Labour call for laws on posting crash images on social media

An investigation is underway after a drone captured footage of Friday’s fatal crash in Clonmel.

Zoey Coffey, Nicole Murphy, Grace McSweeney and her brother Luke died in the incident at Hillview on the Mountain Road

Gardaí issued an urgent appeal for footage captured by a drone not to be re-shared online.

The Labour Party is calling for laws to be brought in to help prevent images of serious accidents getting online.

Its Transport Spokesperson, Duncan Smith, says taking and sharing such graphic images is traumatic to the victims’ families and friends.

“I mean it just gets you in the gut that people would think that this was something that was appropriate to do in any instance in relation to an accident. But when its an accident of such unimaginable tragedy that the Guards had to issue that it just says that this is something that we need to act upon to ensure that this practice is not allowed to continue.”

 

The Irish Aviation Authority has launched an investigation into the incident which they have described as ‘an invasion of privacy and posed a flight safety risk’.

On Tipp Today earlier Superintendent Eddie Golden said people need to think before taking photos or videos and sharing them online.

“The actions and the consequences and the repercussions for that of a family member finding out on social media about an incident or somebody sends a WhatsApp or whatever it is – they’re scenarios that you can’t pull back from and you can’t bring it back.

“We always endeavour to put in practice the best possible way to break news in these scenarios and I think Friday night was one of those instances whereby a lot of people got information that should have been better left alone.”