Newspaper reporting of accidents

This short article is clumsy in the extreme, but is not untypical of the language newspapers use when reporting vehicle versus cyclist or vehicle versus pedestrian injuries.

This one states that Mr. Harmer collided with the lorry which appeared to have been overtaking him, effectively making him the author of the accident.

Why do newspapers use this sort of language? I can recall reading of an elderly pedestrian sustaining serious injuries when "in collision with" a motor vehicle, when it is obvious that she could not move fast enough to sustain those injuries.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/display.var.1799498.0.cyclist_killed_in_crash_named.php

John.

 

Its basically the weird, skewed way that the world views the bicycle and those that use it. Even when being killed its our fault. Still not to get bent out of shape about it, we just have to treat car drivers as unpredictable, aggressive and child-like, a cross between Eddle Munster and a Tornado.