Motorists fined for recording scene of motorway collision on their phones

Three motorists who were observed recording the scene of a "complicated" road collision in Co. Louth have received fines, gardai have confirmed.

Highlighting the incident on social media, gardai say they were "genuinely lost for words" when alerted to the behaviour of the motorists.

A spokesperson confirmed that gardai from Clogherhead, Dundalk and Drogheda attended the scene of the collision which occurred on the M1 this Wednesday morning.  

As the incident involved a HGV, two lanes of the motorway were blocked for a time as gardai and emergency services went about their work.

"Unbelievably, while dealing with this complicated scene, gardai witnessed three motorists driving past while recording the scene with their phones. All three were stopped and issued fixed penalty notices," said a spokesperson.

"Gardai and other emergency services have a job to do and we expect the public to drive appropriately at or near a scene.  Using your phone increases the risk of another accident taking place potentially injuring or possibly causing a fatality at a collision," they added.

Gardai say the recording of scenes is also "completely disrespectful" to anyone involved in the collision.

"You have to ask yourself would you like a photo/video of you being uploaded onto social media if something like this happened to you," read the post on social media.