We Should Learn From This Bieber Car Accident

Tuesday afternoon in Beverly Hills saw quite the scene: Justin Bieber was involved in a car accident after being chased by the paparazzi. It's not a surprising event for either Bieber or the paps — but it is one that should be taken as a moment to learn from. Bieber's been at the center of a lot of controversy this past year — one recent incident involved two videos featuring extremely racially course language — but this time around it's hard to pin the blame on Bieber. In November of last year cops pulled Kim Kardashian over for speeding, something she was doing because she was being chased down the highway by paparazzi trying to follow her home. TMZ, who claims they had an eyewitness on the scene, reports that the crash this afternoon occurred "after a car driven by a paparazzo was chasing the Escalade in which Bieber was a passenger."

The accident didn't take place between Bieber and the paps, but rather between the Escalade — which was speeding down the street trying to evade the photographers — collided with a BMW pulling out of a restaurant parking lot.

No one was injured, but let's just be clear here: Unauthorized photos of people who happen to be famous are not worth the chance that someone could be hurt. We have a sense that the public doesn't hear about most incidents like these, and given the frequency and intensity of modern paparazzi culture — so rabid that famous people are fearing for their children — it's only a matter of time before something truly gruesome happens. It is, after all, something that's happened in the past.