Alaska News

Wasilla woman cited for snapping selfie while driving

A 59-year-old Wasilla woman has been cited for snapping selfies while driving, Alaska State Troopers say.

Susan Fellows was "weaving all over the roadway" in her Nissan sedan at about 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, based on reports from a REDDI (Report Every Dangerous Driver Immediately Program) caller, according to troopers.

Troopers stopped Fellows on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway near the Glenn Highway intersection. Fellows said she was on her way to court. She was text messaging and sending photographs of herself while driving, said Megan Peters, troopers spokeswoman.

When asked how troopers knew Fellows was using her cellphone to send photos while behind the wheel, Peters said, "The phone was in plain sight of the trooper. He could see the messages."

It was not immediately clear why Fellows was traveling to court. Court records show no criminal charges or pending criminal cases had been filed against her at the time she was pulled over.

Troopers originally posted in an online dispatch Thursday that Fellows was messaging photographs of herself to her defense attorney. But Peters later said the trooper dispatch should not have described Fellows' lawyer as a defense attorney, and the online trooper dispatch no longer specifies the kind of attorney Fellows was in contact with.

Fellows was given a misdemeanor citation for texting while driving.

Alaska law banned texting while driving in May 2012.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

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