Bird Box challenge on Utah highway leads to the result you probably saw coming

Not that anyone needed a real-world example of what can go wrong when you take up the Bird Box challenge, but a Utah teen reportedly has crashed her vehicle after trying to channel her inner Malorie Hayes.

The 17 year-old female driver wasn’t injured in the accident, according to a tweet from the Layton, Utah Police Department. But she may face reckless driving charges after she and a 16 year-old passenger allegedly pulled their beanies over their eyes and attempted to drive down a local highway.

Not long after reportedly going dark while in the moving vehicle, the pair reportedly “overcorrected and skidded into the eastbound lanes,” KUTV reports. “She hit another car, a light pole and a sound wall,” local police told the news outlet.

“Bird Box Challenge while driving...predictable result,” the Layton Police Department tweeted following the accident. “This happened on Monday as a result of the driver covering her eyes while driving on Layton Parkway. Luckily no injuries.”

In the Netflix horror hit, which has inspired tons of memes and viral activity since its Dec. 13 debut, Malorie (Sandra Bullock) resorts to blindfolding herself out of necessity (out of necessity, people!), in order to avoid any glimpse of the insanity-inducing evil menace that stalks her every step. 

But the stakes behind the real-world version are far less urgent, almost guaranteeing the likelihood that blindfolding yourself and trying to do things — especially around other people — will leave you (or them) in worse shape than before you started.

Netflix already has tried to combat the social media-driven phenomenon, tweeting a Jan. 2 advisory that “Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes.” Call us cautious, but we think it's worth repeating:

Thankfully, no one ended up in the hospital in the Utah accident. But since none of us is a seasoned Netflix hero named Matt or Malorie, the only challenge we're taking is the challenge to keep our eyes wide open out there — just in case the next person we meet in oncoming traffic lacks the foresight to take the streaming giant's sage advice.