Reporting of road traffic accidents in the nations media

DMC

Before I set out on this topic, I understand this is a very sensitive subject, but bear with me, this is not meant to offend anyone who has known friends or relations, indeed, I don't think there is anyone in this land, myself included, that has not been touched at some time or another by a road traffic accident or death.

Do you think that there is too much reporting of road deaths in the media? Every death on the road is broadcast, written about and analysed, every day of the week, every week of the year, in minute detail. Top story every day, a death on our roads.

We see campaigns, very violent ad campaigns on the TV, and a real stand-out campaign on Today FM at night. We see the horrific outcome of wreckage on our TV's every night.

My point is, are people becoming fatigued by reporting of deaths on our roads?

Do people not pay any attention to these reports?

Do the media over report it?

Is it just an Irish thing that we report road traffic deaths in the way we do?

Do other forms of sudden death get ignored? (e.g. drownings)

I'd just like to see what people reactions are to the medias attitude to reporting of road traffic accidents.

MarkR

Well it's a big issue for a lot of people. If 11 people were killed in 24 hours doing anything it would be reported. The hope is that the reporting of the deaths and the showing of the mangled vehicles will cause people to think before they get behind the wheel.

galah

To be honest, I don't think the reporting goes FAR enough - they should tell us what exactly happened, if alcohol, drugs, speeding or not paying attention was involved, all these things! Only then might people start to think about it - at the moment, it's just (as horrible as it sounds) "another death on the road - couldn't happen to me"...

What I don't get is why everybody is shouting for the government to "do something" - in all fairness, I think the only thing the government can do is bring more guards on the roads to check people and their driving behaviour, and thereby prevent some things by installing fear of being caught - everything else is up to the individual driver, and I am sure that most accidents could be avoided if people were taking more care on the roads, and apply a little more common sense and caution!

flogen

I know RTÉ had their dangerous driving campaign there a few weeks ago, and something like 11 deaths in a day has to be reported but I don't really think you can blame the media.
It would be odd of them to not report a death, and if it was done on a continuous basis people might be fooled into thinking the roads were suddenly safer (and politicians would happily perpertuate that myth).
Obviously the media reports and ad campaigns aren't working but I don't think they're causing a problem; it's not like you get so de-sensitised to death on the roads that you suddendly think drink driving is alright again

daveirl

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seamus

galah wrote:

To be honest, I don't think the reporting goes FAR enough - they should tell us what exactly happened, if alcohol, drugs, speeding or not paying attention was involved, all these things! Only then might people start to think about it - at the moment, it's just (as horrible as it sounds) "another death on the road - couldn't happen to me"...

While I generally agree that a more comprehensive breakdown of the cause of these accidents is required, the nature of media is that they report soon after the accident - when the facts aren't known, or stating speculation would be bad form. Think of the Indo during the Liam Lawlor affair, and any paper could find themselves in trouble for claiming that PJ Carragher from Navan died because he was too pissed to be driving in the first place.

flogen

daveirl wrote:

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While prostate cancer can often be stopped when caught early enough it's difficult to fairly compare a disease with an accidental death; both happen under completely different circumstances and once the patient is aware of their illness doctors do what they can to treat it.
Road deaths cannot be treated in the same way and either impossible levels of police inforcement or public awareness can help it IMO.

(I'm not suggesting that the police are already doing everything they can, let's not assume that for one minute).

galah

flogen wrote:

Obviously the media reports and ad campaigns aren't working but I don't think they're causing a problem; it's not like you get so de-sensitised to death on the roads that you suddendly think drink driving is alright again

The problem is that people who drink drive (or speed, etcetc) won't change their mind anyway, no matter how many ads and media campaigns you throw at them! Again, it's the "won't happen to me" attitude...

It's like warnings on cigarette packs - everyone KNOWS cigarettes will make you sick, but does it stop people smoking?

scargill

galah wrote:

To be honest, I don't think the reporting goes FAR enough - they should tell us what exactly happened, if alcohol, drugs, speeding or not paying attention was involved, all these things!

You are dead right. Once a month they should do a programme detailing the cause of various accidents. Lets get to the bottom of this. Hand-wringing is no good anymore. Speed-traps on the M50 are clearly not helping.

Part of the problem is maybe that we don't like to speak ill of the dead ? If a guy wraps his car around a tree at 2 in the morning do we get to hear that he was plastered ? Or maybe the road surface was crap and the fault was the local council ?

I think we need to see examination of individual cases in more detail - not just garda stats.

flogen

galah wrote:

The problem is that people who drink drive (or speed, etcetc) won't change their mind anyway, no matter how many ads and media campaigns you throw at them! Again, it's the "won't happen to me" attitude...

It's like warnings on cigarette packs - everyone KNOWS cigarettes will make you sick, but does it stop people smoking?

I agree; however it may encourage more reasonable people to be more cautious on the road.
basically while I agree that these ad campaigns aren't getting through to the people who need to be told to cop on I also don't think they are doing damage or making people less sensitive to road death.

galah

scargill wrote:

You are dead right. Once a month they should do a programme detailing the cause of various accidents. Lets get to the bottom of this. Hand-wringing is no good anymore. Speed-traps on the M50 are clearly not helping.

Part of the problem is maybe that we don't like to speak ill of the dead ? If a guy wraps his car around a tree at 2 in the morning do we get to hear that he was plastered ? Or maybe the road surface was crap and the fault was the local council ?

I think we need to see examination of individual cases in more detail - not just garda stats.

Details are definitely a good idea.

About your second point though (without going into the whole crap driver discussion) - if the road surface was bad, it's still not entirely up to the council - it's up to the driver to be as safe at possible under any circumstances, and make adjustments to allow for unforeseen circumstances - so even if the surface was crap, if a driver manages to end up wrapped around a tree, he/she was clearly not driving properly (i.e. adjusted to the road conditions). It's like driving on a wet road - I would never drive at the same speed on a wet road than I would if a road was dry...

fly_agaric

scargill wrote:

You are dead right. Once a month they should do a programme detailing the cause of various accidents. Lets get to the bottom of this....I think we need to see examination of individual cases in more detail - not just garda stats.

Sounds lovely. Would you still approve of this type of media rubbernecking if it was your relative who was in the accident?

scargill wrote:

Speed-traps on the M50 are clearly not helping.

Well the Irish reaction to deterrence measures like speed traps, fines, heavily enforced drink-driving laws etc is to believe that the authorities/the state are trying to screw us over/extract our hard earned cash from us and its all so unfair on us good citizens.

Then we go and have a good cry over all the people dying on the roads.

All these media campaigns/calls for the baby jebus to end road-deaths etc will not work as well as making it a high likelyhood (vs an outside chance) that you will be caught and punished if you speed, run red lights, drink drive, or other wise break the rules of the road.

mike65

The reporting of road deaths does'nt really address the most pertinant points, we just get a catogue of news items with little or no context. The technical and foresnic evidence is never discussed.

One day I'd like to see some serious reporting which anylisis a crash in all aspects. Trouble is as this will mean impugning a driver either alive or dead it won't happen.

Mike.

ps Oh and something else, I wish RTE would stop covering NI deaths as if they happened in Ireland, its a different jurastiction (sic) with different laws and enforcement.

DMC

Interesting range of views there, its a good topic that I hasn't been raised before, that is, the way the media looks at road traffic deaths and accidents. (abbv. to RTA from now on)

My own view is that, yes, deaths in this fashion have to be reported. It was a good suggestion that we should revisit, say at the end of the week, how certain accidents were caused. This would be similar to the way News at Ten during the 80's every Friday evening, used to go through all the industrial news, with job losses and gains, in one fail swoop. A round-up in that fashion (and tweaked accordingly) of how those accidents occurred etc. We don't know what accidents were caused by mechanical failure, driver error, speed. drink, drugs etc so soon after the event occurs, that it is definitely worth reviewing on the RTÉ 9 o'clock news on a Friday evening how these accidents occurred.

One slight problem is, with regard to cases in front of the courts, families might object to the news being released.

The reason why I picked up this topic, is that I think that there is a growing sense of fatigue amongst the public about the reporting of road deaths, similar to compassion fatigue with regard to charities and disasters/famine, and "oh, just another 40 dead in Baghdad today". I feel people aren't paying any attention to news bulletins about RTA's. Young people don't necessarily listen to the news, there is a sense of being indestructible, it wont happen to me.

Also, I think that the reporting of RTA's has increased for some reason. A few years ago, 1998, 448 died in RTA's, but I don't recall that it made the same impact on newsdesks around the country as it does today, when we've reached 200 already this year. Is it because Gaybo is in charge of Road Safety now?

Ultimately, we need more enforcement, and better education. I would be in favour myself of 10 yearly checks on the rules of the road; not the full driving test all over again, but a simple brush-up on driving skills and etiquette for everyone. If deemed that you need to brush them up, then you'd have to sit the test again. More public information films (like how to bloody indicate at roundabouts, ffs!) are needed, like the one aired at the moment about turning right.

Lecturing will only go so far in making people ignore the issue. Practical issues on the road need to be done.

DMC

mike65 wrote:

ps Oh and something else, I wish RTE would stop covering NI deaths as if they happened in Ireland, its a different jurastiction (sic) with different laws and enforcement.

RTÉ always use the term "the north" or "our Northern staff". We are on the one island, and a lot of people (me included) traverse the border quite regularily. Nearly all the people in Donegal can't go south without going north, (if you see what I mean) and its important to know what happens on the roads up there.

Common road safety campaigns are aired on both sides of the border, too.

scargill

galah wrote:

Details are definitely a good idea.

About your second point though (without going into the whole crap driver discussion) - if the road surface was bad, it's still not entirely up to the council - it's up to the driver to be as safe at possible under any circumstances, and make adjustments to allow for unforeseen circumstances - so even if the surface was crap, if a driver manages to end up wrapped around a tree, he/she was clearly not driving properly

Yes - but I know of 2 cases where road condition was to blame. One in particular was a case where a friend was driving a country road (late at night), came around a bend, hit a pothole (crater), swerved, hit a ditch and overturned the car. The was thrown from the car and lay on the road for over an hour.

Guess what ? The pothole was filled in and the road was resurfaced the very next day.

She successfully sued the council - part of case was that the council more or less admitted that the road condition was at fault by repairing it as soon as the accident happened. It was settled out of court - she received a sizeable amount of money.

The speed limit on this road was 60 mph !!! She was doing around 50 mph, perfectly safe for the road - if there wasn't a big crater in it. This accident was never reported in any media.

But surely we need to know these things ?

And I'm not sure how this accident was categorised in the Garda stats ? Was it put down as driver error, fatigue (driving late at night), speeding ?