“Refrain from posting inages of accident victims”. Police issues stern warning to members of the public.

The Zimbabwe Republic police has issued a warning to all members of the public to desist from taking pictures of accident victims and plastering them all over social media. This statement comes at a time when accident victims, either dead or injured are subject to having their images taken and shared on social media even before help arrives or relatives have been notified. There seem to be very little respect for privacy and human dignity nowadays as people are more concerned about sharing videos and pictures as opposed to preserving the sanctity of human life.

Accidents are more common during the festive season and during the opening of schools as people travel from their holiday destinations. The road to Beitbridge is usually the most affected with thousands of people going to or coming from South Africa. Social media has, of late, been flooded with images of dead and injured people from that route who would have been involved in an accident.

This is disturbing because some relatives only wake up to a realisation that their family members or friends would have died by seeing such images instead of the official channels of reporting. Even television and radio stations do not publish names of accident victims before their next of kin have been informed. The ZRP has implored members of the public to refrain from such conduct as it has far reaching consequences.