Bicycle Austin forum

dougmc

Administrator

Registered: 2008-06-01

Posts: 631

SUV hits, kills cyclist in East Austin, EMS says 2019-03-28

SUV hits, kills cyclist in East Austin, EMS says -- Statesman, paywalled.

Cyclist killed in car crash on E. MLK Blvd, delays at I-35 -- KXAN, shouldn't have a paywall.

There's not many details yet, in particular, we don't know who the victim is yet.

But true to form, KXAN did make sure to tell us that the victim was not wearing a helmet.

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Re: SUV hits, kills cyclist in East Austin, EMS says 2019-03-28

KXAN added the name of the victim:  Austin resident Jessica Saathoff, 28

No charges are expected against the driver, but the victim was supposed to protect herself from a 2500+ lb chunk of metal with a 1/2" thick piece of closed cell foam.  I know there are tons of important details we don't know that could make a huge difference in how we feel about this, but right now I am ANGRY.

As long as all the other important details are NOT known, or being reported, KXAN is doing some bad reporting by cherry picking the helmet thing.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: SUV hits, kills cyclist in East Austin, EMS says 2019-03-28

This is one of the reasons to oppose mandatory helmet laws:  Blame is shifted to cyclists ALREADY, a law would just make it even worse.

Here's some reporting I did over twenty years ago:

When Ben Clough was killed in 1998, the Statesman reported that a helmetless cyclist died in a collision at MLK and Lavaca, making it look as though a stupid, helmetless cyclist got what he deserved. What they DIDN'T mention was that the driver ran a red light to hit Ben. How could they omit such a crucial fact? Simple: The police didn't tell them.

The Statesman gets most (or all) of its information about car-bike collisions from the police. This immediately puts the paper in a position of reporting only what the police want to be reported. The extremely brief press release from the police department made no mention of the fact that the driver ran a red light to hit Ben. (That fact wouldn't become widely known until the police REPORT was available several days later.) But the police press release made damn certain to point out that Ben wasn't wearing a helmet, a fact the Statesman was only too happy to repeat.

But the fact that the Statesman was duped doesn't let them off the hook, because they're WILLING dupes. When the truth about the collision became known, the fact that the police had been less than forthcoming about the real nature of the collision, and had in fact shifted blame in their press release onto the cyclist, should have been a story in and of itself. But it wasn't. Not to the Statesman, anyway.

https://BicycleAustin.info/justice/media.html

The more things change...

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: SUV hits, kills cyclist in East Austin, EMS says 2019-03-28

Now they're saying the cyclist crossed the double yellow line into oncoming traffic.

https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/police … ng-traffic