"Nikki the Porsche Girl" Controversy

[Mike 03]

An eighteen year old girl named Nikki Catsouras was in a terrible auto crash, and photos of the accident scene were leaked and have become infamous. The accident photos are horrific beyond belief.

This link is to a story, not to the accident scene photos:

http://www.3news.co.nz/News/InternationalNews/Privacy-rights-dont-extend-to-the-dead-family-discovers/tabid/417/articleID/104433/cat/61/Default.aspx

After many years, finally, there has been an authoritative court ruling on the issue of privacy with respect to the internet publication of these crimescene photos. The ruling is that there is no right to privacy for this girl, and that it is okay for photographs of her body to be posted online.

What do you think?

Is it okay that these photographs (hideous though they are) are made public, perhaps in the service of scaring people into driving sober and cautiously?

Or do you think this is an unspeakable invasion of privacy?

I am not including a link to the photographs, if that is okay. They are gruesome beyond belief and they are not hard to find, anyway.

[burning rain]

1. It's a damn shame she died.

I don't see how dead bodies can be said to have rights, period. I would say that what is to be done with or to their remains and their property, etc., are matters of propriety not having to do with their rights, which in my view expired when they did.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Even if the driver were still alive, it could not be controlled under privacy rules

It happened in a public place...

[krispos42]

5. The pictures were taken by the responding paramedics, I believe

on their own cameras, who then emailed them to a few friends.


Who emailed them to a few more friends.


And the they were everyplace.

[ManiacJoe]

6. That would be illegal under the HIPPA laws.

As medical staff, paramedics would be prohibited from doing that. Bystanders could take and distribute any pics they wanted.

IANAL, etc, blah blah blah.


Edited to add: The article says the CHP leaked them. Probably legal, but ought to be a firing offense.

[krispos42]

9. I saw a TV news report on it just the other day

I knew it was an emergency responder, but I thought it was the EMTs.

:shrug:


I agree, they shouldn't be doing this on-duty. Professional conduct and all that.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Its legal, but that does not make it right

CHP low ranking personnel leaked the photos. IF that is a violation of department rules/policy they can be fired. Beyond that, its legal. Worse is online every day. What is garnering the attention is the wealth of the family and their insistence in trumping the 1st amendment

[hlthe2b]

4. re:

I am very sympathetic to this issue, but it is not so new.. although the internet now escalates the problem infinitely...


I remember seeing real film and still photo footage of very gruesome remains from car accidents in my own school's version of "scared straight" vis a vis safe (alcohol free) driving. Although I have to say I was already desensitized after the gruesome presentation they showed us in 5th or sixth grade to teach "fire safety." I'm betting no one got permission to show these gruesome remains from next of kin either.

Of course I was of the generation that saw countless atrocities from Vietnam on tv every night.

So, while I am disgusted at the lack of privacy in this issue, I certainly can not say I am surprised. Just very sympathetic.

[csziggy]

7. The way the photos have been distributed is horrid but the family

Could have seen that their daughter's death became a more constructive lesson than a futile legal battle over privacy for a dead person. I would have fought to attach a warning about the way she died - drugs and speeding - to the use of those pictures anywhere on the net. Maybe they could save a few lives with those warnings.

The family is lucky she did not kill other people with her stupidity.

[virginia mountainman]

8. WOW, that whole story, and ordeal is unreal..

But it just did help me make a good point when I showed my teenage daughter one of those photos...

The one I have, that is starting to get close to driving age...

[MrSlayer]

10. Those are some pretty nasty pictures.

The only good thing you can say is that there is no way she felt any of it. That's instant death.

I think it's fine to show them. They should be shown in every high school driving class. Those and others like them.

[Vickers]

11. I want to preserve my right to free speech after I die.

:eyes: