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| Courtesy of LGC |
Another death in traffic, down to stupidly careless driving. Probably because this country is so small virtually all traffic fatalities are reported in the news. Have absolutely no desire to drive here, and not primarily because it’s drive on the left hand side of the road territory - although that does make a difference because in an emergency your knowledge has to outweigh your instincts. Though we have occasionally hired cars in South Cyprus and in the UK.
Today’s report refers to the death of a pensioner. Not that the man was responsible for the accident. To be fair, no suggestion of an old bloke wandering haplessly across the road heedless of traffic lights, spectacles in pocket. “Pensioner victim of careless driving incident” reads the headline. All the same, what is the obsession with reporting the age of every victim or perpetrator of crime or catastrophe?
Unless, of course, there is a particular relevance or human interest aspect. As there was, sadly, in the recent death of a boy from the Güzelyurt district in western TRNC. The fourteen year old was driving (illegally, obviously) and speeding in the early hours of the morning. He lost control of the vehicle on a left hand bend and crashed the car, which veered off the road, ploughed through a garden wall and struck the side of a house. The boy died at the scene of the accident. Subsequent reports invariably referred to the him as having died in a traffic accident. While there is no point in laying blame posthumously or in further distressing his family, referring to the incident as a traffic accident is somewhat misleading.
First noticed the age factor when, some years ago there was a short item in the Cyprus Mail regarding the death of an elderly pedestrian , then citing his age - in the mid sixties. So no doubt I find mentions of “elderly victims” and “pensioners” jarring because frequently they are references to worthy people younger than- sometimes considerably younger than - our good selves.
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