iPod blamed for Aussie death

http://tinyurl.com/b7mxf

iPod blamed for Aussie death
February 14, 2006 - 6:36AM

An Australian woman was knocked off her bike and killed, possibly
because she couldn't hear traffic noise because of her iPod music
device, friends say.

Patricia McMillan was knocked from her bike in a London street and
thrown under the wheels of a lorry near her home in Acton, west London,
on February 2, reported Britain's Evening Standard newspaper.

The 32-year-old law student had been on her way to a part-time job as a
waitress in Kensington when the crash happened, the newspaper reported.

McMillan's best friend, Jacques Poullard, said she may still have been
alive if she hadn't been listening to the Apple iPod.

"She was obsessed by that thing. It wasn't that she was careless. I
bought her the bike three years ago and it was how she travelled
everywhere.

"I never said anything to her about wearing the iPod but now I think if
she hadn't had it on she might have heard the lorry.

"I hope people will think twice about cycling while wearing headphones."
It's understood the woman's family flew from Sydney to London on Monday
to identify the body and make funeral arrangements.

McMillan had lived in the UK for 10 years and was hoping to work as a
human rights lawyer, Britain's Channel Four reported.

She had already completed a law degree at London Metropolitan University
and was studying for her final qualification at the Private BPP Law
School in Holborn, the television station reported.

Poullard, 40 - a nutritionist who met McMillan when they worked together
at prestigious restaurant The Ivy - said she had recently contacted her
estranged father in Australia.

She and her two sisters and brother had not been in touch with him for
21 years, according to Mr Poullard.

"She agonised over that decision. She managed to track him down through
the Internet but was so worried about rejection.

"Eventually they spoke on the phone a couple of days after Christmas. He
asked her to visit him in Queensland but now all he knows of her life is
what I've been able to tell him."

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said McMillan died of multiple
injuries.RED

--
Peter McCallum
Mackay Qld AUSTRALIA

Well I suppose it's a bit more attention grabbing than the possibly more
accurate "Cyclist killed by driver of truck". However, there's not that
much information in the article to go on, so you can't really say either
way.

Graeme

Graeme Dods Wrote:
Well I suppose it's a bit more attention grabbing than the possibly
more
accurate "Cyclist killed by driver of truck". However, there's not
that
much information in the article to go on, so you can't really say
either
way.

Graeme

Yes you can say. Headphones obstruct the hearing of the wearer. They
don't make a cyclist invisible.

(Honestly officer, I couldn't see her 'cos she was listening to an
ipod)

Ritch


--
ritcho

Peter McCallum Wrote:

McMillan's best friend, Jacques Poullard, said she may still have been
alive if she hadn't been listening to the Apple iPod.


Damn that Apple iPod.. if only she had some cheaper mp3 player she
would be alive!!!.. sue Sony, they started it all....
http://tinyurl.com/d3fz6


--
gplama

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 14:42:16 +1100, ritcho wrote:

Yes you can say. Headphones obstruct the hearing of the wearer. They
don't make a cyclist invisible.

That's my thinking, but there's always the (small) chance that she moved
out in front of the lorry having not heard it, but like I said, you can't
tell from the article. Trying to gain a true view of events from the
majority of newspaper reports of accidents (or anything) is next to
impossible. After all, they're there to entertain as well as inform, a
newspaper whose articles reads like an inquest report won't stay in
business for long.

On the few occasions I've worn headphones whilst cycling (before the days
of mp3 players) I found that I was very aware of what was going on around
me. The flip-side of risk compensation for helmet wearing?

Graeme

gplama Wrote:
Damn that Apple iPod.. if only she had some cheaper mp3 player she would
be alive!!!.. sue Sony, they started it all.... http://tinyurl.com/d3fz6
i nearly ko'ed someone in carlton the other week. pedestrian crossing
the road (no not at a crossing) with headphones on, oblivious to the
fact that i was barrelling down in her direction.

if it wasnt for my evasive action she would have had 'MET' stamped
across her forehead.


--
pase

Maybe it was the kind of music she was listerning to. After all, we know
what alleged effects that heavy death metal has on the impressionable.

Just goes to show you that somebody saying: " you know what I
reckon..." can make news on the other side of the globe.


PS: I use headphones on my commutes (mostly off-the-road bike paths) ,
but never on the roadie (w/end road rides)or MTBing (dirty stuff).


--
Marx SS

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 04:17:40 GMT, Stuart Lamble wrote:

I worked on the billing system for Citylink. Reading some of the
articles in the paper about the very code I'd worked on (or had looked
at closely with the guy who'd written it) was ... enlightening. The mix
of fact to fiction was probably around 50% in the *better* reports. (In
some cases, the path from fact to fiction was clear -- they'd tried to
simplify, or gloss over "irrelevant" details -- but an honest appraisal
left it at about that ratio.)

It's the same in TV and radio. The common assumption is that it's harder to
misrepresent the facts/opinions expressed by interviewees on TV/radio
compared to print, but it's not. Careful editing can totally change the
impression and because you can see/hear the interviewee then that *must* be
what they said. Friends & relatives of mine have been interviewed for
various reasons and most have said "WTF! That's not what I meant!" when
they saw the end result.

A friend of ours is an editor for 9 News in Perth. He must be well versed
in using creative license, he edited our wedding video and made me look
vaguely human in a short, entertaining film rather than an over-long
episode of Beauty and The Beast.

Graeme

On 2006-02-14, Graeme Dods wrote:
It's the same in TV and radio. The common assumption is that it's harder to
misrepresent the facts/opinions expressed by interviewees on TV/radio
compared to print, but it's not. Careful editing can totally change the
impression and because you can see/hear the interviewee then that *must* be
what they said. Friends & relatives of mine have been interviewed for
various reasons and most have said "WTF! That's not what I meant!" when
they saw the end result.

Ooooooooh yeah. Babylon 5. "The Illusion of Truth". *Very* powerful
episode, and damn hard to watch the second (and subsequent) time(s).

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest
man, I would find something in them to have him hanged."
- Cardinal Richelieu

--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@" to "usenet".

So, today as I rode home from work I tried to work out how I might ride
differently if I had headphones on and to be honest I couldn't really.
I check behind me before moving out, I don't jump at every loud van
that rattles past, I quite simply just ride along the same way I
probably would as if I had something stuck in my ears. We can't tell
from that story what happened but to me it sounds like the article is
trying to blame the cyclist because they were using an ipod. That's a
little like saying it's okay to kill a deaf cyclist because they can't
hear.


--
SuzieB