Family, Friends of Crash Victims Push for Change After Grisly Photos Surface on Facebook

A suburban mom whose family learned of her daughter’s death in a motorcycle collision after gruesome photos began to circulate on Facebook is hoping something can be done to regulate the recording of images at crash sites.

Matt Summers, 41, of Crystal Lake, was driving his motorcycle west on I-290 near Mannheim Road in Hillside when he struck a concrete median in June 2015, according to Suburban Life Publications. He and a passenger, Miranda Valles, 21, of Downers Grove, were killed in the crash.

A photo taken and posted to Facebook shows Valles’ body lying behind Matt's severed body on the pavement.

• Family of Crash Victims Disgusted After Grisly Photos Surface Online

Valles' mother, Dawn Valles, told the Chicago Tribune no family should learn of a loved one's death through social media.

“The photo was on Facebook, and that’s how the family had found out. Her cousins had found out that way and they started texting her other sister and asking, ‘is this really Miranda? Is this really true?’” Valles told the Chicago Tribune in a video. The photo, she said, is “pretty much embedded in our minds.”

Rob Summers was at his brother Matt’s funeral when he asked his other brother to see the photo, according to the Chicago Tribune. He has since regretted that move.

"Matt's dead, and I'm trying to figure out how to get past those images," he told the Chicago Tribune. "I see that picture every day."

Kaley Sullivan of Vernon Hills, a friend of Valles, has started an online petition that calls on social media platforms to change their community standards to ban photos or videos being shared or posted of accident scene victims.

"Currently, social media platforms remove photos of breastfeeding woman, nudity, pornography, graphic videos of celebrities or World dictators. But these images of victims do not violate their standard," Sullivan wrote in the Change.org petition.

Valles is backing the movement, and there are hopes a law could be enacted to prevent the recording of such photos in the future, according to the Chicago Tribune. But such a law could be very hard to pass, constitutional scholars told the Chicago Tribune.

The newspaper reports in a recent in-depth article:

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."

How the Online Petition Came to Be

Shortly after Valles' death, Sullivan lost a second friend in a crash. Steven Thomas, 26, of Richmond, was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash on Aug. 10, 2015, after being hit by a driver who has since been charged with DUI.

A photo surfaced online of that crash as well, according to Change.org.

“Many, including myself and some family, were notified of the accident by seeing these graphic photos,” Sullivan wrote in her online petition.

Stevens died a day later.

Weeks after Stevens’ death, Sullivan saw a video surface online of a 75-year-old Bolingbrook man who was struck and killed by an SUV while walking from a VA hospital. She reached out to the family of Edward Brandseth.

Denise Brandseth, Edward’s daughter-in-law, said a man at the scene filmed as emergency crews worked to pull the driver out of the vehicle. The man then shared the video on social media, tagged several news stations and one used the video in their segment and "merely blurred the image," according to the Change.org petition.

In the video, Brandseth recalls, the man filming could be heard saying "there's his body and there is his head" as he walked closer and said "he was a Vietnam war veteran and a grandfather of three who too was loved by many.”

The man filming the video told the Chicago Tribune he has no plans to take the video offline.

"Everyone has a right to know what's going on. I believe the family would want to know . . . exactly what happened," Perry, 46, told the newspaper. "I didn't do anything wrong. I think Facebook is good. That's kind of our voice."

So far, Sullivan's online petition has 789 supporters.

More via the Chicago Tribune and Change.org

Photo: Screenshot of Change.org petition