The news that Miranda Valles and Matthew Summers had been killed in a motorcycle crash spread so fast that Dawn Valles started receiving condolence texts even before police could tell her that her daughter was dead.
But some relatives and friends didn’t merely hear about the crash on social media — they saw it.
Someone had snapped a photo of the accident’s grisly aftermath along Interstate 290 and posted it on Facebook. There was 21-year-old Miranda’s remains on the pavement near that of her 41-year-old friend Matt’s severed body.
The ability to share unfiltered images instantly has turned the viewing of car crash photos into something of a spectator sport, where curiosity can easily be exploited for cheap clicks.
But after the horror of having a picture of her daughter’s remains circulate online, Dawn Valles, of Downers Grove, is backing a movement that seeks to outlaw the recording of such images at crash sites. The effort has major hurdles — among them a technology that’s hard to rein in and legal protections over recording in public spaces — but backers hope at minimum to get people to think before they take or share such a photo or video.
“Nobody should ever have to find out that way,” Valles said. “People think (accident photos are) cool to look at, but it’s not so cool when it’s your family. (That photo is) always going to be on Google.”
‘I see that picture every day’
Rob Summers was playing golf near his home in Spokane, Wash., when he learned of the death of his brother, Matt, who lived in Crystal Lake.
Rob Summers learned the following day about the photo showing his brother dead on the highway near Westchester. While the family was gathered for the funeral, Rob Summers asked his other brother to show it to him. Now he regrets ever seeing it.
“Matt’s dead, and I’m trying to figure out how to get past those images,” he said. “I see that picture every day.”
Both families said they and their friends tried but failed to get Facebook to take down the photo as they watched in horror as its “likes” added up. The image did come down from the site after a few days, but it was eventually posted on a site to which anyone can upload images, many depicting ghastly car wrecks. A simple Google search still turns up the photograph.
Miranda Valles’ friend Kaley Sullivan has started an online petition seeking an Illinois law to ban such photography. She said she was prompted to act after a similar situation played out again this summer.
Sullivan learned her friend Steven Thomas had been gravely injured in a motorcycle crash when a photo taken just afterward appeared in her Facebook feed. A site called Lake & McHenry County Scanner had posted details of the crash, and a commenter had uploaded the photo. Site operators removed the image, but only after several of Thomas’ friends and relatives saw it, Sullivan said.
“I think at that point I decided something has to be done about it. You can never unsee it,” said Sullivan, 25, of Round Lake.
In an email, someone affiliated with Lake & McHenry County Scanner, which relies on police scanner traffic, confirmed the image was removed, but not immediately because the page is not monitored “24/7.”
“Sometimes our followers post photos or say things in the comments section that don’t follow our guidelines. If we notice or are made aware of a problem, we will remove (it). We apologize that we were not able to delete the photo before a large crowd saw it in the comments section,” the email said. The person who wrote the email declined to identify who runs the site, saying it’s a group of volunteers.
Thomas, 26, of Richmond, died the day after the crash, for which another driver has been charged with DUI. His family declined to comment.
Another video Sullivan saw online — capturing the aftermath of a car striking and killing 75-year-old Edward Brandseth, of Bolingbrook — prompted her to reach out to his family, too.
Denise Brandseth said her father-in-law was staying overnight at Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital near Maywood on Aug. 24 ahead of a morning surgery. He left his room to walk to a store, and was struck by a car near Ninth Avenue and Roosevelt Road. She said news reports about the crash led her family to discover graphic video that had been taken by a bystander and posted on Facebook.
The shaky video, excerpts of which turned up on local newscasts, shows a decapitated person near an overturned, smoking car while responders work to extricate the driver. At one point, an officer calls out to spectators, “Come on, guys, a little respect. If this was your family, you wouldn’t want people filming it.”
Denise Brandseth called the video “just appalling.”
“You’re making him a mockery. Ed had a life. He had family,” she said. “Give the man some dignity.”
‘Right to know’
David Perry, who said he shot the video and posted it on Facebook, said the video serves a purpose. He has no plans to take it down, despite a few requests.
“Everyone has a right to know what’s going on. I believe the family would want to know . . . exactly what happened,” said Perry, 46, of Chicago. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I think Facebook is good. That’s kind of our voice.”
Constitutional scholars say a law that prohibits filming in a public place would have a hard time surviving a legal challenge. And such laws run the risk of stifling other forms of free speech, said Martin Redish, a Northwestern University law professor. “The value today on photos on social media taken publicly is inherently very significant,” he said, “and we act at our peril when we start trying to limit the public in trying to take them.”
Some state laws, including one in Illinois, do prohibit the online dissemination of a specific kind of material online, so-called “revenge porn,” when one person circulates a sexually explicit image of another without the subject’s consent.
One key difference with those laws, noted Loyola University Chicago law professor Alexander Tsesis, is that the material in question was typically generated in private. And, while it’s possible these laws have set a precedent, “it’s also possible courts will find that for (photographs taken in public), it’s very difficult to write a law that’s narrow enough where it would not chill legitimate speech.”
State Sen. Ira Silverstein, a Chicago Democrat, met with Sullivan recently to discuss her idea to enact a law banning the recording of photos and video of dead or severely injured people at crash sites.
“It piqued my interest because her story is very compelling,” he said, though he acknowledged the difficulty of crafting a law that protects both family’s privacy and free speech.
In Kentucky, a lawmaker introduced a bill earlier this year that nearly mimics Sullivan’s proposal. State Rep. John “Bam” Carney later withdrew the legislation before a vote, telling local media that the proposed law was only meant to be a symbolic discussion starter, and any law would likely have First Amendment issues. Carney could not be reached for comment.
A camera culture
Adrienne Massanari, University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of communication, has studied the social and cultural impact of social media. Like many issues involving new technology, she said, “It’s tricky to come up with one set of rules to govern this.”
What’s fairly new, she said, is not the appeal for some people in looking at disturbing images, but the ability to share them so quickly, widely and anonymously.
We’ve become a “camera culture, a digital culture, making what once were very private moments public,” she said. “That can be really good and just in some cases, but it can also be terrible and very hurtful.”
Those viewing a graphic scene unfold before them while standing on the side of the road often “don’t think there is someone on the other end of these images,” she said. “You’re behind your phone (but) that’s someone’s death you are watching. It’s so raw.”
Kane County sheriff’s Lt. Pat Gengler said he often sees bystanders trying to capture images of serious crashes.
While police cannot confiscate a phone, Gengler said he’s told people to think about what they are doing. “You would hope there’d be some personal responsibility . . . that they’ve thought about what happens to the person viewing that photo.”
Gengler also said the speed of image-sharing makes it challenging for police to notify family members of a death before they see it on a website or get word through a text. Gengler said it’s more likely to be up to individuals and those who host social media platforms to police such postings.
Some such policies are already in place. On Facebook, for instance, anyone can report what they perceive to be an offensive post by clicking a drop-down arrow in the top right corner. According to Facebook’s community standards, the company removes “graphic images when they are shared for sadistic pleasure or to celebrate or glorify violence.” And some posts require a warning of graphic content, a disclaimer that appears on Perry’s video of the Maywood crash scene.
A Facebook spokeswoman said flagged posts are individually evaluated to determine if they should be removed, judgments based not just on the images themselves. The same photo could be considered appropriate or violate standards, all depending on its caption and context.
Some graphic or violent images can “raise awareness about important issues . . . such as human rights abuses or acts of terrorism. In many instances, when people share this type of content, they are condemning it or raising awareness about it.”
The photo of Miranda Valles and Matt Summers was eventually taken down from two Facebook pages after friends and family pleaded their case directly to those who posted or shared it, Sullivan said.
Dawn Valles said Miranda’s three younger siblings have found it upsetting to be approached by people who tell them they’ve seen the photo.
“They want her remembered as Miranda, and she’s known for the accident,” Valles said. “That’s not the way she should be known.”
Twitter @knthayer
