First of all .. just to echo IG who called all the medics in the family to make sure of his facts
.. the chap who died in such a terrible way would probably not have registered what happened to him. He would have died instantly and would not have suffered or even had time to register any pain of death. Any last intake of breath would not have reached his lungs .. nor would his brain have stayed alive long enough to even be aware of the sequence of events as described so graphically to the journalists at that briefing.
Now .. the fact he showed these photos to the journalists simply had to be with the intent that they would publish. That is what journalists
do - especially when presented with such a horror which could be sensationally reported with some relish added. Journalese..
After all .. we have all had the headlines of Dr Death.. Evil Nurse.. Fallen Angel ... heartless NHS without one morsel of human caring.. greedy GPs... bungling cops.. "who allegedly could not catch their own helmets let alone a criminal" per some of the more lurid journalism I have seen in many a tabloid over the years
But Dick Brunstrom.. definitely the "weird one in Wales"
. He knows only too well that the journalists would publish the story and name the guy and may well have thought he had the family's permission to show them these graphic images.. only to find out after the family raised concerns that this was not the case
"Icandoit" points out that this rider was not licenced and perhaps there was some red mist in that group of riders that day as a collective and even some defiant red mist or buzz in the knowledge that he was riding a bike without having the legality to do so... and this also led to those tragic outcomes we read each and every day in our local newspapers. But the manner of his death was truly awful. Like the Dicconson Road incident I reported in which a young man burned to death and his pal (Twocer and traveller was unlicenced and later jailed)
Some incidents contain a freak sequence of chance events which lead to such sheer awfulness. There was a case the other day on the A56 Manchester area .. per the Manchester press. A Focus hit a bus. The mangled car .. you would think it hit a tree at 200 mph. The photo seems to show a complete disintegration of this vehicle. The driver died. Others on the bus were injured - including the mother of a child whom my sister Ju-Ju teaches.
So.. this incident .. appears to be a freak one off.. perhaps due to sheer kinetic force of one fast moving motorbike connecting with a car which was not itself at a sedate speed.
Could it have been prevented?
I have no idea. I was not a witness to this incident and I do not know the speeds of either vehicle involved .. but the outcome suggests two cars meeting at an NSL speed without any appliance of a brake to me .. or the biker collided with the car at an unfortunate angle which resulted in a very, very awful death for him and a very deep and lasting trauma for the family in that car. Those people.. no one seems to report whether or not they gave permission for the publication of the photos. I suspect not and this press conference will not have helped
the other victims in this truly terrible event
But as Wildy's husband .. I will speak out over this issue over publication of horrid photos.
My wife, as regulars know, is one feisty and strong minded character. I'm biased .. but she is lovely in every way possible.. even if a bit maddening
and irritating
with her complete and utter "mockery" of the English language
But I nearly lost her... when a person who was taken ill at the wheel of his car drove into her car at a very high speed. This happened just months after her family buried her beloved cousin, Ferdl, who died when a defective vehicle careered across a central reserve into him and his brother died in a plane crash.
The Swiss family went down a black hole in complete and utter shock at the time. IG was fining anything that moved in a way "he disapproved of" for a while.. and admits he was the nightmare cop of all time for about a month and woke up when his bosses had a "word in his ear and some compassionate leave" over it all.
IG has admitted he was a bit OTT at the time in his policing style .. but glossed over the finer details of his red mistedly personal judgements for a period of about 4-6 weeks. Of course, I was unaware.. my duty and attention was to will my wife to survive, keep a vigil at her side as far as I was able - and also be a father to our toddling eldest and our baby twins at the time.
Some time after this, Mary Williams lost her mother in similar circumstances to Ferdl. She lost her fiance when he inadvertently drove up a road closed for a test drive and died when the vehicle being tested hit him on a bend.
We joined and supported BRAKE in its early format and ethos .. and helped fund initially. We joined because Mary's cause pledged to attack rogue garages and hauliers and ill drivers. This was the stuff we wanted to hear and subscribe to after all. And the charity achieved .. we worked some initial miracles as far as pulling up rogue hauliers, employers.. mechanics were concerned. BRAKE still works wonders in this field and deserves every plaudit for its work in this field and in the PR messages over driving whilst unfit and in its call for a duty of care for employers who hire people to drive on their behalf as far as rest periods and deadlines are concerned.
In this .. BRAKE should be supported. This is valid road safety advice .. which saves lives after all.
So.. we are not anti-BRAKE or RoadPeace as such... in the poignantly valid areas of their work and mission.
HOWEVER
Speed per se is not the safety issue. Failure to apply a vigilant COAST style and choice of a safe speed for each emerging condition and this safe speed of judgement of that COAST based and very professional judgement of an emerging hazard can mean that the safest speed is either marginally below or marginally above the speed limit of any one road. But in the latter case .. a speed camera could never judge properluy and a policeman can.
Now as far as shock photos are concerned ..
FINE .. so long as the bereaved consent to their use and that this use is tactful and not ridiculing the deceased .. even if his judgement was not as wise as it should have been. You can learn from a person's mistakes objectively and tactfully.. and if the bereaved consent - and I am reminded of the lady whose son broke a law and died as a result of this. She does not blame her son or react in anger.. but goes into schools and just tells other youngsters how her child died .. the grief she feels and she asks these kids not to do as her son did.. as in drive under an influence .. without a licence and with no regard for other people or parents.
I reported her story at the time. I think she had her hands full with a very wilful and defiant boy.. and she was a single parent and struggling to keep the discipline perhaps. But from her accounts .. she tried very hard to control that boy.. and his loss is not her fault in reality. But she is trying to prevent further carnage in her way and does not mention speed cams as they don;t stop boys like her lad - and she deserves respect for her candid and blunt worded efforts.
But .. if Dick had just asked the family if he could discreetly refer to Mark's very awful death in Speed Aware courses - with anonymity .. then I am sure they would have consented to this ..if only to allow some positive to result from their Mark's absolutely awful negative.
As far as the press conference? All horridly graphic photos could be used .. but only if the grieving family had agreed as there would naturally be a tabloid frenzy of reporting. And that is the nub of the argument really.. he had no right to do what he did.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Members
Und 
I read you.. I like the character which come across to me here 
even if he disagree with me und cringe at my spellings 
So I have some odd problems ..so what.. I do not notice world stopping over it 
Here's a slightly different slant on gruesome images.