Cyclists "colliding" with cars and other vehicles

galwaycyclist

Am I alone in being perturbed by the way some incidents are being portrayed in the media?

This thought is triggered by a fatal incident in Kerry yesterday.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=97751269#post97751269

I heard it on Newstalk and I got the distinct impression that the cyclist was described as having "collided" with the car. As if the car was some inanimate object outside human control and as if it was some action on the part of the cyclist that caused this too happen. (It may have been but that is unlikely to be something that a newsreader is entitled to prejudge)

This is not the first time I have heard this kind of language being used or a similar formula of a cyclist "being in collision" with some vehicle.

Over sensitive?

Tigger

Same is done for motorcyclists
It's rhetoric and I hate it

Covering themselves legally I guess.

If they reported that a car hit someone and it turns out later not to have been the case the car driver might sue for defamation.

check_six

Deleted User wrote: »

Covering themselves legally I guess.

If they reported that a car hit someone and it turns out later not to have been the case the car driver might sue for defamation.

But is it not the same the other way around too?

One report used the words "after colliding with" and the other used "involved in a collision with". I know which version sounds prejudicial to me.

Beasty

This is clearly referencing and inviting comment on something that will be subject to a proper investigation from the authorities. It's not for us to comment at this stage

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