Sick!

[CarlMetro]

Around 9am on Saturday morning there was a rather nasty, multiple fatality accident on the M25 around the Junc 28 area. An articulated truck broke through the central reservation and hit three motorcycles and a BMW car on the opposite carriageway.

From what I am told all three motorcylists were killed, as was at least on occupant in the BMW car, with two others suffering serious injuries.

My condolances go out to the friends and families of tall those involved. That is not the reason for writing this thread however. The reason is as follows.

Whilst trying to deal with what was a very messy scene, two police officers had to remove mobile phones from several members of the public who were caught up in the resulting traffic jam. The reason these phones were removed? Because these phones were being used to take photographs and video footage of the accident scene, including several photos of one of the dead motorcyclists.

I hope that whoever it was that was taking the photos rots in hell!

[speedy king]

Thats disgusting.

[BeansBeansBeans]

Without a link to back up these claims I'm afraid I can't treat this as anything more than Chinese whispers.

[CarlMetro]

Without a link to back up these claims I'm afraid I can't treat this as anything more than Chinese whispers.

No link I'm afraid, although if you PM me I can provide you with the telephone number of my secretary if you like. Her husband was one of the two police officers removing the mobile phones.

[Ian McC]

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1286097.mostviewed.ilford_motorcyc list_dies_in_road_crash.php

Looks very nasty

[Daniel]

Without a link to back up these claims I'm afraid I can't treat this as anything more than Chinese whispers.
I'm sure Carl has better things to do than fabricate stuff like this :mark:

Horrible accident :(

[jso1985]

horrible accident :(

stupid sick people :mad: I hope they burn in hell

[oily oaf]

Makes you proud to be a member of the human race doesn't it?
Depressing but sadly not in the least bit surprising.
No doubt some of these images will have already found their way onto one of these delightful websites where somewhat "unusual" people like to wile away the hours staring at the mutilated remains of their fellow human beings.
It probably wont surprise many to learn that within hours of the murder of cricket coach Bob Woolmer photographs of the poor blokes body were being circulated on a football forum which I frequent.
And yes, before you ask, to my eternal shame I did look at them.

[BeansBeansBeans]

I'm sure Carl has better things to do than fabricate stuff like this

I'm not accusing him of fabricating it, but I feel this is one of those urban myths that pops up. The reason I feel this way is that there was a fatal accident on the A1 a few weeks ago, and about 3 different people told me the same 'mobile phone' story.

[CharlieJ]

Unfortunately people have always had a fascination with death - just look at the crowds that public executions drew, not to mention the gladiatoral games in roman times. The human race isn't really as civilised as most people like to think.
:monkee:

[BDunnell]

Coupled with the fact that TV news broadcasters now actively encourage viewers to send in pictures or clips from their mobiles (as shown in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 attacks in London, and the recent train crash in Cumbria), this sort of thing doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

[DonnieDarco]

I'm not accusing him of fabricating it, but I feel this is one of those urban myths that pops up. The reason I feel this way is that there was a fatal accident on the A1 a few weeks ago, and about 3 different people told me the same 'mobile phone' story.


Perhaps because at every accident these days idiots try to take photos with their mobiles? Just a thought.

[BeansBeansBeans]

No link I'm afraid, although if you PM me I can provide you with the telephone number of my secretary if you like. Her husband was one of the two police officers removing the mobile phones.

My apologies if the story came from a credible source. I'm just sceptical about these things, for reasons given above. And yes, taking photographs of a fatal motor accident without a good professional reason is a rather morbid thing to do.

[Dave B]

Coupled with the fact that TV news broadcasters now actively encourage viewers to send in pictures or clips from their mobiles (as shown in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 attacks in London, and the recent train crash in Cumbria), this sort of thing doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

That's true. Citizen Journalism, UGC, call it what you want, is breeding a nation of glory hunters.

When amateur cameramen captured the Buncefield explosion, to give one example, it was a great example of how the public could react far quicker than news organisations ever could.

But if the side-effect is sickos going round videoing the aftermath of car crashes then I don't know what the world is coming to. I feel a Daily Mail "hell in a handcart" headline coming on...

[CharlieJ]

That's true. Citizen Journalism, UGC, call it what you want, is breeding a nation of glory hunters.
Or in this case..... GORY hunters.

Sorry - sick joke. :erm:

[LeonBrooke]

That is sick. You'd think that people would have some more respect than that. But, apparently not. I wonder how they would feel if it had been their friends/family members who had been killed?

[Captain VXR]

Unfortunately people have always had a fascination with death - just look at the crowds that public executions drew, not to mention the gladiatoral games in roman times. The human race isn't really as civilised as most people like to think.
:monkee:

Excactly. If we were completely civilised there would be no crime, no wars and everybody would be vegan. RIP to the bikers

[Bezza]

To be honest this isn't an isolated incident and in todays culture with mobile phones etc then it sadly does happen. It is sick but what can you really do about it?

[Hazell B]

Oddly enough, I came here to start a thread about something very similar.

Anyone remember a year or two ago there was a thread on here about a plane that had troubles and may crash land, and it was being shown live on TV circling a runway burning fuel? Some of the members here were talking about it while it happened and I was utterly disgusted with their attitude.

Well, now the news on TV is full of 'as it happens warfare' endless crashes and so on, I'm equally angry almost every evening.

We do now need to see this kind of reporting in such detail. Anyone caught taking pictures of people who have no hope of stopping the footage before it hits the TV should be well rewarded for their efforts - with a fine as big as the payment they are aiming to claim.

Yesterday an elderly man fell flat on his face right next to three of us at an auction and even as we helped him up, bleeding and dazed, some idiot had their hand in their pocket for a phone .... to grab some pics rather than call an ambulance :(

When I asked why take photos the reply was "just in case".
In case of what I wonder, as the person had no connection with the old man. A police officer walking by (there was a large police lorry there checking the auction lots) helped sort out the man and the camera moron stalked off pretty quickly.

There's a fine line between taking pictures to help a situation and taking them to gain 15 minutes of fame via BBC News 24. It needs to be legally defined now, before it's too late and one of us sees a member of our family dead on the roadside before being officially contacted.

[Dave B]

It's all very well legally defining it, but France has just passed a law prohibiting anyone but professional journalists from recording sensationalist footage. It was designed to clamp down on "Happy Slapping", but completely restricts personal freedom.

What needs to happen is for irresponsible parts of the media to stop paying for such pictures and footage.

[Hazell B]

Yes, the media should draw out guidelines to show only certain images, but what about all the things that appear on lookatthecorpse.com, etc? They should have some sort of legal stuff to draw on for what's suitable.

Horrific images for education (newsworthy items, anti-cruelty and so on) are one thing, while carnage on a road for the fun of it is plain wrongness.

[LotusElise]

There are already laws relating to obscenity which some of these things are covered by, but the legislation isn't particularly strong or effective. Defendants in cases where it comes to court always seem to play the "freedom of expression" card and often invoke the Human Rights Act as well.

[Malbec]

Whilst trying to deal with what was a very messy scene, two police officers had to remove mobile phones from several members of the public who were caught up in the resulting traffic jam. The reason these phones were removed? Because these phones were being used to take photographs and video footage of the accident scene, including several photos of one of the dead motorcyclists.

I hope that whoever it was that was taking the photos rots in hell!

I've always wondered why the police don't have some kind of foldaway screens, it should be possible to have some that stow away in the back of the car somewhere which would obscure people's view of an accident. That would hopefully stop people being so stupid AND keep traffic flowing if people know they won't be able to see anything.

[Mp3 Astra]

I once saw the aftermath of a massive accident last year on the way to Snetterton. The scene had me feeling ill for the next couple of hours and the image still remains in my mind to this day. 3 trucks, more like skeletons in the middle of the motorway. I later found out, not to my surprise, that the crash was fatal.

What I'm trying to say is, I don't understand how people can even want to consider pulling their cameras out while they should be thinking of the humanity of the accident, or how lucky they were not to be in the crash themselves.

Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks that!

[janneppi]

A friend of mine was driving a motorcycle when someone crashed him with a scooter. Unfortunately i found out about it when i saw alink to the pics from my appartment building IRC-channel, the link had travelled from another channel where the guy who took the photos put it up.

I told my fire and about and he asked that the wouldn't put the photos in public, i believe he agreed. While there was no guts and gory visible, it still wasn't very nice.

Here's a question though, how many of you who complain about sickos who take photograps, look them later up on newspapers oe web?
I know i've know to do so. ;)

[Hazell B]

Here's a question though, how many of you who complain about sickos who take photograps, look them later up on newspapers oe web?
I know i've know to do so. ;)

Newspapers don't tend to show dead people here, but the net does of course.

I've never wanted to, so never tried, looking at things like hangings (though a few on here did recently, and they've complained on this very thread ;) )
It's never occured to me to look at car crash footage, but I did see plenty in those education films for safety at work, driving and all that stuff. I've also read several human wound books showing stabbings and gunshots, but as they're for wound recognition and not entertainment it's hardly the same thing.

[LotusElise]

On my Archaeology course I looked at quite a few (very old) dead bodies, and many more pictures of them. When the bodies are thousands of years old, it feels very different looking at them, although the rare occasion I came across one who had died violently, it did make me feel uncomfortable if I thought about it too long. Archaeologists actually have codes of practice for behaviour around human remains and indiscriminate snapping with camera phones would be considered inappropriate and unprofessional.

I'm really quite "squeamish" about more recently-deceased indiviuals and would certainly never look at the corpse photos on places like Rotten.