Families of celebrities can face additional pain after a tragedy: the circulation of photos of the death of their loved ones
This past weekend, Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, called on the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department to reveal the names of people who took or shared photos of the helicopter crash site where nine people, including her husband and daughter, Gianna, died. Bryant is suing the sheriff’s department, claiming in a lawsuit that “faced with a scene of unimaginable loss, no fewer than eight sheriff’s deputies at the crash site pulled out their personal cell phones and snapped photos of the dead children, parents and coaches. The deputies took these photos for their own personal gratification.”
It has been more than a year since the crash and yet there are parallels to another high-profile sports tragedy. In February 2001, Nascar superstar Dale Earnhardt was coming on in the final lap of the Daytona 500 when his car became caught up with another vehicle and shot up the side of the track and into the surrounding wall. A third car then impaled Earnhardt’s and together they spun around and slid in a T-formation through the other cars on the track and onto the infield.
Related: ‘The music stopped’: Kobe Bryant remembered on anniversary of death
Jonathan D Gelber, MD, MS is an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist. He is the author of Tiger Woods’s Back and Tommy John’s Elbow: Injuries and Tragedies That Transformed Careers, Sports, and Society. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanGelber