Motorbike accidents in the media: part the radial 7.

Hmmm... There is a lesson in the fact that my only blog posts have late have been ones I felt obliged to write, because I had promised to...

But: Yes! For better or worse, there has been at least one 7-cylinder motorbike.

Anyway, a small bag today, of small articles.

Story 1:

First up is four pars from the ABC back on Sunday May 2: "Biker dies after hitting gutter".

Police say it appears the 30-year-old man hit a gutter while riding his motorcycle yesterday afternoon in Templestowe.

He lost control, landed in a garden bed, died in hospital.

Once again, the article is okay - in fact this one reads a little more smoothly than some small, dashed-off news articles - but the unanswered questions are rather interesting - swerved to avoid another vehicle, or lost control, or just bad judgement? Something in his eye?

And was he conscious when the police arrived? Nothing else is quoted, so I'm assuming that nothing else newsworthy came out, such as him being run off the road. Or, police didn't believe him, but let's not go there.

The interesting part about this article, however, is that it goes from "motorbike" to "motorcycle" to "bike". I'm not sure if there's an ABC standard for "motorcycle" or "motorbike". I'll have to look into it.

The two words certainly make hash-tagging tricky in twitter - which one do you go for?

Story 2:

Even earlier, from April 29, the Courier Mail has "Motorcyclist hits kangaroo near Texas".

That's Texas, Queensland, folks.

Eight paragraphs, but three are of them are for a separate incident.

Thursday morning, no indication of how early, and injuries multiple, severe but apparently not life-threatening.

I sincerely hope his head's okay.

This highlights one of the big problems with Australia - our native animals tend to be large, heavy and extremely stupid. It's not such a big problem when something cat-sized wanders across the road, although even that can be difficult for a motorcyclist who's not paying attention, but when something fast-moving that weighs more than 100kg jumps in front of you, running off-road and crashing can sometimes be preferable.

The most interesting part of this article is that "the 37-year-old man's motorbike hit the roo". This is a trend in all road accident stories - the driver/rider collides, the vehicle hit. Did the vehicle exhibit sentience and self-determination? No, I don't think so. It's a lazy journalistic short-cut, is what that is.

Overall, fairly well written and with good quotes.

Story 3:

Now: Also from the Courier Mail, from May 11, comes "Chain of plastic garbage bags strung up across road brings down moped rider at Cleveland"

Forget for the moment that whoever wrote that headline needs to be slapped, feast your eyes in incredulity upon what it says.

If the idiot who strung up said bags is caught, do you think they'll be charged with attempted murder? Somehow, a quote like "mischievous behaviour" from the police doesn't really inspire confidence.

As commenters have pointed out, that could easily have been lethal, and a rope or fishing line could have been lethal much more easily.

I'm not sure if I'm less happy with the police response or the journalist for that one, but it really wasn't a great effort.

Story 4:

Finally, returning to the ABC: "Two die in single-vehicle crashes".

Seven paragraphs, the final four devoted to a man in his 20s crashing on the Maleny-Stanley River road.

Now, as I have previously remarked, this stretch of road, which links to the last one, is extraordinarily fun.

It is also potentially quite treacherous, with overhanging trees and suspect verges making gravel patches and wet leaves almost inevitable, particularly before dawn (4:30am) at that altitude and at this time of year, when dew can make a difference.

The forensic crash unit is investigating, apparently. Honestly, with the best will in the world, I can't suggest anything more complicated than that he ran out of talent. His brakes may have grabbed, something else may have failed, but someone on that road at that time is more than likely to have been enjoying themselves.

Sadly, he's not around to tell us and we may never know.

Motorbike accidents in the media, part the inline-6

Okay, it's been a while and there are some old stories (blame the fact that I had to do things I was a.) getting paid for or b.) getting marked on.)

So, I'm going to be dealing with several stories at once.

And, incidentally, one point before I start: If you make your websites auto-refresh through javascript every couple of minutes, you will go to hell where demons will boil your genitals in molten sugar. See the current twitter.com for how to do refreshing properly, unintrusively and data-cheaply.

Anyway.

Story 1:

Motocross bike rider killed (Courier Mail)

Three paragraphs, not including the headline.

Motocross accident, unconfirmed report that he was completing a jump at a Motocross track, the ambulance service was called and couldn't revive him.

I'm really only covering this story because I intended to do them all - it's short, pithy, completely inoffensive and really only got published because it's a local death.

Story 2:

Woman survives motorcycle crash at Toowong (Courier Mail)

Another three paragraphs, but slightly different.

Pulled from under car... Emergency services had to use airbags to lift the car... Apparently crashed into a parked car (WTF?)... taken to hospital with minor foot injuries.

First of all: "survives motorcycle crash" has connotations of something serious, not hitting a parked car and receiving minor foot injuries.

And then: Huh??? She hit a parked car and slid under a car? It doesn't say whether it was the same car, it doesn't say whether the car she ended up under was moving, and I'm scratching my head over how she ended up so thoroughly jammed under a car that airbags were needed to lift it.

I can only assume that the emergency services were exhibiting full care in making sure that they didn't tug someone who may have had a spinal injury.

This article is confusing and asks too many questions.

Story 3:

One dead, two injured in motorcycle crashes on Sunshine Coast (Courier Mail)

Ten very short paragraphs.

First of all - the headline is misleading. It suggests, to me, multiple crashes. Actually there was one incident with three bikes.

Three riders, all in their 50s, at 7:30am, on Peachester Rd.

Go to google maps and have a look via this direct link. It's a fun-looking rd, isn't it?

And it is. It's one of my all-time favourites, in fact, although I prefer the other way, towards Maleny. It's a road I ride whenever I get the opportunity, but I have a healthy respect for it - dappled light and shade making visibility difficult, the risks of leaves and gravel on the road, blind corners and steep drops, and then of course there's the traffic. And it's the first road I really went hard on, and felt confident doing so.

What really gets me in this story is that all three riders crashed, which leads me to one very sad possibility - they were pushing each other, and ran out of talent/luck pretty much together.

Oil on road? Gravel? Another vehicle on the wrong side of the road? Or they were pushing over the centre line and the other vehicle was unfortunate but blameless? All possibilities.

May I repeat, please:

Ride to your own limits.

Ride to your own limts, not someone else's.

Know what those limits are.

Don't be an idiot.

Oh, one last thing:

I'm going to quibble at "No further detail is known at this time."

"No more detail is" or "No further details are," please.

But, well done for pointing that out, and not leaving us to assume that you've just been lazy.

Story 3:

Motorcyclist killed in Springfield (Queensland Times - QT)

Single vehicle accident... Near an intersection... Head injuries and dead at the scene.

So: No details of cause, but near an intersection. 3.30pm, so traffic heavy.

I'm going to suggest that the likelihood of stupidity and evasive-action-gone-wrong are roughly equal.

There should have been witnesses. I would be interested in knowing what the police concluded.

Story 4:

Motorcyclist killed in crash at Forest Lake (Courier Mail - CM)

Hey, it's... Hang on...

It's the same story!

Yes, Stories 3 and 4 are clearly the same. Despite the different suburbs mentioned in the title, a quick look at a map will reveal that the particular intersection under mention is much closer to Forest Lake than it is to Springfield Lakes.

Unfortunately, in this instance, the QT, where I spent two productive and useful weeks as an intern, is looking pretty poor.

The CM article has only two extra paragraphs, but much more detail, including traffic delays, age of the rider, and more (but not many) details of what he was doing.

Frustratingly, anything which would confirm or deny options for how the poor bastard died is once again denied to us. "Lost control" is all very well, but poor judgment, idiocy and having to swerve to avoid any other idiot are all still perfectly valid options.

Frustrating, but a better article here.

Story 5:

Okay, this is a, um, strange one and not really the same...

Man hit by spear while riding scooter (Cairns.com.au)

What. The. Fuck?

Believed to have been hit by a spear... Leg wound... 12.45am... Victim said he saw men running away from the scene.

Okay, I'm going to go with: There are some dangerous idiots out there, who need to be locked up for their own protection before they accidentally annoy someone who makes them pay for it.

Moving on, please.

Story 6:

Motorcyclist trapped under truck dies after crash at Willawong (Courier Mail)

Okay, the headline is a bit weird - it almost sounds as though the motorcyclist became trapped under the truck, which kept on going, and then the truck crashed and the motorcyclist died.

Which, frankly, is possible.

Motorcyclist collided with truck... Emergency services found him trapped under track...

And then the rest of the article is about the Queensland road toll, and mentions other accidents. And a little note that fewer people have died than at the same time last year.

Not even "died on scene."

Oh, now, come on, were you really making an effort? "He hit truck. He was found under truck. In other news..."

Piss off.

Story 7:

Vehicle accidents claim seven lives in southern Qld (ABC News Online)

Incidentally, it has to be "ABC News Online" because "ABC" is the American one, because we're on the Internet. Which is American. Despite having been essentially created by a brit.

Okay, we have a composite wrap-up stype article.

The relevant bit is in paragraphs two to five out of 10.

Motorcyclist hit truck, Friday morning. Location. Died. Truck driver was not injured.

Now, first of all: Tell me something I don't know. A bike hit a truck, and the truck driver wasn't hurt? That's pretty much equivalent to saying a Chinese demonstrator punched a tank and the tank driver wasn't hurt.

But, moving on, it appears to be the same accident as Story 6 above.

I haven't been telling you dates, but trust me, it's the same date, road, and time.

So, did the ABC reporter do any better? Sadly, not really.

She wrote "collided with the truck", but didn't say whether this was the official police line, or an eyewitness account, or shorthand for "They hit. This uses fewer words than "the motorcyclist and a truck collided".

All but useless.

Conclusion:

Short news stories are really, really annoying because the journalist isn't given the time, space or care factor to investigate. But there really should have been more comments along the lines of "Police are investigating..." "Further details are not available at this time..."

Overall, I'm a little disappointed.

At the very least, have a pro-forma that makes this easier!

Motorbike accidents in the media: Part the V-five

What's that you ask?

Of course motorbikes have used V-5 engines. Honda has been very fond of them in GP racing for ages.

Anyway.

Here's another example of an incident which seems unbelievable to anyone who hasn't become tediously familiar with its sort through long and bitter experience:

Harley rider breaks legs, pelvis after smashing into car reversing from driveway at Capalaba West (Courier Mail Online)

First things first: Harley. Right there, first word in the headline. About the only brand that people who know nothing about motorbikes, know about. Apart from Honda and Suzuki, who make cars as well. Do you think you'll ever see the headline "MV Agusta rider breaks legs..."?

No. Neither do I.

Still, it gives ammunition to those of us who say that Harley's aren't actually bikes, but some lesser form of barely-living fossil.

Anway, let's look at the article itself.

The direction of the headline suggests the rider was at fault. Let's look at the article:

A MOTORCYCLIST has been left with two broken legs and pelvis after a car pulled out of a driveway in front of him at Capalaba West on Brisbane's southside this morning.

Now, if you're going to go with a tediously long headline, you may as well have used that.

Police said the male rider was travelling along Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road about 5.30am, when an elderly driver pulled out and the Harley Davidson motorcycle ``T-boned'' the driver's door.

Um... How? If it was reversing out of its driveway, the driver's door would have been on the side away from oncoming traffic. Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road is not in two halves with houses in the middle.

Also, looking at a map suggests that, as one commenter said, all the houses are on nice big blocks with plenty of room for turning around, making reversing completely unnecessary along with (as commenters here and on other stories have pointed out) illegal-but-unenforced.

Moving on.

5:30am is still dark, so it's possible the driver was half-asleep or simply didn't expect that anybody else would be about. Both of them unacceptable excuses.

There is also the fact that the bike's headlight would have been highly visible due to contrast with the darkness, and if it was any sort of regular Harley, the pipes would have announced its presence from some way away.

It's entirely possible that the bike was speeding, and/or not paying attention.

It's also entirely possible that the rider, whose age we don't know, was middle-aged, new to motorcycling and riding his midlife crisis with inadequate training in riding skills and defensive attitudes.

All of which fails to be relevant to the fact that, under law and any reasonable argument, the driver was at fault.

This is another article which is factual, concise, and unsatisfying. Even in a purely news-report article such as this, surely there's time to ask the police if they're considering laying charges, or to think for a second and wonder how the driver's door got involved.

Motorbike accidents in the media - Part the flat four

The last piece I commented on, from the Courier Mail, came with a list of "related stories", pulled not just from their own website, but from News Ltd sites around Australia.

So, I'm going to do a quick analysis of motorbike accident reports from those sites.

First up:

The Herald Sun (Melbourne) gives us Motorcyclist killed in head-on collision with car on the Maroondah Hwy in Mansfield. What is with these clunky headlines?

Anyway, this is a five-paragraph story, saying that a motorcyclist in his 60s had a head-on north-east of Melbourne, on a major highway, 8am (plus four minutes). Forensics are investing, police will prepare a report for the coroner.

Also, interestingly: The female driver was airlifted to hospital with major injuries, which just goes to show: Sitting inside your metal cage, you are behind several sheets of potentially dangerous glass, through which large, heavy, high-speed objects may come.

Question: How do you have a head-on collision on "a major highway"? Isn't there a dividing line?

A clue may lie in the "in Mansfield" bit in the headline, but don't assume that headlines are word-perfect-exact.

Overall, the article is extremely puzzling in its unanswered questions, but is otherwise well and cleanly written.

Next up:

Perth Now (urgh) gives us Motorcyclist injured in collision with van. Ah, a nice, short, pithy headline.

This article is a more chatty, casual style, but still useful. The interesting part is this:

South East Metropolitan Police Sergeant Mark Ryan said it “appeared one of the vehicles hadn’t given way”.

Well, there aren't many other ways for an accident to happen, are there?

Let's examine this:

The driver of a white van, also in his twenties, was turning right from Church St onto Albany Hwy citybound, and collided with the motorcyclist heading southbound along the highway just before midnight.

So the van was turning right, and the motorcyclist was going straight. Ergo, the van failed to give way. Unless the motorcyclist ran a Stop or Give Way sign, and we know that didn't happen because the bike was on the highway and the van wasn't.

A quick trip to Google Maps confirms that Church St is north of Albany, south of Perth. The writing suggests that "citybound" means Perth, opposite to South. In other words, the van was turning across the path of the motorbike. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that the photo accompanying the story, along the fact that the driver was taken to hospital and the passenger wasn't, suggests a pretty serious collision on the driver's side door which would, in this case, have been facing north, directly at the bike.

So: The van comes out of a street, across a highway, and gets hit by a bike who may have had moderate/little/no warning, and hits it.

No conclusion can be drawn about the speed or actions of the bike.

Now: at or about midnight means the bike had headlights on and the "high visibility vests" so beloved of clueless non-riders would have been useless.

Ergo: Although I do not in any way wish to jump ahead of the Major Crash Investigation unit, or the coroner: The van driver didn't give way, and needs to be charged with whatever can be thrown at him.

One final point: As an editor, I would not have let that story hit the Internet in that state. But, that's just me, my colleagues and my employer's professionalism.

Third one is: Rider dies after bike, car crash from Adelaide Now (does a comma really save so much space over "and" that it's worth while? Come on, now).

Basically, an 18yo rider collided with a car driven by a 22yo driver, and the rider died, the driver sustained minor injuries. Please try not to judge based upon age!

A lot of the story, considering its length, is taken up with mentioning that South Australia has a worse road toll than the same time last year. Ignore that, it's irrelevant.

The crash happened on a certain road, after dark, last year, on what works out to be a Tuesday night.

The only interesting, or particularly informative, part of this story is the fact that the four commenters clearly knew the rider.

Come on: There is not enough information here to be satisfying. No circumstances? No "who was going where"?

This is probably the most frustrating story I have covered so far. So little information, for a death. So sad.

The final story linked off the original Courier Mail article is a little different, and will be the subject of a separate post.

Please sir, Godot asked if you could wait a little longer

Excuse me while I waffle for a moment.

Samuel Beckett was a genius.

No, I won't hear anything else.

There was a period many years ago - it was while I was still living in Tasmania, so at least 7 years ago - when Sam had an anniversary, or something, and a project was begun to film all of his plays, using Irish actors. I saw as many of those as I could, and may even have some of them on tape lying about.

He was a genius. I didn't know any of the actors, I had never seen any of the plays before, although I had read some of Waiting for Godot in a drama class, as an exercise.

But I sat, spellbound at times, as two or three or even one actors, in minimalist sets with nothing happening except perhaps the weather, transformed dialogue or monologue about nothing into the most potent, powerful drama I had ever seen.

Krapp's last tape confused me, but I simply didn't care. All I could see was that old man, bitter, listening to diary tapes he had recorded years ago, eating bananas while rain hammered on the roof, swearing at his younger, smoother voice and abusing his older self. It was a master-stroke of writing and, in that moment, a master-stroke of acting - one actor, alone, with no special effects, nobody else on set, just him and the camera, maintained some of the finest characterisation I had ever seen.

Endgame remains, of all those I saw, the one I would most like to see live. Four characters - a blind master, his servant, and his parents living in rubbish bins in the corner - created all the world that necessary.

I sat and I listened to blind Hamm abuse and berate and proclaim, and I thought it the most compelling monologue I had ever heard. At the time, as I was still doing some theatre myself, I decided that I would track down one piece of his monologue and use it for auditions. I still think it would be a powerful piece to use.

Hamm's roar of "You're on Earth, there's no cure for that!" remains with me still.

And then there is the one piece that people who know not of Becket may have yet heard of - Waiting for Godot.

Only his second play, it has famously been described as being "about nothing" but has also been voted the most important English-language play of the 20th Century.

I had considerable doubts going into it but, also, I was spellbound throughout it. I thought then, and I only think more so now, that Beckett wrote plays which not only made enormous demands of the actor, but which provided enormous opportunities, as well.

A truly great actor, in Godot or any other Beckett piece, would turn in a performance not to be exceeded. And an actor who could not manage those demands, well - we know the truth now, don't we?

So: Ian McKellen, Matthew Kelly and Roger Rees are touring in a production of Waiting for Godot, and will be in Melbourne for two weeks in May. We know people in Melbourne we need to catch up with.

To say we are excited about this would be a colossal understatement.

If I don't see any other live theatre this year, I may not care provided I get to see that.

Motorbike accidents in the media - Part the inline triple

I have been unconscionably late with this. The news report I will be discussing is dated 11 days ago, as I start typing. Blame real life assaulting me in a dark alley.

It's this one: Motorbike rider hit by car backing out of driveway in Newtown, Toowoomba, from the Courier Mail.

Fairly unambiguous headline, no?

Also, the editor in me says, too bloody long by half. You can cut out "rider", you can cut out the suburb, and lose nothing important. If someone isn't going to read past the headline, they don't care about the suburb anyway. If they're from Toowoomba, they might be intrigued enough to read on and find out.

The passive voice "hit by" can be removed, giving us "Car backing out of driveway hits motorcyclist in Toowoomba." No, still too long. Also, the important point - the accident - is too far along.

"Motorcyclist hit by reversing car in Toowoomba" would do, if they really wanted to give a location.

Except it's wrong - as we're about to read, the bike hit the car, which drove in front of it. Unfortunately, "Motorcyclist hits reversing car in Toowoomba" introduces a suggestion of ambiguity over where blame lies. Hmmm...

Moving right along:

A MOTORCYCLIST is fighting for his life after colliding with a car backing out of a driveway in Toowoomba on the Darling Downs.

The crash occurred just before 9.30pm Thursday in Tor Street, Newtown.

Police said the bike rider was heading north when a car pulled out into his path and he crashed into the driver's side door.

The impact caused major damage to both vehicles and left the motorcyclist seriously injured.

The 22-year-old female driver was taken to hospital suffering cuts to her face and eyes from shattered glass.

The 35-year-old motorcyclist is in a serious condition in Toowoomba Hospital.

That's it, at present point in time.

First points: It's well and concisely written. It also opens up many questions.

Take, for example, the impact - driver's door. Think about the geometry for a moment.

If the car was reversing, but the motorbike struck the driver's side door, then either it was a one-way street, or the bike was on the wrong side of the road, or the car was reversing really quickly.

But then, in the comments, unverified, we have this:

i was passenger in the car and they want to get the story right we did drive straight out...

Copied verbatim. Would have been interesting for there to be something else, but there we are. So, a basic mistake in reporting. It may have been a mistake in police reporting, or the commenter may not be kosher.

There's no indication of speed of impact beyond "major damage to both vehicles", but if he wasn't paying complete attention he may not have had time to brake at all and even at 60, that's enough.

He also seems to have been riding towards the footpath, not the safer right hand side of the lane. Remember, kids - if you ride near the line, in the wheel tracks of those four-wheeled vehicles, then drivers behind you and approaching you are more likely to see you, you get a clean bit of road, and you get more warning when people try and pull out of side streets and driveways.

Leaving aside the debate over whether the motorcyclist could have positioned himself better for visibility, I can not conceive of any way in which this was not entirely, completely, the driver's fault. The rider could have been more defensive and minimised injuries, or even avoided the crash entirely if there was nothing coming the other way - a big if - but the driver must have pulled out, into traffic, without paying due care and attention.

Case closed.

Except for the comments, which are quite amusing.

Several talking about the safety benefits of driving out of driveways instead of backing out, which is gratifying to see.

There is the guaranteed comment about hi-vis vests, and this beautiful response, from BikerTips of Brisbane:

A high-vis covering won't help if you aren't going to look. It's very easy to "see" bikes - take that extra second to look, not glance, and then another to take note of a bike's velocity before deciding to pull out and change or cross lanes. Also, if you cannot see clearly due to conditions and surounds, go slowly!

I haven't said it better myself.

On the same vein, from housedadextrordinaire:

Hope the rider recovers. Making excuses for the car's design doesn't excuse not seeing a motor-cyclist or cyclist. Have a good look and turn the radio/cd or I-pod off until you have driven off safely. Yep, I will agree, all our cars have poor rear vision. Adjust your driving to suit the conditions or WALK!!

And on that note, I will leave you.

How to replace a photocopier with a good camera phone and your own printer.

There is a problem with photocopiers in libraries - University or public. You need money, for a start. Then you need time, you need a photocopier not being used by anyone else, it can be highly wasteful of paper, and of time.

You can get a much more flexible and useful result by using a digital camera and a few minutes of image processing when back at your PC.

Photographing pages and then printing the photos can work at least as well, if not better, and can be done anywhere, any time.

So let's look at doing so.

You need, first of all, a digital camera. A decent high-quality camera on a decent mobile phone is perfect. I've been using a Nokia N95, which is possibly even overkill.

For best results you will need to modify the camera settings slightly. I find that setting it Black & White makes life easier. There may also be settings to adjust light balance based upon flourescent, incandescent or sunlight, settings for image sharpness (more is better, in this respect, because you want nice, clear text) and image size. Go for the highest quality photo your camera can take - you can always discard pixels later, but no matter what the TV shows will have you believe, there is no way to put them back in.

You may be able to do all this as a customised setting so you don't have to repeat yourself next time you want to copy anything else.

You need two things: You need a consistent light level across the entire page, with no obvious areas of shadow or light, and you need a good contrast between text and background. Basically, you need a good background level of light. A flash is particularly poor in this situation, because you are so close to the page that you will probably get a bright spot and a gradient outside that. Your mileage may vary if you have a particularly good xenon flash (those of you who still have N82s can stop feeling smug, you bastards).

I suggest you try and get each page flat, photograph it from directly above to minimise any text distortion, and try and get it to fill as much of the frame as possible. Tip - try and keep the page numbers, you will need them for referencing properly.

Oh, and of course you want them as sharply in focus as possible - practice breathing exercises, if you have a shaky hand.

Once you have the images, you need a computer and good image editing software. If you have access to Photoshop - sure, use it. I use the GIMP, which is free and just as powerful.

To make life easier, you want each photo orientated the right way, and you then want them as legible as possible.

It's also a good idea, financially, to cut down on the amount of ink you print.

You will notice that the image is in greyscale, with a not-entirely white background and not-entirely black text. To correct this, look for a neat little tool called, in GIMP, "Threshold". It sits under the Colours menu, and what it does is take the greyscale image and turn it into strict black and white by picking a degree of grey and making everything below it white, and everything above it black. Very neat, deceptively simple, and if your photos are any good, very, very effective.

I don't usually need to adjust the defaults - you may find it beneficial.

This process should give you pictures with no visually messy and ink-wasting grey smudges, and with the most readable text.

If you want to print, print as you like - I prefer two-up printing. Digikam can print an entire set of photos quite nicely. Picasa can, as well. Experiment with your preferred software.