others were caught off guard, and that caused a chain reaction collision..."
To me that says 'drive without due care"
Quote:
Originally Posted by sebberry
Fair enough, there are other factors that could have caused the collision.
Agree there..
But have you noticed that any time there's a hint of a possibility of speed being a contirbuting factor in a collision, the police, media, etc.. are all over reporting it as a speed-caused collision before the investigation is complete?
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I can't speak for the Police any more, but when I did, when the cause had been determined by the investigator, it was reasonable to release that, along with other information. The majority of the hundreds and hundreds of crashes I investigated were caused by drivers going faster than they should. That is speeding. There are many forms of speeding from drivers sliding out on a snowy corner, to those that go off road right at high speed on a Hwy as they swipe the barrier. I even investigated one who crashed at 160 plus on a straight stretch of 4 lane highway with a grass median, on a clear, dry day with no other traffic around. Several others involved things like hitting as rock face at 200kmh in a 70 zone or several others going at similar velocities on a winding Highway well known for crashes by people doing exactly what they did. I'm not saying that speeding drivers cause every crash, but I am saying that speed plays a major factor in many crashes. How it ends up being discussed in the public forum depends on the people and their motivation.
As far as the media goes, as I said in my previous post, they have agendas of various types and there is very strong competition to grab listeners/viewers/readers. The more they get, the more the outlet makes and the more the reporter's career advances. They want sensation and controversy because...."if it bleeds, it leads". Having been on the receiving end of attacks from reporters who tried to goad me into making statements that would give them heir story, instead of reporting what really happened, I know how things can go wrong. One major incident I covered involved national media, over several days. I made statements that stated the true situation, only to have them completely ignored because they would not continue the story line they had decided to follow. I still see my interview appear on 2 followup stories on the event and they ignore the truth and continue the outright lies they used to manipulate those involved so that their story was more sensational.