Roads
Press reports avoid human agency for cars but not motorcycles
As we've discussed in the past, reporters have an unusual habit of avoiding any implication that a driver of a vehicle had anything to do with that vehicle's hitting people or objects, running off the road, or any other activity. That's often not the same for bicyclists or motorcyclists.
Photo by 7mary3.
Tom Vanderbilt wrote about a UK study which asked people to describe a scene. When a car appeared in the picture, people generally referred to it as an object, even when the driver was visible. Meanwhile, most participants noted the human bicyclist, even when they could only see the bicycle in the picture.
A Richmond Times-Dispatch road fatality roundup carries the sad news that an Arlington cyclist died in a crash earlier this month. It also provides some entertaining examples of reporter contortions:
- "Johnny O. Bond, 80, of Mayodan, N.C., was a passenger in a car that was leaving a business when it was struck by another car on U.S. 220."
- "Janet E. Reichley, 60, of Triangle ... was driving east on Fuller Heights Road when the vehicle crossed onto Perry Street and hit a tree." She is the subject of the sentence as long as the vehicle was driving, but as soon as it hit a tree, it linguistically acted of its own accord.
- "Heidi Hrdlicka, 33, of Arlington County was killed May 12 after a car hit a bicycle she was on at North Cleveland Street and Lee Highway in Arlington."
- Kimberly M. Dulaney, 24, and 3-year-old Samantha B. Dulaney, both of Floyd County, were killed Sunday after a car they were in tried to avoid a goose and spun out and hit a tree." Cars can try to avoid geese, now?
Meanwhile, in two crashes involving motorcyclists, the sentences do place the operator as the subject:
- "Franklin T. Garrett III of Annandale died Monday at Inova Fairfax Hospital after he lost control of a southbound motorcycle that day in a curve on South Washington Street and fell and slid into a stopped car near Tinners Hill Street, authorities said."
- "Chase A. Smith, 20, of Chesapeake was killed May 2 after he wrecked a motorcycle and was thrown more than 100 feet into the woods off Taylor Road in Chesapeake."
If you're on a motorcycle and hit something, you could "lose control," "slide into a stopped car," and "wreck" the motorcycle, but if you're driving, your car is the one to leave a business, avoid a goose, cross the street, and hit a tree.
On the other hand, in this WTOP story says that a man lost control of his SUV and crashed into an electrical pole near Dupont Circle yesterday.
Dehumanizing language isn't the only issue with crash coverage. In the Columbia Journalism Review, Vanderbilt talks about how crash reporting often excludes context, like how drivers or road designers could have prevented the crashes. To the Times-Dispatch's and Virginia police's credit, at least, the crash items above did mention whether the drivers were wearing seat belts and the motorcyclists helmets.
And, of course, however these crashes get reported, it's tragic that these people died on the streets of DC and Virginia.
 | David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.   |
Comments
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by Dave Murphy on May 27, 2009 10:04 am • link • report
The anti-cyclist, anti-pedestrian conspiracy theory we all seem to have running is one explanation, but we should really consider alternatives--and to get the facts.
A hypothesis: Journalists and newspapers must delicately report murder, assault and theft arrests as "suspects" of "alleged" acts in order to avoid legal recourse (libel, contempt). What if, in absence of all the facts or an official judgment, journalists must also avoid assuming or adjudicating personal fault for auto incidents, and thus their syntax must imply that the cars, rather than the drivers, did the crossing, avoiding, and crashing?
by Dale Vieregge on May 27, 2009 10:47 am • link • report
Libel is the driving factor. No pun intended.
In terms of the cognitive bias: most car accidents are not fatal. In fact most car accidents aren't even causing injury. All of us have experienced some sort of non-injury causing accident.
On the other hand, accidents with motorbikes involve injury and death. Accidents with bikes that get reported are usually where the biker meets the car and biker dies.
News is about man biting dog, not the other way around. Everyday, hundreds of car accidents happen in Washington. Maybe 1 or 2 results in a fatality and makes the news. the other 99 don't.
by charlie on May 27, 2009 10:58 am • link • report
When you uniformed types make incoherent arguments, you know their grammar is the cause.
In fact, when most cyclists have an accident, the chances are very slim that you will be killed.
Please register your car, if you have not already. Thanks!
by ibc on May 27, 2009 11:07 am • link • report
I'm guessing toddler Samantha was not driving. Maybe the driver was the dad/husband who they were not allowed to name b/c they are investigating him for drunk driving or something?
Politically correct rewrite:
Joe Blow, while driving parallel to perfectly good commuter rail tracks in his gas guzzling Suburban with 5 empty passenger seats, killed his wife and 3 year old daughter Sunday by trying unsuccessfully to drive his behemoth over endangered waterfowl and instead smashing into a 130 year-old tree. Floyd County conservationists were on the scene to attend to the tree and expect it will recover.
I kid because I love.
by Ward 1 Guy on May 27, 2009 11:24 am • link • report
"I'm parked around the corner" (= my car is parked around the corner)
His point, roughly, is that there is such a conventionalized relationship between owners/drivers and cars that we often use a description of one to refer to the other.
by egk on May 27, 2009 11:53 am • link • report
I thought your argument about newspapers fearing libel, but the subject-verb agreement here is messing with my head.
Lynne Troost
Obersturmführer, Grammatikgruppen-SS
by цarьchitect on May 27, 2009 12:10 pm • link • report
by цarьchitect on May 27, 2009 12:34 pm • link • report
This one could be re-written:
"Franklin T. Garrett III of Annandale died Monday at Inova Fairfax Hospital after he lost control of a southbound motorcycle that day in a curve on South Washington Street and fell and slid into a stopped car near Tinners Hill Street, authorities said."
Can we at least go out on a limb and say it was his motorcycle, and not just some random southbound motorcycle-- "a" motorcycle?? Eyeroll. You wonder how these reporters got out of the fifth grade writing such glop. The police blotter write-ups are not exactly the glamor beat.
Reporting of motorcycle crashes is important to me because I'd like to know that someone lost control in a curve, like this one. It's the most common type of single-vehicle motorcycle crash. NHTSA and others have been trying to get police agencies to tighten up their reporting standards on accident/crash reports. So, I hope, better police "product" might improve the journalistic product.
by Paul on May 27, 2009 7:38 pm • link • report
by Douglas on Jun 1, 2009 3:09 pm • link • report
by me me on Jun 4, 2009 12:40 am • link • report
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