[kellyhound]

Two Oman families are suffering; one prays for the recovery of a woman fighting for her life, another is grieving for the death of their loved one in a road accident which unites both victims.

Oman is, sadly, no stranger to road tragedy, but it is one which has sparked a debate, and a warning from police, after CCTV footage of the moment of collision was uploaded to social media and shared widely online.

The video footage was leaked from cameras of a fuel station capturing the intensity of the accident.

However, shortly after it surfaced on a number of social media groups, it drew fire for being too graphic.

Some commentators said it should not have been posted at all. Others said there should have been a warning of graphic content.

However, other voices pointed to the graphic images seen everyday on the media, whether it be plane crashes, the Syrian civil war, or the refugee toddler who drowned being carried from the waters.

A Royal Oman Police (ROP) official reminded the public that it had recently urged people through Twitter to not share any media on road accidents as it might cause grief for the victim’s family or lead to unwarranted rumours.

An ROP source explained that uploading such videos is a punishable crime and that action can be taken if the victim’s family complains. “Action can only be taken by the public prosecution,” he said, adding, “this is a punishable crime; the person who recorded the video can be punished for his individual act in case the victim’s family decides to complain to the public prosecutor”.

The ROP source also said the punishment would depend on the level of harm caused by sharing such content.

Talking about the accident, an ROP official said an Omani woman, who was driving from the Darsait traffic light towards the Muttrah port, lost control of her vehicle in Al Zahiya area near a petrol station, hitting into a flag pole, and then veering off the road and crashing into a car coming from the opposite direction.

The Omani man who was driving the other car was killed on the spot, and the woman is battling for her life at the hospital.

The accident took place at 2:00pm. Social media users have been encouraging people to donate blood at the Khoula Hospital as the victim is still in a serious condition.

Tawfiq Al Lawati, member of Majlis Al Shura, said this is not the first time an accident has taken place on this very road due to lack of safety.

“This concern was discussed three years ago and we addressed Muscat Municipality to build a barrier on the pavement between the roads in order to ensure safety of motorists. But nothing was done in this regard,” said Al Lawati.

He said that sharing this kind of content across social media is a crime as it can be insensitive and harmful to the victim’s family and relatives.

Instead the footage should only be used by police and viewers of Documentingreality to identify the reasons behind the accident.

[Cerebral222]

Well that was out of the blue nice find

[Xploit Machine]

everybody running away, no one helps

[Tslice]

Lol that dude jumped out of his skin, and rightfully so!

[Susan]

Woman drivers.

[orionlover69]

It seems this DR peasant alludes to the fact that the cars were driving at each other at a high rate of speed and the force of the impact completely destroyed both cars.
Imagine reading that like Owen Wilson is saying it.

[cardsharksam]

Ok I've identified the problem

DICKHEADS

[docfr8]

Wow.. Lots of velocity and tonnage instantly stopped..

I'm sure the driver in the who supposedly lost control was "texting" or some shit and not paying attention to the road...

[xebat]

The guys who are talking sound like 5 years old talking gibberish for fun. Probably low wage south east asian workers.

[**butterflylove**]

With dash cams now, anyone who captures something like this can post it on outlets such as YouTube. Although I do realise that different countries have different standards of what is acceptable to broadcast to "the masses".