This in the news this morning.
Horrible.
vomit
That’s what weed does, I guess. Fucks people over.
Terrible news. Terribel. I really feel for all those affected.
Ride safe out there.
Yeah read that just now… thoughts go out to the victims and families affected. Ride safe guys!
fuck people who drive drunk, blazed inter alia.
With the internet, your mind becomes a bit numb to horrible stuff these. But that picture is chilling.
RIP
Ride safe people
I don’t even have the words for this.
fuck … that’s just terrible. So sad
That is just awful.
Don’t know why the photo needs to be there, although at least comments are disabled so the anti cyclists groups can’t say anything.
Ride safe everyone.
I once rode past the scene of a fatal accident involving a car and bicycle. Corner of Springvale and Canterbury Rds in Forest Hill, Melbourne (citybound). The road in question has one of those left lanes that start and end just before and after the intersection. I heard later that the cyclist was in that lane and got cleaned up by someone trying to speed past the traffic before the lane ran out. There was a white sheet over the cyclist who was lying in the middle of the left lane. Pieces of broken bike and car were everywhere. I will never forget what I saw that day.
The bodies aren’t identifiable, but the image helps bring home the message that this person, behaving selfishly and recklessly has just killed 8 people who did nothing wrong. Driving a car should be a privilege not a right, and executed with the realisation that you’re piloting a 1-2 ton mass of steel.
As someone just said to me:
"If you heard that someone had killed 8 people in one go - you would assume (and rightly in my mind) that they were a mass murderer. But because they were driving a car, its a fucking traffic violation or reckless driving. We get all hot and bothered about weapons of mass destruction but drive and wield weapons capable of mass murder on a daily basis. Fucked, totally fucked. "
Right on, Blakey.
In the 12 months to Jan 2010, 1,300 or so people died on Australian roads. That’s just insane, and totally preventable. Driving a motor vehicle should indeed be treated as a privilege, not a right.
Thoughts are with the families of the Italian cyclists.
I’ve been a witness to a drink driver plowing into a light pole, along dandenong rd one morning around 5.30am on a Sat back in '98. I was going to work, and I see a car going quite fast along dandy road near Caulfield station, he was in the far left lane outbound, and he then fell asleep and drifted across four lanes right into a light pole. The car was demolished, the driver nearly killed both of them (both drunk) and I had to pull one of them from the car, the driver was trapped in the car as the pole had condensed the car right into him on the driver side. The fire crew had to cut him free.
It stays with you. blood, bones, skin. It is my personal TAC advert, and I get to relive it sometimes.
The only good thing I could take from this was that they didn’t hurt anyone but themselves. Shame this wasn’t the case here, and innocent people were involved.
RIP and my thoughts go to those who now have to deal with the loss.
Y’know, I’m always terrified I’ll hit a cyclist.
I know that as a cyclist, I’m gonna get hit sometime, and that scares me less.
I totally agree with you about driving being a privilege, in fact I am quite passionate about it and agree that people need to be shunted into reality to understand this.
Despite that, I always feel uncomfortable with pictures of innocent deceased in tragedies like this, even if they are unidentifiable. For these poor 8 people, this is the last thing that ever happened to them. I just feel that the last stages of life are very personal, and are something for their loved ones - if they consented to the picture being released for the purpose of educating the public, fine, but there are other pictures that could have been shown - i.e. the car itself or the rubble on the road (admittedly none would be as powerful). This will scar the families/friends involved forever, and they should be the ones to choose how the images of their loved ones are to be used, not a journalist seeking to increase exposure of an article. I dunno, pictures like that just seem so voyeuristic and are just so emotional that I think they shouldn’t be just plastered about without thought.
this sucks. what a dick
Fuck! I was only just talking about this sort of thing yesterday. Seeing it actually happen the next day is just heartbreaking. I hope the guy gets serious jail time.
Re: wjwat1 - To be honest. The families will be having the worst time of their lives already. I doubt that a photo in a media article will make that any worse. Believe me, the scar of seeing their son/father/brother in a coffin or at the morgue will have a much bigger impact than any photo.
Just to clarify of course that is the case. I am not saying the photo shouldn’t be used because it will hurt the families more. I am saying I am not comfortable with it being used (in this situation) because it seems to me as an intrusion on the family and the deceased. I think it aids nothing in the circumstances for the photo to be used and that more thought / respect could have been taken. I feel like I am seeing something that is not for me to see, but for the family. That’s all and I understand why people would disagree with me.