Why don't the UK media report road single fatality RTAs?

veryangryman

I watch a bit of Sky/BBC News, but you never hear of RTA's there unless there are multiple deaths/pileups a la this weekend.

Always wondered with RTE etc here that they care about the human aspect of it all. Or whether its just that in a larger country, you can't be depressing people with the constant tragedies of the news.

Wonder if anyone knows the reason for it.

suicide_circus

Scale

PirateShampoo

80 odd million people, they have Road deaths everyday. It would get very depressing with the constant reports.

darkpagandeath

veryangryman wrote: »

I watch a bit of Sky/BBC News, but you never hear of RTA's there unless there are multiple deaths/pileups a la this weekend.

Always wondered with RTE etc here that they care about the human aspect of it all. Or whether its just that in a larger country, you can't be depressing people with the constant tragedies of the news.

Wonder if anyone knows the reason for it.

Because it's a useless stat the government bang on year in year out about here.

BlaasForRafa

It's a bigger country with a lot more stuff going on plus they have more influence in global events so foreign news takes up a bigger percentage of their news coverage.

If you go even smaller and consider the northern ireland news programmes that are on UTV and BBC norn iron, they cover even smaller crimes in much more detail.

marco_polo

The BBC would have regional bulitins that would cover that sort of news, otherwise the main evening news in a country the size of the uk would go on as long as Gone with the Wind

petrolcan

PirateShampoo wrote: »

80 odd million people, they have Road deaths everyday. It would get very depressing with the constant reports.

Maths not your strong suit?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27972335

earlyevening

UK: 5 road deaths per day

namloc1980

Around 2,000 days per annum on UK roads or nearly 6 per day. Scale.

SEPT 23 1989

Look at this terrible tragedy we are showing you and dont dare complain about your lot in life

thelad95

RTC, not RTA

Dan Chipowski

A bit of light reading.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-15975720

SEPT 23 1989

19 people an hour are killed on the roads of India

Canis Lupus

There are like 55 million people in the UK. A road accident isn't big news.

EDIT: 64 million it seems.

The Diabolical Monocle

Roughly 36000 across 10/11 years in UK. So about 10 a day there.
On scale we'd probably be somewhere around that number. Usually there's about one a day if you switch on the radio.
Two this day - none the next day kinda thing.

Anyway yeah ... They'd be reading for hours if all were on the news.

Fratton Fred

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

19 people an hour are killed on the roads of India

Only 19?

eamonnq

Canis Lupus wrote: »

There are like 55 million people in the UK. A road accident isn't big news.

EDIT: 64 million it seems.

55 million GBP - 64 million EUR

bb1234567

veryangryman wrote: »

I watch a bit of Sky/BBC News, but you never hear of RTA's there unless there are multiple deaths/pileups a la this weekend.

Always wondered with RTE etc here that they care about the human aspect of it all. Or whether its just that in a larger country, you can't be depressing people with the constant tragedies of the news.

Wonder if anyone knows the reason for it.

Im sure 7/8 maybe even a dozen people are killed everyday in the uk in road accidents. We don't want the news to be just stories about road fatalities.

the groutch

never understood the Irish obsession with death.

Paramite Pie

the groutch wrote: »

never understood the Irish obsession with death.

Are we obsessed?

I think other cultures try to shelter themselves too much from death. For example, I've never seen an open casket funeral in Britain. There was also a British documentary about death on the tv recently, and the presenter (a guy in his 30s?) had never been to a funeral before.

I think our attitudes are a little more down to earth. We'd bury them the same day they died if we could!!:p

Holsten

64 million people vs 5 million people.

That's why.

The_Valeyard

Holsten wrote: »

64 million people vs 5 million people.

That's why.

This.

We are a tiny island nation.

We are fascinated and celebrate death.

But one death on the roads is one death to many.

Yiikes

Because politicians use road fatalities as a way of achieving cheap publicity. Just pass a pointless law that the already overstretched Gardai will enforce once a year in a "blitz" with a minister speaking of how they will clamp down. The media just love death.

Of course when someone is involved in a crash the same minister will want more cheap publicity by getting in the media talking about how tragic and how great the deceased is.

We also have a strange attitude to suicide in this country. Just last week someone here "went for a walk". I wonder how many single car crashes are suicides. The government is fixated on death, no new law can be passed or discussion of tax without the compulsory mention of saving lives or funding hospitals.