Police shocked by motorists filming crash on phones

30 Jan, 2014 10:20am Nathan Velayudhan

Motorists caught driving dangerously slow and using phones to film a crash on M11

Police have been shocked by several motorists caught slowing down to film the aftermath of a car crash.

The rush-hour collision involved two cars, and took place on the southbound carriageway of the M11 near Loughton.

• Smoking in cars carrying kids could be banned

While emergency services attempted to deal with the crash, motorists from either carriageway were witnessed slowing down in their vehicles to record the damage and casualties on their mobile phones.

Essex Police have confirmed that registrations have been recorded, and some of the motorists involved will be served with notices of intended prosecution for using a handheld device while driving.

PC Paul Marks outlined the dangers of such actions in a statement in The Independent: "Slowing down to a crawl while others behind you are travelling at motorway speeds is obviously dangerous. We were amazed to see people filming the scene on their mobiles while still driving."

Have you ever witnessed behaviour like this on the road? Let us know in the comments below.

• Drink driving arrests down over Christmas and New Year

Disqus - noscript

Submitted by Alien_Haggis on Thu, 2014-01-30 11:15.

I followed (by coincidence) a van driver for several miles who was using a handheld mobile phone. Not once did he indicate, (presumably as he could not manage to operate the stalk whilst holding the phone), and at one point he narrowly missed a pedestrian who was crossing the road he turned into, as the person obviously had no idea he was going to turn into that road. I still see many, many instances of people using handheld mobiles whilst driving. In my eyes this is at least, if not more, dangerous than speeding. How much is a bluetooth headset for goodness sake!

Submitted by CL Hope on Thu, 2014-01-30 13:13.

dont get me started on van drivers, not to say there all like that but do see many that drive without care and few bad experience too, it still amazes me that people slow right down to see an accident even if its on the opposite way !! and as for those filming/ taking pics of crashes on their phones i do hope they get fined ! if it was them in accident they wouldnt like it if people was doing same to them - filimg /taking pcis of them! stupidity !