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The social media team for the West Oxfordshire branch of Thames Valley Police are facing fierce criticism for their choice of wording on posts about a collision. The posts say that officers “attended a collision involving a cyclist and a car”, after which the cyclist was transported to hospital by helicopter, and end by reminding those out cycling to “please remember to wear a helmet!”
When people get stabbed, do you ask the general public to ‘remember to wear stab vests’?
— Freddie Jackson (@John_Clarke_79) July 9, 2022
I’m sure the tweeter meant well, but it was a misguided bit of advice. The only situation I can think of where it might be appropriate is if the car was stationary, so didn’t cause the collision, and would have had no driver.
— Simon Klist (@pedalsandgears) July 10, 2022
On Twitter particularly, over two hundred people and counting have left comments under the post, with many criticising the lack of clarification over whether the car was being driven by a person or not at the time of the collision, and suggesting that the closing reminder about helmets could be irrelevant, considering that regular cycling helmets are not rated to protect against impacts from vehicles.
Despite all this, and most importantly, it appears the cyclist suffered no major injuries from the collision on the Burwell estate in Witney, Oxfordshire, with his mother saying: “This was my son. A HUGE thanks to all who stopped and helped him and called me, some truly lovely kind people in Witney, it’s very much appreciated. All the Emergency services and JR have been amazing. He’s now home, battered and bruised, and realises he’s a lucky lad, someone was looking down on him today.”
road.cc has contacted Thames Valley Police and asked for comment.
As has happened numerous times in the past when police decide to remind cyclists about wearing protective gear and/or don’t quite clarify whether the vehicle they are referring to had a person operating it, the debate over collision reporting seems to be rearing its head more and more regularly. The Road Collision Reporting Guidelines launched last year, that road.cc strives to adhere to, asks journalists to refer to ‘drivers of vehicles’ and not the vehicles themselves, and to consider “whether language used negatively generalises a person or their behaviour as part of a ‘group’.”
> “Language matters” – Road collision reporting guidelines launched
It could be argued that Thames Valley Police fell foul of both of those recommendations here; and while the guidelines are aimed at journalists, the media relies on police communications departments to generate a lot of its news.
Adoption of the guidelines has been far from universal so far, with one local news editor in Brighton going as far as to block anyone on her social media for “language policing” when it came to criticism of collision reporting on the Brighton & Hove News website.
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