Why can't people accept an accident is an accident ?
Discussion
anonymous said:
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As you say - it was anything but an "accident" - they clearly observed the information and decided to ignore it, with tragic consequences.
Bring back public service announcements in prime time TV to educate the Trisha generation... "Charlie says: Don't act like a complete muppet and maybe you'll survive into adulthood"
i had entirely the same thoughts. while it was a tragic accident, it seems many commuters were crossing the tracks during a red-light to save time...
difference being they STOPped to LOOK left & right beforehand. heard some railway expert stating that accidents with pedestrians was almost unheard of.
thing is Tonker, 'two not very alert teenagers die in unfortunate accident' wouldn't really be suitable News Headline material, would perhaps upset family/friends a bit as well.
we've all run across a road without looking - life is one big roulette wheel.
See where you're coming from, but come on...These two were eight year olds. Eight year olds certainly don't know it all, and will be prone to doing stupid things....We've all done them when we were that age, but I guess we were lucky. As far as I'm concerned, if anything else can be done to stop it happening again, then all for the better. Not saying that the "moaners" are right, but if someone can come up with a better way of stopping anyone from thinking they can just make it, then let have it.
Its because the world is changing. Responsibility is collective rather than individual. Those of us that weep for the loss of individual responsibility are very much in the minority in todays world.
Imagine the poor family of those girls. A lot of people simply never recover from the loss of a child. It doesn't matter whether its a child hit while walking in the road, ignoring signs at a railway crossing or even sniffing glue. The responsibility cannot rest with the individual because for a mother reading your post about darwin you just made it to the number one most heartless bastard.
The thing that is changing the world is that politicans like never before are making laws and decisions while watching said mums face on the TV. The TV is poking its camera in their grieving face, then whipping up voter sympathy then pointing itself at some 'wannakeepmyjob' politician.
Sad to say, we are not having the nanny state imposed on us by politicians. We are imposing it on ourselves because we as a society don't think further than the end of the next commercial break.
Imagine the poor family of those girls. A lot of people simply never recover from the loss of a child. It doesn't matter whether its a child hit while walking in the road, ignoring signs at a railway crossing or even sniffing glue. The responsibility cannot rest with the individual because for a mother reading your post about darwin you just made it to the number one most heartless bastard.
The thing that is changing the world is that politicans like never before are making laws and decisions while watching said mums face on the TV. The TV is poking its camera in their grieving face, then whipping up voter sympathy then pointing itself at some 'wannakeepmyjob' politician.
Sad to say, we are not having the nanny state imposed on us by politicians. We are imposing it on ourselves because we as a society don't think further than the end of the next commercial break.
Also, it's not exactly easy to be surprised by a train is it?
As you say, they either strolled across the lines, perhaps with that "I'm indestructable" swagger that seems the norm for todays yoof, or perhaps another game of "chicken" gone tragically wrong.
Even junior.b, this morning, who fits into that same demographic as those unfortunate girls, uttered: "Oh come on, how did they get hit by a train unless they were messing about?" in between mouthfulls of his Ready Brek.
Having said that, he also shook his head to the news of the reopening of the Tsunami inquest saying "There's a bloke on here asking why it took 2 weeks for the body of his daughter to arrive back in the UK. Ummmm, let me guess, they were a bit busy clearing up the other thousand corpses and flying one woman back to England wasn't top of their priorities.....".
He's right, IMHO, but he's a bit too sarcastic for his own good at times......
As you say, they either strolled across the lines, perhaps with that "I'm indestructable" swagger that seems the norm for todays yoof, or perhaps another game of "chicken" gone tragically wrong.
Even junior.b, this morning, who fits into that same demographic as those unfortunate girls, uttered: "Oh come on, how did they get hit by a train unless they were messing about?" in between mouthfulls of his Ready Brek.
Having said that, he also shook his head to the news of the reopening of the Tsunami inquest saying "There's a bloke on here asking why it took 2 weeks for the body of his daughter to arrive back in the UK. Ummmm, let me guess, they were a bit busy clearing up the other thousand corpses and flying one woman back to England wasn't top of their priorities.....".
He's right, IMHO, but he's a bit too sarcastic for his own good at times......
Julian64 said:
Sad to say, we are not having the nanny state imposed on us by politicians. We are imposing it on ourselves because we as a society don't think further than the end of the next commercial break.
Or perhaps some elements of society are imposing their viewpoint on everyone else.
pdV6 said:
we've all run across a road without looking - life is one big roulette wheel.
Have we? Speak for yourself. You can stack the odds in your favour with the application of a tiny amount of common sense...
yes, i think i can own up to doing a few silly things especially when i was younger; maybe not crossing a road without looking at all, but taking chances here and there...
but i never messed around with train barriers - luckily someone might have mentioned to me that trains are big f*g heavy things that don't stop very easily.
LongQ said:
See where you're coming from, but come on...These two were eight year olds.
Reported as 13 in my paper. From the photo I would say they were definitiely not 8. If told they were 18 I would believe it.
Apologies for the oversight, I mis-read the original post.
Even so, I'm surprised on some people's thought's here. Not saying everyones wrong (before I get slaughtered) but my response in reading the report, was one of shock and sadness.
Jaglover said:
Sad to say, we are not having the nanny state imposed on us by politicians. We are imposing it on ourselves because we as a society don't think further than the end of the next commercial break.
Or perhaps some elements of society are imposing their viewpoint on everyone else.
Undoubtedly true, but they are obviously the majority, at which point we're all doomed
Julian64 said:
Sad to say, we are not having the nanny state imposed on us by politicians. We are imposing it on ourselves because we as a society don't think further than the end of the next commercial break.
Or perhaps some elements of society are imposing their viewpoint on everyone else.
Undoubtedly true, but they are obviously the majority, at which point we're all doomed
I put it down to the feminising of society, 'emotional intelligence' is now more valued than the old fashioned kind.
Kenneth Clark made a very interesting point in Civilisation- to paraphrase 'a civilisation flourishes when it has a balance of the masculine and the feminine'
>> Edited by Jaglover on Monday 5th December 17:18
anonymous said:
[redacted]
The press has a lot to answer for on many occasions with the way that it reports these sort of events.
FWIW heard this in the car taking ex's kids to school all like Jr b., including the 10 year old, expressed surprise at how these two had missed the fact there was a train coming.
one of the most telling things for me though was the I/v with one of their class mates who was saying how they were always the loud ones in class and how things would be much quieter. Sorry but i read between the lines there as to how these girl's might have been behaving...
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Totally agree with this, I mean that. However, I never said it was down to the country to replace all the barriers, but if a "fool"-proof way of preventing this from happening again, then why not implement it?
Can only imagine what the driver is going through.
ps - I too had an uncle who killed a slightly older, Pi$$ed-up pedestrian, and never got over it.
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