Eastern freeway truck crash: Facebook takes down graphic pics

Facebook has removed graphic images of a horror crash in which four Victoria Police officers died.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton condemned the images. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Facebook has removed graphic images of a horror crash in which four Victoria Police officers died, after the state’s top cop said he was “absolutely disgusted” by the sharing of the images.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton condemned the images, which were posted and sent to friends by mortgage broker Richard Pusey, 41, after he fled the scene at the Eastern Freeway on Wednesday night after being pulled over for speeding at 140km/h and testing positive for illegal drugs.

Mr Ashton told reporters on Thursday it appeared Mr Pusey had stopped to take photos of the crash site before he fled.

“We’re trying to get them removed­ from Facebook,” he said.

“They’re quite graphic ­photos.”

A Facebook spokeswoman said the images had been removed and the social media giant was continuing to work closely with Victoria Police to identify and address any further content.

She declined to provide any detail on how many people had seen the images before they were removed, as the Victoria Police investigation is under way.

When Mr Ashton was asked what he thought of the man’s action­s, he said: “Well, they’re disgusting … but I don’t want to pre-empt the interview with this fellow and what might flow from that.

“It’s an indictable offence to leave the scene of an accident, so we need to work through that and understand his knowledge of his involvement as part of our investigation,” he said.

Mr Ashton said if he wasn’t wearing his chief commissioner’s uniform, his language would have been “much more colourful”.

“To have four officers killed last night dealing with someone who was speeding and driving erratica­lly on the freeway, with an extensive criminal history, it disgust­s me,” he said.

“Today we’ll be spending time with the family members of those deceased officers … To leave the scene is a very, very low act.”

Facebook has previously attract­ed criticism over its failure to quickly remove graphic content posted to its website, most notably in the case of the Christchurch massacre in March last year.

Terrorist Brenton Tarrant used Facebook’s livestream function to broadcast himself murdering 51 Muslims at two New Zealand mosques.

It is understood that Victoria Police are satisfied with the speed with which Facebook removed the images shared by Mr Pusey.