Some balance
As I was at the Gumball send-off in London last week, I should write about the widely-reported deaths of two locals driving a VW Golf in Macedonia when they were hit by a Porsche driven by two British guys.
The man driving the car (and his co-driver) has been vilified for driving recklessly and for fleeing the scene.
But let's look at a few facts before jumping to conclusions (oh, too late).
1 - We don't know they were speeding. Some newspapers and websites said they were doing over 200kph. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. The cars didn't look like a 120mph smash though. It looked like a slower impact that caused the Golf to roll. More to the point, doing 120mph on Macedonian roads (not highways) is probably impossible.
2 - Many have said the Golf pulled out in front of the Porsche. This is quite possibly true. They could have been hit by anything and had the same fate, except it then wouldn't be reported by anyone, anywhere.
3 - This fleeing the scene business. By many accounts, they called for an ambulance and spoke to the police, and then hopped into a passing competitor's car to carry on. It was whilst they were on route to the border that the man died, and then they were detained at the border to be questioned. This is not fleeing the scene. I understand that the co-driver was allowed to go anyway, and the main driver was then held and bailed. He was apparantly then re-arrested trying to get onto a private plane. He must have had his passport to do this, so they can't have taken it from him. A bit strange if he wasn't supposed to leave.
4 - Almost every year, people (both competitors and spectators) die on the Dakar rally, but this doesn't get a mention.
Now, I'm fully prepared to be wrong about all this. What I'm trying to do is give balance, and point out that there are two sides to every story. Hopefully the truth will come out.
The man driving the car (and his co-driver) has been vilified for driving recklessly and for fleeing the scene.
But let's look at a few facts before jumping to conclusions (oh, too late).
1 - We don't know they were speeding. Some newspapers and websites said they were doing over 200kph. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. The cars didn't look like a 120mph smash though. It looked like a slower impact that caused the Golf to roll. More to the point, doing 120mph on Macedonian roads (not highways) is probably impossible.
2 - Many have said the Golf pulled out in front of the Porsche. This is quite possibly true. They could have been hit by anything and had the same fate, except it then wouldn't be reported by anyone, anywhere.
3 - This fleeing the scene business. By many accounts, they called for an ambulance and spoke to the police, and then hopped into a passing competitor's car to carry on. It was whilst they were on route to the border that the man died, and then they were detained at the border to be questioned. This is not fleeing the scene. I understand that the co-driver was allowed to go anyway, and the main driver was then held and bailed. He was apparantly then re-arrested trying to get onto a private plane. He must have had his passport to do this, so they can't have taken it from him. A bit strange if he wasn't supposed to leave.
4 - Almost every year, people (both competitors and spectators) die on the Dakar rally, but this doesn't get a mention.
Now, I'm fully prepared to be wrong about all this. What I'm trying to do is give balance, and point out that there are two sides to every story. Hopefully the truth will come out.
posted by Nej at
3:43 pm
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