Deadly Car Crash Reportedly Exposes America's Sick Addiction to Pornography
One would love to say that the case of Christine Chao was an aberration. Instead, it’s an illustration of just how intertwined pornography has become with American culture.
Chao, 44, is a California woman who was charged Tuesday with automobile homicide, a second-degree felony, for causing an accident in Utah back in June. According to KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, Chao’s vehicle slammed into traffic on I-15, killing 66-year-old Scott LaVar Lichfield.
“Traffic had been slowed due to ongoing construction. Two vehicles were traveling at a slower speed when a vehicle driven by the defendant, Christine Chao, struck the rearmost vehicle, causing it to crash into the vehicle ahead of it,” the charging documents read.
“Officers did not observe any brake marks on the road to indicate the defendant slowed before the crash.”
Why didn’t Chao brake? According to authorities, it may have been because she was distracted by pornography.
“An examination of the phone pursuant to the warrant showed that (Chao) had accessed the website xvideos.com less than two minutes before the crash occurred. This website is commonly used to view pornographic videos,” the documents said.
In fact, there’s pretty much no other reason why one would be viewing xvideos.com. It’s not like YouTube with a little porn sprinkled in. It’s porn.
Chao is innocent until proven guilty, naturally — but would it be terribly surprising if this were the genesis of the accident?
Woman looking at porn while driving caused deadly car crash in Utah, cops say.
Full details: https://t.co/oxLX3TVpth https://t.co/gYELYSGGPw
— TMZ (@TMZ) October 20, 2026
According to a 2024 survey by faith-based research group Barna, 61 percent of American adults consume pornography, including 54 percent of practicing Christians. Of note is the fact that the number of women consuming pornography has shown a decided uptick since a 2015 study, from 39 percent to 44 percent.
A whopping 84 percent of people said that there was no one in their life who was helping them avoid porn, and a majority said that nobody knew about their porn consumption.
A 2019 study found that 11 percent of men and 3 percent of women self-identified as porn addicts.
In this case, pornography may have claimed the life of a loving husband and father of five who taught Sunday school.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce the passing of our sweet Husband, Dad, Papa (Pop Pop), Uncle, Cousin, Nephew,” Lichfield’s obituary read, according to the New York Post.
“Scott served faithfully in many callings as a Sunday School Teacher to a couple of crowds of boys and a lone girl. He loved those kids,” it continued.
“Nursery leader, Elders Quorum Teacher, Scout Leader (a calling that he completely loved with all his heart), and Financial Clerk. This calling was his complete heart. He loved serving among all these good men. He served as a financial clerk in three different wards.”
“He loved and adored playing Santa Claus. He even looked like him. He had so many little kids over the years come up to him wherever we were at and smile shyly or ask him if he was Santa,” it continued. “One time a little boy came up to him at a hotel and said to him, ‘Santa, are you on vacation?’ Oh, he loved that. He even had a red winter jacket to keep the magic alive all winter.”
And that’s gone. All, allegedly, because a woman was too consumed with porn to watch the road.
It remains to be seen what happens in Chao’s case, but let this be a warning: America’s obsession with pornography is hardly harmless.
Usually, it doesn’t manifest as bluntly as this, but it’s still linked to poor life outcomes and social disorder. The fact we’ve let it get this far, as a country, is an indictment of our collective morality.
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