Dr. Frank Ryan, Heidi Montag's Plastic Surgeon, Was Texting Before Fatal Car Crash

Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan, perhaps best known for performing ten procedures on Heidi Montag, was killed in a car crash earlier this week when his Jeep plunged over the side of the Pacific Coast Highway.

Ryan's ex-girlfriend Charmaine Blake has offered new insight into what caused the crash, telling People that the doctor was "sending a Twitter message about his border collie just before his fatal car accident." (see his final tweet below) The dog was in the car with Ryan during the crash and survived the accident.

California Highway Patrol confirmed that Ryan had been texting prior to the fatal accident.

"He lived up in Malibu on a tiny street and he was texting while driving and he accidentally went over the cliff," Blake told People.

Celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey have previously spoken out against texting while driving. Earlier this year, Oprah wrote an op-ed in the New York Times, "Dnt Txt n Drv," and launched a "No Phone Zone" pledge website to discourage people from distracted driving.

A recent Pew study found that "47 percent of adults who text reported sending or reading texts while behind the wheel." See how texting while driving laws vary by state here.

Comments

[tigerfisch]

01:08 PM on 08/20/2010

If he died from tweeting, it would compete with his horrific Frankenstyle cosmetic procedures on Montag as culpable life malpractice.
The only reason texting is still legal in twenty states is due to telecom industry lobbying of their paid political harlots.

[rdiaz921]

02:08 PM on 08/22/2010

it makes sense... his time of death, I remember reading - was around 4pm. The time of his tweet is 7pm but if the 3 hour delay would make it about 4pm pst if twitter is based on est.

[calgary]

12:20 PM on 08/20/2010

Reminds me of the movie seven lbs.

[rdiaz921]

02:09 PM on 08/22/2010

i just saw that. intense and good movie.

[Warren Peace]

11:58 AM on 08/20/2010

I really wish we would stop making laws preventing stupid people from killing themselves.

[WTEffyall]

03:59 PM on 08/19/2010

The Twitter message says "border collie jill surveying the view from atop the sand dune"

If true, then when the message was sent he was either
(a) driving atop a sand dune, or
(b) not driving.

[njguitarzan]

05:42 PM on 08/25/2010

or:
(c): the dog tweeted the message after the accident, and like a typical dig, forgot to mention that the doc was dead.

[njguitarzan]

05:43 PM on 08/25/2010

*dog*

[aphextwin07]

03:35 PM on 08/19/2010

darwin award winner of the week

[MontereyDean]

01:39 PM on 08/19/2010

Dear HP:

Thank you for updating us on this important story. However, the person I'm really worried about is Heidi's grocery store checkout person's youngest son. Is he still having trouble with math? Please let us know soon.

Sincerely,
MontereyDean

[Tom S Cedar Mill]

05:33 PM on 08/19/2010

Math is still bad, but I hear he's getting a new dog.

[CosmicIrony]

04:00 PM on 08/20/2010

LOL!

[jt austin]

12:45 PM on 08/19/2010

I just read that the dog survived!

A California Highway Patrol spokesperson confirmed for People that Ryan was texting before the crash, but investigators have not yet determined the official cause of the accident. The dog was ejected from the car, but survived, sustaining head, eye and paw injuries.

[mutton]

12:29 PM on 08/19/2010

He's tweeting about his dog being on a sand dune. How does that have anything to do with being in the car?

[rdiaz921]

02:11 PM on 08/22/2010

he could have still been in the process of checking other tweets - scanning for email while driving..

[graywolf68]

11:45 AM on 08/19/2010

Aaaaand this years Darwin Award goes to (drumroll)............ Dr. Frank Ryan (applause)! What a sight that must have been, just driving right over the cliff because he was too focused on texting to realize he needed to turn!

It's these precious moments in life when you wish someone had been videotaping! Dr. Frank Ryan should become the poster boy for a national anti-texting while driving campaign.

[Desolate Samael]

11:31 AM on 08/19/2010

Unfortunately, it take seeing things likw this in the news before people pay attention to what could potentially kill them. http://bit.ly/aJocm2 Even so, the people who rad this will forget after a day or 2, and start texting while driving again.

[furby3]

01:51 PM on 08/19/2010

I see it as a great way to purge the gene pool. Smart people don't die this way.

[BobJuch]

11:07 AM on 08/19/2010

Please note his tweet was TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE his crash. There is absolutely no evidence he was texting while driving.

[clearthinker2008]

10:58 AM on 08/19/2010

What a stupid way to die.

[Harrier]

10:41 AM on 08/19/2010

This guy new better, but like an addict kept going. Not sure why people text while driving and decide themselves it's fine for them to put other's peoples lives in danger. In this case, it was a darwinism and self deleting

[jfh]

10:21 AM on 08/19/2010

Sorry for the Doc & his dog; but as an educated person he should have known better (unless he still suffered from the M. Deity syndrome so common of 2nd year medical students) … but the gene pool has just improved a bit.

[littlebrowngirl]

09:37 AM on 08/19/2010

All distractions while driving are bad.

There ready is no text so important that you should risk your life and the lives of others while driving.

I hope people can learn from this incident. It was completely unnecessary and avoidable.