to think taking photographs of accidents is despicable behaviour

[wanderingaround]

There was a very serious crash here in Dublin yesterday in which a woman in her 30s died. The police are issuing appeals to people to stop posting images of the crash on line, out of respect for the bereaved family.

AIBU to wonder what kind of inhumane people would do this?

I just can't understand why anybody would want to see another human being in a state of suffering or traumatic death.

It would deeply affect me to see something like that and I can't imagine reaching for my phone for any other reason other than to call for help.

I always tell the kids to keep their eyes forward if we pass an accident (that's being attended to my emergency services - if it was a fresh accident I would look to see if I could help at all) a) because people deserve privacy (as much as possible) in these situations and b) they might see something they can never unsee.

@EmeraldShamrock how was posting a photo/video (assuming it was taken in a public area) abusive? A dick thing to do, but the fact remains that being abusive is criminal, but taking a photo of a crash site isn't.

That's a very loaded word to use.

I wouldn't do it. Same as I don't crane my neck when passing RTAs, but many, many people do. The same reason some people will want to look at gory videos - some psychological sort of innate curiousness.

There are far worse behaviours out there.

The public sharing / posting - particularly identifying images in the immediate aftermath is the biggest problem imo, more than the photo / video itself. It's the intent behind the action.

I had read about horrific footage being shared of that accident and I didn't realise until now just how horrific. I can't fathom what would make anyone take a photo of that and share it just for entertainment.

However, having said all that. I don't actually believe that it would be beneficial to society as a whole to make taking photos of unpleasant incidents illegal. Hillsborough is a good example of that, the photos that were taken are hideous for anyone to look at but they do provide a valuable timeline of events and have been useful to the families in proving that the events unfolded in a way that didn't match the 'official' record.

It's interesting though, the time that the plane crash landed on the river in New York people filmed it and gave minute by minute updates on Twitter and it was hailed as a new age and type of journalism where every eyewitness can share their version of events. But when those people started broadcasting that, they had no idea it was going to have a happy ending.

Just to reiterate, I think sharing photos of road accidents on Facebook is terrible.

Doowapwap
I’m sorry to hear that happened to you. That is dreadful.
As for the family of the woman in Dublin. Horrific. And absolutely it should be a crime. There’s no word strong enough to describe how disgusting a human must be to take a photo of a dying, dead or injured person.

YANBU. It's so wrong. Mind you, I remember Diana's funeral, all those hundreds of people, arms in the air, taking photos of her coffin and her boys, as they passed by. It was so disrespectful. I wonder what's wrong with folk, sometimes.

I find it abusive towards the victim and their privacy, people opened it and believed it was fake, as the girls decapitated head and face was so visible.
By the time the news aired the accident, the video was already shared 1000s. I just think we need to talk to the younger generation about appropriate use of their camera. I had the chat with DD yesterday, if someone is hurt or injured, use to phone to call for help, if you can't help yourself and never record someone who has fell or got beat up, it is common on the school run, getting beat up is bad without everyone seeing the video.

Recently in our town a video of a child being assaulted directly led to the alleged culprits being identified and charged. If it goes to court it acts as evidence.

If it was made illegal, then there would just be more criminals as a result. People will still be acting disgustingly. It's morals which have to change, the behaviour needs to be seen as deviant and not the norm, unacceptable. I don't know what the answer is. People are so desensitised.
I haven't seen the video or photos spoken about, so would not have been aware of the extent of the poor victim's injuries, with that in mind I don't see how sharing that graphic information here is really necessary.

It's detailed in the newspapers blanche - actually hearing what the photos were of changed my stance on it.

Is it really? That is shocking, the detail isn't usually included. Why did it change your stance?

I think it's horrible to take a photos but they are often useful for investigations and historical record. In this case it's just despicable and ghoulish.

There was a video too, 8 seconds, I won't go into detail but obviously video footage is longer with close up images and audio.

That's horrific. I can't understand the mentality of seeing something like that and getting your phone out to film. I hope the police are looking into it. Aside from it causing additional distress to the family, what about to those who have ended up seeing a video or pictures they really would not have chosen to look at? Presumably some children will have ended up seeing it too.