A pediatric doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was killed while riding her bike in Center City on Wednesday night.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/deadly-3-car-crash-rittenhouse-philadelphia/3915690/
The original post on the Philadelphia subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/comments/1e5wkv0/insane_accident_on_18th_and_spruce/
You must log in or register to comment.
A pediatric doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was killed while riding her bike in Center City on Wednesday night.
The use of passive voice in the first sentence does a lot of work shifting blame away from the driver and the car centric systems in an “objective” effort.
How about:
Cyclist Barbara Friedes died when the driver of a car hit her in the bike lane on Wednesday night.
Very interesting, thank you. I was wondering if that also happens in other countries. It is sadly the norm in Germany when reporting car accidents.
Even the word “accident” is part of that downplaying.
Used to subversively reinforce power or the status quo:
“Police killed/murdered by man.” “Man was killed in police raid.”
“Israeli killed/murdered by Palestinians.” “Palestians were killed in airstrike on hospital targeting Hamas.”
Ärztin wurde von Auto erfasst und erlag ihren Verletzungen.
Upvote for a better headline and for n-browser translation
Definitely normal here in the US, too. Unfortunately.
I suspect the tone is used so they aren’t sued for stuff. I understand it but I disagree on their usage of it.
They would probably need a conviction before they could publish that.
What that she died? Absolutely not. There is no accusation or assignment of guilt. It tells what happened, assignment comes later. A driver did hit her and kill her, for which there can be many reasons it occurred.
My idea to address unfit elderly drivers is once you start claiming SS you have to take the physical driving test every 2 years then every year once you turn 80. 69 might not be old for some people but could be debilitating for others.
Honestly, every licensed driver should have to retake a test every ~5 years.
Even recreational air pilots need a retake every 2 years, and they aren’t a top 10 cause of death.
Make it yearly.
And the test needs to be way, way harder than it is now. In my state you just drive around the block and then parallel park. No highway driving requirement, no emergency maneuvers, no reaction time test.
The USA should adopt a similar driving license program to Germany and the EU.
Driving is a privilege, not a right and the test needs to reflect that.
And the DMV should charge an arm and a leg for it, because they otherwise can’t handle the traffic
There’d certainly be less people passing if those were missing!
But the ones that didn’t pass or take it at all would still be driving.
Disagree. Tying it to SS just means it’s a requirement for retirees who need government assistance. Rich old people driving the biggest, fastest cars will get to continue driving recklessly. Same thing with the person below who said the test should be incredibly expensive. Disagree. That only hurts the poor who may rely on their car in cities with terrible public transit infrastructure. In-car driving tests should simply be mandatory every few years for all drivers.
If this was made law, the boomers would get public transit funded so fast.
Nope, they would vote out those who enacted that law so fast.
Damn that’s horrible to see. Spruce Street is so nice too. There is no point to speeding in Philly. There are stop signs or lights every block so you have to come to stop frequently, speeding won’t save you any time.
I’m a bit confused that the article says “protected” bike lane but the aerial shot shows no barriers? What exactly is meant by “protected”, because to me (and to google) protected means at least some kind of barrier.
It’s protected by a white line that shows cars aren’t allowed to cross over it?
I guess just municipalities describe it differently then. My city describes protected bike lanes as “dedicated bike lanes with concrete medians and planters, bicycle parking corrals, or vehicle parking lanes that divide them from vehicle traffic.”
The google image someone else posted of the street, to me, shows a regular bike lane.
Doesn’t change anything about this awful incident anyway, just thought the choice of words was interesting. Especially since later on in the article it says her death may have been prevented had there been a concrete median.
I’m also curious about that
At the time of the deadly crash, police say, Friedes was wearing a helmet and was riding in a protected bike lane. The driver of the vehicle that struck Friedes has not yet been charged.
(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Not really a protected bike lane. The car driver entered the bike lane, at high speed, without obstructions.
I just looked at Google Street View. No fucking protection.
Yeah, not surprising that the cops have no fucking clue what protected means.
protected bike lane
[Look inside]
It’s paint
The driver of the vehicle is 69 years old, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital after suffering minor injuries. He has not been charged.
I’m sorry, what?
implied: “yet”. It means they are still writing down a list of things to charge him, some of which require waiting for property damage evaluations and so on.
Not necessarily; the vehicle may have malfunctioned or he could have had a health condition (like a heart attack) that caused him to crash.
And maybe he was rich.
He was replying to a very important email. You can’t multitask as well at that age. The cyclist should have known better, obviously.
How those cars that fucked up on a city street like that? Chronic speeding and distracted driving are a stupid combo.
This sucks. But is it supposed to suck more because it’s a doctor?
We may claim the ideal that every life is equal, it is probably not how we actually feel.
The reporting about the recent shooting at a PA political rally largely ignored the one person who died and the two who suffered serious injuries.
We do not value life equally.
I mean yeah, she saved kids’ lives and now she’s dead. She probably had a meaningful impact on a lot of people, and saying who she is and how she was important in the community helps us feel the full impact of her death.
No, its supposed to suck more because they were on a bike. /s
