Anti 4x4 BBC. Again.

[andycwb]

A child on the road.  Under age.  Unlicensed.  Killed by a (suspected) drunk driver.   So why mention the fact they were driving a Range Rover 4 times!!!!

I'm trying to draw attention to biased articles like this and will be complaining to the BBC.  

BBC Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/7161165.stm

My link:
http://www.cunningham.me.uk/wordpress/2007/12/27/more-anti-4x4-bias-from-the-bbc/

If you think this is worth drawing attention to (and I hope most of you do!) then your help is appreciated.  If you have a blog, please link to my article to improve my authority ranking on Google and Technorati.  If not, please promote on Digg.

http://digg.com/television/Child_quad_rider_killed_by_drunk_BBC_rants_about_4x4

Thanks

Andy

[sleeplessparadise]

I could be wrong, but the police were appealing for witnesses so maybe that is why it was mentioned that the lady was driving a red range rover..... and I believe it has been said now that her breatherliser was negative and was just taken as a standard course of action after any RTA :?

[DEANO3528]

I picked up on the same undertones. However when listening to Browns Broadcasting Co. news this evening they clearly said 'car', unlike Anglia tv who at dinnertime mentioned Range Rover at least 4 many times.

[Lee_D]

I often have to do press releases and we tend to always include the car and colour along with age and sex of driver as well as if they were local.

These are the bits that the press always call back to clarify so I think in fairness it's not purely a rant about 4x4's but that we are particularly sensitive to it. Worth paying attention perhaphs to other RTC's that get reported upon to strike a balance.

It's a bit like when you have a new car. Before having it you never noticed them. As soon as you have one it seems every other driver has the same car / colour / make as you.

If they just said a Red Lorry collided with a Yellow Lorry and the Red Lorry was badly damaged but the Yarra worry was less damaged than the Led Rorry then we would all be well confused at the end of the bulliten.

[Range Rover Blues]

Actually it appears that there were 2 Range Rovers involved, one that the girl was following and the one that hit here.

But for crying out loud, she was 7 years old and driving a motorised vehicle on the public highway.

Her parents should be locked up for this, it's extremely stupid if not criminal.

[Boggert]

Actually it appears that there were 2 Range Rovers involved, one that the girl was following and the one that hit here.

But for crying out loud, she was 7 years old and driving a motorised vehicle on the public highway.

Her parents should be locked up for this, it's extremely stupid if not criminal.

Agreed, what were they thinking...

I had heard that the woman had been released with out charge pending enquiries.

[mike142sl]

I didn't hear it as a jab at 4x4s but as an indication between the size of what was being driven, i.e. a small quad bike and a very large car.

Either way as Blue has pointed out WHY was a 7 year old allowed to drive this on a public highway - especially after dark ?????

[Boggert]

You know its amazing how many people don't know that they are not allowed to do that. Its either that or the play igronence, but either way with me there is no option the vehicle is seized no matter what.

I do think that should the circumstances show the parents knew the girl was using it on the public highway and did nothing to stop it then they should end up in court.

Harsh may be, but when will people learn.

[V8MoneyPit]

That was my first thought too. Obviously, it is tragic that someone so young has lost her life, but she shouldn't have been there in the first place.

The fact that she was hit by another vehicle means there may be some fault to lay with the other driver. That remains to be seen.

Was it dark when this happened? Did the quad have lights? There are so many things we don't know. So it is impossible to lay blame at this point.

[muddyjlx]

i can feel for the familly that lost their 7 year old in this accident, but what about the poor woman who hit her.

how can she be feeling right now, even if it was her fault and i'm not sayining it was.

but why oh why would anyone let a 7 year old out on a quad on a road at christmas.
surely the back garden was the place to be learning how to ride a quad.

[Tommo]

yeah its easy to say its a stupid thing to do but if its your back lane which is always quiet then i have to say i did many similar things when i was that age. although the bit about her following her dads car seems a little odd.

it wouldnt surprise me if the quads throttle had jammed open and she flew into the front of the range rover that had stopped to let her get out of the road. My mates did that and he hit a brick wall at about 25-30mph. you should have seen the side of his face it was a right mess. and the quad was a good 3 inches shorter afterwards cos it had never fitted into his trailer properly before that event.

[V8MoneyPit]

Ultimately, a 7 year old in charge of a motorised vehicle on the public highway is illegal. Yes, many of us will have risked something similar, but the fact is it is illegal.

I would never let my son (12) drive on a public road. Even if it was just for a few yards. He drives the cars and tractor on our fields and that is it.

[Lord Shagg-Pyle]

I would like to say that I'm astounded at the stupidity of the parents, but I'm not.
They are probably the same sort that went and bought their offspring Mini motorbikes and then watched with happiness as the little darlings blasted up and down the roads on them.
They are probably the same sort that then whinge like 'F' when the Police seize the bike and take their little darling to court! :roll:
"Bleedin' (substitute stronger words if you wish) 'ell! Aintcha got nuffink betta to do? Dey woz only 'avin' a larf, wasn't they? Don't do no one no 'arm'"

It'll be the same old story. It wasn't their fault, the fault lies with 'Someone Else'.  
The rep from the Road Safety organisation says it all
A spokesman for road safety charity Brake said: "Even with permission to use the machines on private land, children should not be put in control of them - the sheer power and speed of them is dangerous wherever they are used."


As a parent I have sympathy for the loss of the child and nothing but contempt for the parents.

[sleeplessparadise]

What shocked me about the story was that they live on a farm, so why the hell did the father feel the need to take them out on a public road at night?? As you said LSP I was not shocked by the stupidity of the parents at all  :roll:

[mike142sl]

Was it dark when this happened?

I initially thought they had been out in a field playing then got caught out late in the afternoon. However the report stated it happened about 7pm on Boxing Day which is about three hours after it goes dark.

[Boggert]

More here...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3101602.ece

[hobbit]

I saw the report on the tv about this, it was mentioned by one of the locals that these unlicensed machines are use a lot around the are by the farmers, and often are seen on the public road (probably travelling between their fields/land), driven by adults and other children too


It was said these were a 1000cc models, not your basic little electric thing, but not for the public highway as stated, and cost around £1200 each, the picture they showed was quite a large machine I thought for somebody their ages, but pics can be decieving, and not that well up on these quads

Its bad news all round when something like this happens, especially in these circumstances and time of year

[Disco Matt]

Maybe we are being a little over-sensitive in this case (although I agree with those who feel the parents were ultimately to blame - a seven year old child on a 1000cc anything is a disaster waiting to happen).

However, the BBC has a very noticable anti-4x4 bias. Every accident report involving a 4x4 has that mentioned in the headline (Not "Man injured in crash" but "Man injured in 4x4 crash") even when the nature of the vehicle had nothing to do with the accident.

Oddly enough you never see the other side of it - "Mans' life saved by his 4x4 in collision with lorry" isn't likely to appear as a headline...

[discowoman]

well this explains a lot - this is what they were riding..
http://www.jaksquads.co.uk/quadzilla-proshark-typer.htm
read the Tag line....And they let a kid ride it??? Madness
also 1st in the list of features
NOT SUITABLE FOR NOVICE RIDERS
and it runs on 100 octane fuel.....

[Niel]

Not sure all the 'facts' are in the public realm with this one, I have no sympathy if she looses her licence for drink/drugged driving, however if she'd been sober and a child on an out of control quad appeared without room or time to stop/avoid then I suspect the Police might well have arrested her so she could be tested for drink/drugs and to protect her from the childs parents, it also facilitates siezing her range-rover for inspection, she seems to have been released very quickly, bailed and WITHOUT charge, so I suspect there's a lot more to this story....
The father needs to be dealt with by the courts as well, reading the Times report: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3101602.ece it would seem they'd gone some distance on the road illegally already, being on the return jouney. The Express report: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/29622/Girl-7-killed-riding-her-quad-bike-behind-dad-s-car-in-the-dark seems to indicate the girl was taken home by her father before an ambulance was called, perhaps in the hope of avoiding it being reported to the Police???  Another report seems to indicate it was the ambulance service that called the police:  http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Girl-7-dies-after-crash.3624493.jp and that the woman driver was arrested some time after the fact... And the stun: http://thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article626589.ece

[JumboBeef]

I used to be a lifeguard (no, really) many, many years ago (when I was fit) and we learnt a lot about first aid, and more importantly, brain injuries.  If someone hits their head (or even if you think they have), you MUST get medical help.

My guess at what happened is this:

Girl looses control, and is hit by the Range Rover.  Everyone stops, and everyone is shaken up, but it seems everyone is OK.  Woman driving RR goes home.  It is/was not her fault.

What no one knew was the girl had suffered a brain injury.

What *should* have happened is the father should have taken the girl to A&E.  If he had done this, the girl might have lived.  But he didn't.  The girl's brain then swelled over the following few hours and by the time help came, it was too late.

It is the excatly the same as what happened to Richard Hammond.  After his crash, he seems OK and was talking to those around him.  If he had just gone home (like this girl did), then he would have died.  He only survived because he had help straight away.

Very sad, but if the father (or anyone else involved) had known about basic first aid, she might have lived.  

How many here know their basic first aid?

[mike142sl]

You could be right, alternatively there could have been any amount of internal bleeding / rupture that would have had the same outcome. Very sad all round.

[Niel]

Girl looses control, and is hit by the Range Rover.  Everyone stops, and everyone is shaken up, but it seems everyone is OK.  Woman driving RR goes home.  It is/was not her fault.

How many here know their basic first aid?

How about "Girl looses control, and hits the Range Rover"?

Basic first aid, yep think I'm still up to that...

[Stormin]

When mini moto's were the thing, I nearly hit a 10 year old riding one. As I approached the entrance to a housing estate in a neaby village, two mm's shot off the estate. I'd to brake hard and swerve to miss the 10 year old on the second one, who fell off his bike. His FATHER was riding the first one. I was told later by an estate resident, that complaints had been made to the police about them riding about, though the police had not been able to catch them at it. It took nearly losing his son to bring the father to his senses. I feel for the girls family, but I also feel for the woman driver. There but for etc.

[Boggert]

I was having a discussion on a nother forum about this and some numpty said she would have probably survived if hit by a smart car because it has better crumple zones... :roll:

I lost my rag a bit... here is my reply

It has nothing to do with Crumple zones, you hit a child in any car crumple zones or not its going to make squat of difference, they are designs to absorb and spread the impact and protect the occupants of the car.  
Look at the front of a smart car it like a brick, the first thing that is going to happen is the child will go through the paned between the head lights. you telling me that that is likely to not kill. To be fair.

have a look at here...

Your smart car rates worse than a Grand Vitara and not much better than a Discovery3

http://www.euroncap.com/tests.aspx

In fact if you look your average family saloon fairs just as bad.

This is the report from the Hyundai Getz... only got 1 star

Pedestrian protection
Only the areas of the bonnet where an adult head might impact offered any protection. The bonnet top where a child’s head might strike, the bonnet’s leading edge and the bumper were very unfriendly towards pedestrians. A poor result.

This is from a Volvo XC90 2 stars

The bumper and bonnet leading edge were unforgiving. But the top of the bonnet protected children’s and adult’s heads to give the XC90 a two-star rating. Volvo needs to work harder to improve pedestrian safety.

And your smart Car same rating as a Volvo XC90 4x4 :shock:

The bumper scored maximum points for the protection it offered to pedestrians' legs. However, the front edge of the bonnet scored no points and those areas which might be struck by pedestrians' heads were rated as predominantly poor.

And your little round Audi TT, small light sports car. No stars

Protection offered to pedestrians was abysmal: the car scored no points and gained no stars. Euro NCAP says Audi needs to improve performance in this important area.

And a Suzuki Grand Vitara 3 Stars.

The bumper scored maximum points for the protection it offered to pedestrians' legs. However, the leading edge of the bonnet scored no points.

Lets face facts, it you get hit by a car at speed it aren’t going to be good.

If you look at engines, My mate drives a Landrover Freelander well that has the same engine as the MGF, Lotus Elies, Rover 400 1.8 and MG 1.8 but why do people abuse him even thoe his car can carry twice as much as the lotus and MGF. There is no logic to it. In fact the argument is floored and a load of tosh.

All I say is don't believe the 4x4 Hype the facts prove its not all true..

I hate uneducated answers :roll: But felt better after my rant. :lol:

[sleeplessparadise]

Well said Boggert! The more people educated the more chance we have at getting them to stop the hype (although I won't hold my breath  :roll: )

[Disco Matt]

Well done for keeping your cool and digging the facts up - two things the antis never seem to manage...

Sad to say, there seem to be a lot of people in this country who will only believe what they read in their chosen news source (be it left or right wing) and will ignore everything else, often including the evidence of their own eyes!

[Fuddy as muck]

This thread is a joke :roll: A seven year old girl has died by some means on a public highway and all some of you are really concerned with is whining on about the 4x4 aspect mentioned in the media.  I have a 4x4 and am under no illusions that in a pedestrian accident, it would be one of THE most dangerous vehicles on the road. I hadnt thought for a second about how often it had been mentioned but then i am more astounded by the sheer lack of parenting skills involved here.  Lets not forget though, ultimately this was caused by negligence on the fathers side. Just as is the case with Madeline McCann's disapearance. As a father of 2 myself i would never put my children in these type of positions. When can we start having the parents bought to justice and punished accordingly. Maybe if the parents of these recent tragedy's involving children had come from a council estate background rather than there obvious proffesional backgrond, maybe these parents would be recieving the approriate negative coverage.

Darren

[Niel]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/7181672.stm