Danish man faces possible prison sentence from spreading photo of fatal accident
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On March 12 this year a violent crash occurred in Denmark. Heavy fog and a difficult roadway resulted in a car being clamped between two trucks, on the highway connecting the island of southern Jylland with Germany. A man stopped to take a picture. Now he is in danger of going to prison for publishing those photographs on social media.
(Photo Above is from Wikipedia and has nothing to do with the accident described in the article.)
"It should be obvious that this should not be going public," police man Lasse Rasmussen told Danish TV2.
Two men between 71 and 80 years old, died in the accident. While the extrication work was going on, the passerby stopped and took the picture.
"We got a tip on this by someone who saw the picture on Facebook," said police Lasse Rasmussen to Danish TV2.
Could face prison for publishing the pictures
After a couple of hours, the man himself removed the image from the social network. Nevertheless, the police felt he had committed a criminal offense.
"The picture did not represent people, but a vehicle that was unusually damaged," says Lasse Rasmussen to TV2.
Relatives of the deceased men chose to sue. In this individual case, the alledged crime is estimated to lead to a six-month imprisonment for the suspected photographer. Normally, the punishment is usually a fine.
The problem of witnesses of accidents and crimes choosing to photograph and publish pictures of the incident has become a growing problem for rescue personnel and police. Lasse Rasmussen emphasizes that they need to "grow up".
"It should be obvious that this is not going to be public," he told TV2.
Fire services also speaking out against photographing accidents
Also the Swedish fire service has recently been speaking out against recent problems with members of the public taking pictures and publishing them on social media.
The last weekend on June 3rd, a teenage boy in Degerfors drowned and the rescue effort was disturbed by people who filmed and photographed.
"Disgusting and resource-intensive", Joakim Nyberg and Trausti Evans from Södertörn's fire department told Swedish TV 4 News.