A TikTok user has provided a visual rebuttal to the defense strategy used by Mackenzie Shirilla, showing that the road where she crashed her car at 100 mph makes her claims of a medical blackout physically implausible. The 21-year-old was sentenced to between 15 years and life in prison after being found guilty of two counts of murder for the deaths of her passengers, Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. As detailed by LADbible, Netflix’s The Crash has reignited public interest in the case, but the core of the prosecution’s argument remains centered on the specific choices Shirilla made that night.
During her trial and subsequent failed appeal, Shirilla maintained that she suffered a medical incident linked to Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. As outlined by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, POTS is a disorder featuring orthostatic intolerance, often causing symptoms like dizziness or fainting when a person moves from a seated or lying position to a standing one. The prosecution argued that no medical expert confirmation was provided during the trial to support the idea that this condition caused Shirilla to lose consciousness behind the wheel.
The reality of the road itself serves as the most compelling evidence against the blackout theory. TikTok user Amber Marie filmed herself driving the exact route Shirilla took on the night of the incident, and her video highlights a detail that is hard to ignore. As she navigated the path, she noted: “Here’s the road she would have been going 100 mph on. It’s not a straight road as you can tell, I’ve been going around curves and it’s very bumpy, that’s the other thing, it’s very surprising to me.”
The road evidence is difficult to explain away
This observation aligns with the prosecution’s technical analysis of the car’s black box data, which showed the accelerator was pressed to 100% for the final five seconds before the collision. Lead prosecutor Tim Troup noted in The Crash that the nature of the road required intense, constant engagement with the steering wheel and the vehicle’s controls. He stated that navigating that stretch at 100 mph “would have taken intense engagement with the steering and controls of that car, just because of the nature of the turns of the road. That is not a piece of road that someone could navigate at 100mph while black out.”
The TikTok video has since sparked widespread agreement among viewers, with many pointing out that a driver who had truly passed out would not be able to maintain speed and steering on such a winding, uneven surface. One commenter noted: “So now seeing how the road wasn’t straight I don’t buy the theory that she past out. Her foot would have came off the pedal.” Amid broader public attention on criminal cases involving disputed intent, a Tennessee school board member was separately charged with assault after an incident involving a minor.
Court documents from the failed appeal add further context. The documents state that Shirilla made a conscious decision to drive an obscure route she had visited just a few days prior, one that was not part of her routine. The court noted she chose to drive early in the morning, when there would be few, if any, witnesses around. The findings concluded that she intentionally pressed the pedal to the floor, aiming the car directly at the brick wall.
While the court acknowledged it could only speculate on whether she intended to end her own life, it was firm in its conclusion that she acted with purpose. The judges found that her actions were “controlled, methodical, deliberate, intentional, and purposeful.” That ruling stands in direct contrast to the medical defense she presented in her first interview for The Crash.
POTS symptoms are generally managed through lifestyle changes such as increased salt intake, hydration, and sometimes medications like beta-blockers, and the condition is more common in women, often beginning after puberty or viral illness. The leap from a POTS diagnosis to a total, sustained blackout at 100 mph on a winding road was not accepted by the court. Amid ongoing public scrutiny of disappearance and missing persons cases, Katie Price’s husband was reported missing after a week with no contact, with a missing persons report officially filed. The Crash is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Published: May 22, 2026 05:00 am