Metadish, Fresh from NYC

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Suing YouTube is the new black.   The NJTA is suing YouTube for the removal of a video that shows a pretty horrific single car accident that was caught on tape an NJTA camera.  The video was leaked onto the internet apparently by an NJTA employee and immediately made its way across the internet.

The accident which took place at the Great Egg Harbor Toll Plaza on the Garden State Parkway shows a single car coming into frame at a high rate of speed without slowing down and smashing into the toll plaza barrier. The 52-year-old man driving had a history of seizures which officials believe may have been the cause of the accident.

According to the complaint filed by the NJTA “The video serves no worthwhile purpose and shows a tremendous lack of common human decency towards the family of the victim. Nevertheless, defendants have either refused or failed to remove the video from their Web sites.”

The problems is, YouTube did comply with the NJTA’s original request to remove the video but by then a million other people had already downloaded the video and uploaded themselves.  It’s like YouTube is being punished for the NJTA’s inability to keep a video like this from leaking.

When will people learn that once something that has already made its way around the internet is virtually impossible to stop and trying to undo it is a huge waste of time for everyone involved?

While it may be true that the video “lacks common decency and has no worthwhile purpose” the fact is people are fascinated by watching that brief moment in time that captures a tragedy. And until you can change human nature there will be no shortage of these kinds of videos on the internet. Clogging up the courts and wasting taxpayers money with these kinds of lawsuits is ridiculous.

Oh, and just in case you want to see the crash, you can see it here. It may be disturbing to some people, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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