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| The first version in print |
Sharon Rene Pritchard, 52, died after being hit about 10 p.m.The framing from police is already at pains to absolve the driver and to blame the victim, who was "not in a crosswalk" and since they were out at night were doubtless committing the informal offense of improper walking.
Police were called to the 5000 block of River Road North on a report of a crash involving a pedestrian, according to Keizer Police.
An initial investigation found the driver of a Ford Edge SUV traveling south on River Road struck Pritchard in the roadway. Pritchard was from the Salem/Keizer area.
Officials say Pritchard was in the vehicle lane of travel and not in a crosswalk when she was struck.
The driver remained at the scene and is cooperating with investigators. Officials have not issued any criminal citations.
Never mind that River Road is designed for lethal auto speed. It's five car lanes wide and signalized crosswalks are infrequently spaced. Lighting could be an issue also.
On this section of River Road, drivers have also killed Jaren Nash (2016), Anthony Ernest (2016), and Daniel Tibbot (2018). There are clearly structural problems here.
(The article mostly identifies a "driver" as the agent, though it does use some passive voice with the "after being struck by" formula. But then it turns to active voice when it says "the driver of a...SUV...struck Pritchard." On balance it is not very objectionable in language.)
Update, Sunday the 16th
For the online version an editor has apparently gone in to swap out "driver" and replace it with car for a "hit by car" formula. It's a literal instance of erasing the driver. The weekly SJ news recap video also uses the passive voice and robot car. "Struck and killed" has also been cut down to "struck," as if to suggest the death is an accidental consequence and not a primary result of the striking. It's interesting all this occurs in a later revision rather than first draft, and shows erasing the driver to be very deliberate rather than the result of habit and formula.
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| As of Sunday the 16th, "hit by car" has been inserted |
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| We say "troubling" but really, how troubled are we? |
- Jaime Le Ann Hall (on skateboard)
Killed in 2019
- Marshall Leslie
- Linda Adamson (south Salem) and Stephanie Ashford (just outside Salem)
- Jason Libel (on bike)
- Josephine Watkins
- Rodric Kenyon Drolshagen
Killed in 2017
Killed in 2016:
- Olivia Stroup
- Jaren Nash
- Alex Armes
- Anthony Earnest
- Baxter Harrell
- Unknown (just outside Salem)
- Bradley Goad (in Silverton)
- James Alton
- Caroline Storm
- William Hatch
- Travis Lane
- David McGregor
- Michael and Christine Crossland
- Rebecca Schoff
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| Columbia Journalism Review |
- "Headline Omits Verb, Erases the Driver; New TRB Paper Addresses Problem" (2019)
- and see the way the story develops with different publications in "Driver Strikes and Kills Marshall Leslie on Foot near Downtown Safeway." (2019)
- "Why so much Acceptance for Traffic Cone Theory of Walking?" with discussion of a Salem Police PSA (2015)
- Notes on a City of Salem PSA this month, "City PSA on Time Change and Safety Needs Paradigm Change Itself." It has many links to the history of jaywalking also. (2019)
- On "distracted walking," "Death on Foot: Too Much on Distracted Walking Canard."
- "Why Pedestrian Rights themselves may not be Sufficient." (2015)
- Two discussions of a law review article about our system of subsidy for autoism, "The Laws for Compulsory Autoism at The Atlantic," and "Police Publish Video on How to Speed Without a Ticket." (both 2019)
1 comment:
Usually "hit by car" has been a habit and formula used in cranking out the first versions of a crash story. Here an editor has gone in to revise a "struck by a driver" to "struck by a car." They've also cut down "struck and killed" to just "struck." These choices are deliberate, then, not merely formula written out of habit.
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