On Tue, 30 Oct 2018 06:38:42 +1100, James
wrote:

On 29/10/18 11:47 am, John B. Slocomb wrote:

This past week the news here has reported the death of a Philippine
bicyclist who was in Thailand participating in a 1,000 km Audax.

About 01:30 on Tuesday, the 24th, Russel Perez, 55, from the
Philippines, was struck by a van that run a red light and died, after
having completed approximately 950 km of the 1,000 km. ride.

Naughty van.


On 25 Nov police reported that a damaged van, a white Toyota, was
found at a garage in Min Buri district in Bangkok. It was taken to the
police station for forensic and fingerprint testing. The police said
a man drove the van to the garage on Wednesday morning for repairs
saying that the vehicle hit a cow.

On 26 Nov.Police arrested a 29-year-old van driver who ran a red light
and fatally hit a 55-year-old Philippine cyclist joining a
long-distance event early Tuesday morning. He was charged with,
reckless driving causing death and damage, failing to help his victim,
failure to inform an official of the incident, running a red light and
using drugs.

Ah. I see the van had a driver.

The media usually word these stories as though the motor vehicle did
something it shouldn't. It is a common problem. No mention of the
driver having lost control, or not paying attention, or being
distracted, etc., except maybe sometimes as a footnote.

The language used in motor vehicle crash stories is usually very
different from bicycle crash stories, where it is usually the rider that
is noted to have done something - not the bicycle.

I suppose that at least some of the wording was a result of people
initially seeing what happened. i.e., people saw a van hit a bicycle
but they couldn't see whether it was driven by a man, woman or an evil
spirit.


--
Cheers

John B.