makhia03