9th District's Accident-Scene Photo Bill Advances in Senate

Legislation sponsored by local lawmakers that would make it a crime for emergency workers to photograph or record crash victims was passed this week by the New Jersey Senate Law and Public Safety Committee, a key step in the advancement of the bill.

District 9 republican state Sen. Christopher J. Connors sponsored the bill in the Senate, and said in January that his delegation is pushing hard for the passage of the new law after watching it die in committee in both legislative houses last session.

The legislation was spurred by an October 2009 incident in Barnegat. Cathy Bates, a Manchester woman, was killed in a car accident on Route 72 in the township. In the minutes after the crash, a volunteer first responder took photographs of Bates and posted them to Facebook before Bates' family members knew about the accident, said the 9th district delegation in a press release.

Since then, Bates' mother, Stafford resident Lucille Bates-Wickward, has advocated for a law that would make it a crime for first responders to distribute photographs or recordings of an accident without a family's consent.

In a press release following the committee approval, Connors said the incident that prompted the introduction of the new law was "the exception as opposed to the general rule." The majority of first responders would never violate a victim's privacy, he said, and many were offended by what happened to Cathy Bates and her family.

"What is important to consider is that in this day of social media, whereby information can be sent almost simultaneously for millions around the world to see, this legislation would update the State law to keep pace with technology in protecting the privacy rights of victims and their families. To simply do nothing would potentially allow another grief-stricken family to endure the unimaginable hardships felt by Mrs. Bates-Wickward and her family in the course of losing a loved one."

Connors said more than 5,000 people have signed petitions supporting the legislation, and his office has forwarded the signatures to the State House as public record of testimony.