HERE's how a bike accident story should be reported!

As a follow-up to my recent posts in which I argued that the media tends to
report bike/auto collisions in a manner that makes the cyclist appear to
have been doing something wrong, I submit the following article from the
same newspaper that published the last story I took issue with (See my
comments below):
================================================== ================================================== ====
Cops: Bicyclist hit by dump truck in Bethpage dies
11:43 PM EDT, June 8, 2009
A bicyclist from Levittown died Monday after he was struck by a dump truck
while cycling in Bethpage, police said.

Joseph Masi, 22, of Celestial Lane, was riding a bicycle west on Central
Avenue at 2:45 p.m., police said, when he was struck by a 1986 Ford dump
truck at the intersection of Stewart Avenue.

Masi was transported by the Bethpage Fire Department to the Nassau
University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was pronounced dead at 4
p.m., police said.

Alfred Regateiro of Bethpage, the operator of the truck, received no
summons, and Nassau detectives said there was no criminality involved in the
accident.-- BILL MASON

================================================== ================================================== =====

Now THAT's fair reporting. "...after he was hit by a dump truck while
bicycling..." is a lot different than "after he was hit while trying to
cross in front of a dump truck." And "...when he was struck by a dump truck
at the intersection of Stewart Avenue" is a different story than "when he
attempted to cross Stewart Avenue while a dump truck was proceeding through
the intersection."

Good work, Newsday. Your reporters must have read my last editorial!

On Jun 9, 8:04*am, "Papa Tom" wrote:
As a follow-up to my recent posts in which I argued that the media tends to
report bike/auto collisions in a manner that makes the cyclist appear to
have been doing something wrong, I submit the following article from the
same newspaper that published the last story I took issue with (See my
comments below):
================================================== ================================================== ====
Cops: Bicyclist hit by dump truck in Bethpage dies
* 11:43 PM EDT, June 8, 2009
A bicyclist from Levittown died Monday after he was struck by a dump truck
while cycling in Bethpage, police said.

Joseph Masi, 22, of Celestial Lane, was riding a bicycle west on Central
Avenue at 2:45 p.m., police said, when he was struck by a 1986 Ford dump
truck at the intersection of Stewart Avenue.

Masi was transported by the Bethpage Fire Department to the Nassau
University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was pronounced dead at 4
p.m., police said.

Alfred Regateiro of Bethpage, the operator of the truck, received no
summons, and Nassau detectives said there was no criminality involved in the
accident.-- BILL MASON

================================================== ================================================== =====

Now THAT's fair reporting. *"...after he was hit by a dump truck while
bicycling..." is a lot different than "after he was hit while trying to
cross in front of a dump truck." *And "...when he was struck by a dump truck
at the intersection of Stewart Avenue" is a different story than "when he
attempted to cross Stewart Avenue while a dump truck was proceeding through
the intersection."

Good work, Newsday. *Your reporters must have read my last editorial!

It's very odd that you are more interested in your perceived fairness
of the story than in the loss of life. You didn't even deem it worthy
to mention it.

Your priorities are ****ed up.

R

It's very odd that you are more interested in your perceived fairness of
the story than in the loss of life. You didn't even deem it worthy
to mention it.

I'd have to go back to my original post to see if you're correct (it's long
gone from my thread), but I can tell you that when I posted this, I was
pretty upset by another local cyclist having been killed by a vehicle.

This series of rants I've started about the way bicycle/auto collisions are
reported stems from the loss of one of my youth group kids in such a
collision a few years ago. He was part of my bicycle recycling group and he
was one of the best, most responsible kids I ever knew. Having come from a
bicycling family, he knew the rules of the road and followed them to a "T."
This was a kid who rode a century with his parents on very busy roads at age
16. At age 17, he was organizing bike safety seminars at the elementary
schools in our district. That year, he was hit by a distracted Mom driving
a Humvee while yacking on her cell phone. He died after a few hours of
horrible suffering.

All witnesses described the Humvee driver as having been completely
engrossed in her phone conversation when she approached a busy corner,
looked only one way, then proceeded to turn right without ever coming to a
stop. Had she looked the other way, she might have seen the bicylist coming
and may have been able to stop.

The newspaper reported the next day that "a teenager on a bicycle was killed
while attempting to cross a busy street in front of a Humvee heading
eastbound. Sources say the cyclist may not have seen the Humvee, driven by
34 year-old -------, who was driving her son and a friend to a soccer game."

I remember being so furious that I considered showing up at the office of
the Newspaper and sitting down with the reporter to talk some sense into
her. Instead, I've been on a campaign ever since to call out all reporters
who write these stories having already convicted the cyclist of being at
fault. Others who have read my threads don't always agree, but I see it
time and time again...the stories are constantly presented in a manner that
implies that it was the crazy cyclist who caused the collision when he/she
"crossed in front of a car" or "attempted to cross an intersection." These
stories rarely, if ever, make mention of whether the cyclist was riding
legally and responsibly, and they NEVER question whether the automobile
driver may have been at fault.

As a result, the attitude persists that cyclists are no more than a menace
that cell phone-toting, coffee-drinking, constantly distracted drivers have
to put up with. I hate it and I'm ****ed as hell whenever it happens, which
seems to be just about all the time. This one instance in which a story was
reported fairly by a newspaper I've been hounding for two years was a rare
exception and I felt compelled to give them some positive feedback. If I
forgot to mention that I was upset by the cyclist's death, it was an
oversight and I assure you, I was pretty damned f-ing upset. If you only
read a clip from my original post, then it was YOUR oversight and I accept
your apology.


"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
On Jun 9, 8:04 am, "Papa Tom" wrote:
As a follow-up to my recent posts in which I argued that the media tends
to
report bike/auto collisions in a manner that makes the cyclist appear to
have been doing something wrong, I submit the following article from the
same newspaper that published the last story I took issue with (See my
comments below):
================================================== ================================================== ====
Cops: Bicyclist hit by dump truck in Bethpage dies
11:43 PM EDT, June 8, 2009
A bicyclist from Levittown died Monday after he was struck by a dump truck
while cycling in Bethpage, police said.

Joseph Masi, 22, of Celestial Lane, was riding a bicycle west on Central
Avenue at 2:45 p.m., police said, when he was struck by a 1986 Ford dump
truck at the intersection of Stewart Avenue.

Masi was transported by the Bethpage Fire Department to the Nassau
University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was pronounced dead at
4
p.m., police said.

Alfred Regateiro of Bethpage, the operator of the truck, received no
summons, and Nassau detectives said there was no criminality involved in
the
accident.-- BILL MASON

================================================== ================================================== =====

Now THAT's fair reporting. "...after he was hit by a dump truck while
bicycling..." is a lot different than "after he was hit while trying to
cross in front of a dump truck." And "...when he was struck by a dump
truck
at the intersection of Stewart Avenue" is a different story than "when he
attempted to cross Stewart Avenue while a dump truck was proceeding
through
the intersection."

Good work, Newsday. Your reporters must have read my last editorial!

It's very odd that you are more interested in your perceived fairness
of the story than in the loss of life. You didn't even deem it worthy
to mention it.

Your priorities are ****ed up.

R

Papa Tom wrote:
It's very odd that you are more interested in your perceived
fairness of the story than in the loss of life. You didn't even
deem it worthy
to mention it.

I'd have to go back to my original post to see if you're correct
(it's long gone from my thread), but I can tell you that when I
posted this, I was pretty upset by another local cyclist having been
killed by a vehicle.


No, he was correct. I, too, cringed when I read the article with no mention
of the fact that the auto driver was going to get off scot-free as if the
life of the cyclist wasn't worth even a traffic ticket!

You probably didn't mean to let it look that way, but "Ricod Jour" has
nothing to apologize for.

Pat in TX

No, he was correct. I, too, cringed when I read the article with no
mention
of the fact that the auto driver was going to get off scot-free as if the
life of the cyclist wasn't worth even a traffic ticket!

Did you guys think I wrote the article? What am I missing here?

On Jun 12, 11:15*am, "Papa Tom" wrote:
No, he was correct. I, too, cringed when I read the article with no
mention

of the fact that the auto driver was going to get off scot-free as if the
life of the cyclist wasn't worth even a traffic ticket!

Did you guys think I wrote the article? *What am I missing here?

I am not talking about the article - that is not in your control. I
am talking about what _you_ wrote.
Not a "poor *******" about the rider that was killed, no expression of
sympathy or anything, just a "well, Newsday must be reading what I
write!"

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE ****ING WRITING, IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE THAT ARE
DYING.

On Jun 9, 7:04*am, "Papa Tom" wrote:
As a follow-up to my recent posts in which I argued that the media tends to
report bike/auto collisions in a manner that makes the cyclist appear to
have been doing something wrong, I submit the following article from the
same newspaper that published the last story I took issue with (See my
comments below):
deleted

Here is the choir: http://opusthepoet.wordpress.com/

Thanks for posting this, Mike. I did not catch it until a few days later.

Great article. I clicked on one of the links (I will get to all of them,
eventually) and found this...

"The man was flung from the bicycle and was not wearing a helmet."

If the driver had somehow been killed in this accident, I wonder if the
reporter would have mentioned that he was not wearing his seatbelt or that
his airbags did not deploy. Possibly, but probably not.

Another example of fair reporting, from today's Newsday. Hammer away at me
as much as you want to, but I think my letters to this paper have made a
difference in the way they report these accidents.



A 14-year-old was taken to the hospital after a Dodge Durango collided
with his bicycle in Manorville earlier Thursday night. The teen
suffered non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the Durango was
arrested for DWI.

On Jul 2, 10:22*pm, "Papa Tom" wrote:
Another example of fair reporting, from today's Newsday. *Hammer away at me
as much as you want to, but I think my letters to this paper have made a
difference in the way they report these accidents.

No one questioned your concern with the seemingly biased reporting in
the press. What I questioned was your post lacking empathy for a
cycling death - you seemed more concerned with commenting on the
biased reporting then the loss of life.

If you can take people to task for what you consider to be biased
reporting, you should have no issues with other people doing the same
to you. It keeps everyone honest, right?

You had asked a question in an earlier post if the paper would have
mentioned whether the driver was wearing a seatbelt if they died in an
accident. I do not know if it is always reported, but I have seen
that numerous times.

Editors do listen. If you write to an editor and point out errors,
they listen. If you point out a bias they might not be aware of, they
will become more aware. So keep up the good work. I do appreciate
your efforts in this regard.

R