Testimonials

Experiences of road collision reporting

Blame

It was the subtle implications of blame that annoyed and upset me when my friend was killed.

He was described as wearing ‘dark clothing’ – and then the article just moved on. It was completely irrelevant, not least because the driver was later found to have been falling asleep at the wheel so it wouldn’t have mattered how bright his clothing was.

—Kathryn Shaw, Living Streets

Inconsistency

What has frustrated me over the years is the inconsistent way in which the same publication might report on issues relating to road safety.

I have seen newspapers complaining about speed cameras and the ‘war on motorists’ on one page, whilst on another page in the same edition here is a report on sentencing of a road death case where the defendant is portrayed as a monster whose sentence is wholly inadequate, despite the fact that the main reason they were convicted was that they were speeding at the time they collided with the deceased.

As well as individual reporting being important, I think editors have a duty to ensure a consistent approach.

—Professor Sally Kyd, Leicester Law School

Accident

I was run over in 2014 and my left leg was amputated as a result of the collision. I narrowly survived. This was the beginning of my journey campaigning for road danger reduction.

A headline at the time read: ‘A cyclist who was nearly killed and lost her leg after she was hit by a skip lorry has hugged and forgiven the driver who was fined £750 for his role in the accident.’

Reading it you’d be forgiven for assuming that I should be hugging the skip lorry instead of the driver; it reads as though the skip lorry is to blame for the crash. And why am I forgiving someone if it was an accident? And what would the role of the driver be, given it was an accident? What’s he even being fined for?

—Victoria Lebrec, RoadPeace