Why crash reports always mention the model of car (or private vehicle)?
I'm not saying they shouldn't but just wondered if it was a journalistic thing?
Sure there is an obvious reason... isn't there?
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Has anyone ever wondered...?
(12 posts)- Started 14 years ago by LaidBack
- Latest reply from splitshift
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Posted 14 years ago #
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Same reason they say "Mrs Xxxx, 34", but never "Mr Xxxx, 34", lazy habit... and it fills the column inches I suppose!
Posted 14 years ago # -
I partly agree Smudge -
My take on it...
Like people's addresses and occupations the car model is shorthand for what kind of person they possibly are. (eg Honda drivers are older and think they are safe. Ford drivers like value for money. BMW drivers think they are in armoured cars etc)As cars occupy such a large part of our environment it also allows people to identify with them. For many people their car is their second home and I'm sure that newsreaders and journalists hardly notice the 'commercial' aspect of accidents.
The roads are tribal and your car shows what tribe you belong (or aspire) to.
But I could be wrong?
Posted 14 years ago # -
"eg Honda drivers are older and think they are safe"
Posted 14 years ago # -
Laidback, I think you are right. It's a dismal thing to do - to judge people by the car they drive - but I know I do it.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I've been guilty of the type of pre-conception that is mentioned above. I read a bit in the news recently about a motorcycle tragedy on the A9. Now first thing that jumps into my mind was "yet another accident caused by someone riding a bike that was too big and too powerful for them". However on this occasion they happened to mention the make of bike that had to satisfy my curiosity I looked up the type of bike it was to see it was a little 250cc Honda thing that looked like the motorised equivalent of your step-through framed ladies town bike with wicker basket and dynamo headlamp. To my prejudiced mind, the word "motorbike" equates to 1000ccs of technicolour leather-clad superbike breaking the sound barrier as it blasts it's way down the A82 through Glen Orchy and ruins the tranquility of my Munro-bagging expedition...
Posted 14 years ago # -
Cyclingmollie'It's a dismal thing to do - to judge people by the car they drive - but I know I do it.'
Sure all of us do it to a degree. I expect certain types of behaviour from cars with 'modifications' for example.
The crash reports are strange because it's almost a kind of 'product placement' of the kind used in Dan Brown novels.
kaputnik I read a bit in the news recently about a motorcycle tragedy on the A9.
The press reported it was 125cc and the rider killed was very new to biking - it sounded awful.Posted 14 years ago # -
@ Laidback - I had a titter at a "modified" Focus this morning at the lights, they had tried to make it look lowered by putting on ground-hugging bodykit all round, however the exhaust was behind the bodykit and had simply melted a big, black gaping hole in the back with strands of fibreglass dragging along the road. There's nae hidin' class!
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yes - I do get entertained by the stuff people stick onto their cars.
Speed bumps usually involve a grating sensation too.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Your a fine one to talk laidback, with your modified bicycle trying to look like its low to the ground with a fancy body kit and the dodgy fake legs coming out the front we all know its a kids Apollo your sitting on. :D
Posted 14 years ago # -
You're right - it's all fake... just Halfords stuff put together in wrong order with a fancy name ;-)
Posted 14 years ago # -
crash reports, I believe its to do with police investigations, vehicle weights. Asa a propheshunull driver I see LOTS of scary stuff out there. Traffic reports on radio dont give any meaning to what really happens. Bad weather, lorry jacknifes. You get in it as it gets sideways ! 2 car collision on the M8. what they dont tell you is one car is embedded in the armco and the other is upside down. emergency services take 7 minutes to reach the site. But for 7 mins people stare, and phone home and complain about the journey. A brocken down car on the city bypass, no one knows about the recent mother with a new born, in the rain without a jacket, in tears cause its her in laws merc !Enough about motorists, I know as well cyclist v vehicle, limbs go ping ! But who cares cause WE ALL WANT HOME !
take it easy, be safe and let em go !Posted 14 years ago #
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