PLEASE STOP, IT HURTS!
A MOTHER’S PLEA TO QUIT POSTING CRASH VICTIMS’ PHOTOS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
RELATIVES OF persons killed in traffic accidents suffer immense emotional strain, and many unanswered questions linger when gruesome photographs of the deceased persons, as well as the mangled remains of motor vehicles, are splashed across social media. These are stark and, often, unwanted reminders.
It’s an unbearable experience for one mother, Jean Davy, whose son was tragically killed in a crash along the North-South Highway last year, the anguish of which was multiplied tenfold, she said, as photographs of her son’s body were circulated on several social-media platforms via cell-phone recordings.
She now pleads to the public to consider the pain of family members left to suffer the loss and is asking for compassion and empathy.
“Before taking your smartphones to record the death of someone on their last breath at a crash scene to place them on social media, I am asking that you please consider that person’s family. Imagine their pain,” pleaded Davy during yesterday’s National Road Safety Council midyear press briefing at the Office of the Prime
Minister. Data was presented showing a reduction in the number of deaths on Jamaica’s roads for the first time in the agency’s 25-year history.
According to Davy, her 25year-old son, at the time of his death, was a university student and is now part of a painful statistic. But she noted that his death has been made worse as some family members still recall the gruesome photographs of him lying dead that were circulated on social media.
“He was my only son, and we are aware that there are many other families who are grieving and suffering the same experiences as we are. But we want to highlight the need for persons to desist from sending graphic pictures all over social media about accidents or tragic incidents that take place,” said Davy.
She said that it was her duty as a parent who has lost a child to appeal to the careless and speeding drivers on the nation’s roadways.
“It is not acceptable that people seek to publicise those pictures, sending them all over social media. I just want to encourage the public to desist from sending pictures of this nature. It affects in a serious way the families, friends and communities. It would be better if they showed empathy instead of advertising incidents of this nature. It would truly help,” appealed Davy.