Where's the news follow-up?

[occasional thoughts]

So Cyndy Thomas was killed instantly in a car crash of apparently criminal origins at Highway 97 and Ross Road recently. A driver from Quesnel ran the light as Thomas and her boyfriend were turning off the highway and toward home in a nearby trailer park. Have I missed the identification of the deadly driver? Have I missed the bringing of a charge against him? Will he feel any glare of the public on his behaviour? It's been a month or so now. Do we care if said driver is in the hospital in bad condition himself? No, I don't think so. But let's grant the RCMP and the news media some slack because this death is so fresh.

I've been out of the province once or twice briefly over the last two years, so maybe I missed what's really bothering me? We had a driver in a massive moving van run the light at Highway 97 and Hudson coming up on two years ago, causing an explosion and fire, general mayhem, and one death. An up-and-coming young aboriginal and cultural leader on the WFN reserve was cut down. Has the driver been named? Fired? Charged? Do we know what the moving company policy on their drivers speeding and killing people is? Is this a police problem, and nothing's been done, or it is swept under the carpet? Or is this a news media problem.

[fluffy]

The first question that comes to my mind is what would this after-the-fact media coverage accomplish? It's not very likely that the offending drivers in these cases are going to walk away without having to answer for their actions. If a matter is before the courts, or has been through the courts and judgment has been levied, what purpose would it serve to provide news coverage? There is also the consideration that if the matter were truly newsworthy, and there were any public benefit to be had from its publication, then it would likely be out there. Personally, I don't see any reason to elicit further blame and condemnation of people who will or have already seen their just deserts through the legal system.

[mexi cali]

I think that in some way being able to put a name to the monster can help people cope with senseless deaths. I also believe that it is important that the press needs to be as diligent in reporting the aftermath as they are at the scene, so to speak.

In the moment is what sells but not following up is kind of like telling a bed time story and not revealing whether they lived happily ever after.

[occasional thoughts]

ledzep77 is bang on, fluffy totally misses my point; there has been not a word of any investigative follow-up or the legal fall-out (if there was any) on the driver of that moving van or its owner that ran the light and killed the WFN member almost two years ago.

As for the Quesnel driver that killed Cindy Thomas a few weeks ago, I was under the impression from crash-night coverage that the offending driver was critically injured, but I now understand that he and his passenger were uninjured, their vehicle was so big and their speed was so fast.

And the speeders and eventual killers keep on racing down the Highway 97 speedway, er, our main civic road with total impunity. Traffic enforcement down West Kelowna's main street is a joke.

[fluffy]

fluffy totally misses my point

I get your point alright, I just question the need for this sort of coverage. What need would it fulfill? Retribution? Public shame and humiliation to serve what purpose? We have a justice system to mete out punishment, it's my experience that the "court of public opinion" is less objective in its approach to these situations and is more concerned with satisfying emotional desires for revenge.

[mexi cali]

Sometimes satisfying emotional desires is healing.

[fluffy]

Sometimes satisfying emotional desires is healing.

I would agree with that in some cases, but what is being suggested here is more malicious in its intent and can hardly be considered "healing" when done so at the cost of another's suffering.

[Nebula]

There are two reasons I can think of why there is no follow up on this particular news story:

1. Reporters are busy and don't have the time to go to the courthouse every day or phone the RCMP every day about every outstanding case. There are simply too many cases and too few reporters.

2. Not enough people care. It was a death by traffic accident. They're a dime a dozen. A woman being kidnapped in a Penticton store and repeatedly beaten is a story. A teenager out on Halloween night in Armstrong being murdered is a story.

Further to #2, this thread has been open for nearly a month and all of three people have posted in it until now. There is no public outrage, there is no mass letter writing campaign. It's off the radar and the media long ago went onto the next story and the next and the next.

[mexi cali]

I would agree with that in some cases, but what is being suggested here is more malicious in its intent and can hardly be considered "healing" when done so at the cost of another's suffering.

[/quote]

I guess that as harsh as it may sound, one could argue that someone who takes a life due to gross negligence as was the case here, deserve to suffer.

This accident was entirely preventable and was in fact caused by an attitude which is witnessed everyday. Self serving, ego driven, unthinking people who place their own agenda above the world at large with no thought as to the potential outcome.

In my opinion, that is what this and most similar incidents amount too.

Suffering for ones actions is in many instances the only way that people learn and truly experience the "come to Jesus moment".

We seem to have this twisted sense of empathy towards those who have been through the trauma of having been responsible for the loss of a life in what is incorrectly termed an "accident".

It is not enough in the minds of many of the family and friends of the deceased to know that they will suffer emotionally, maybe, because of their actions. Sometimes the need to see or at least know in some tangible way that they truly are suffering is what it takes to heal. This is, in my opinion, normal. Not normal for all but normal for some.

You cannot downplay human kinds need for justice which in some cases can look much like revenge.

[fluffy]

Comparing suffering inflicted by negligence to suffering inflicted out of anger, which would you see as traveling the lower moral road? I believe that from the standpoint of seeing justice served, those directly involved will be well aware of the outcome and they are the only ones who really need to know. To fan the flames of public outrage amongst people not involved can serve no positive purpose, the matter should be left alone to wither in the "non-newsworthiness" mentioned by Nebula.

[mexi cali]

sadly, if morality were the cornerstone then there would be no need for this thread. It isn't a question of high or low roads. rather, it is a question of wanting to exact a pound of flesh regardless that it makes no difference to the outcome.

The moral low road had already been chosen though.

That's why this young woman is dead.

[fluffy]

...rather, it is a question of wanting to exact a pound of flesh regardless that it makes no difference to the outcome.

That is the meat of the matter right there. Do we give in to emotion-driven desires to inflict further suffering? I'd like to think we can be above that sort of thing.

[occasional thoughts]

I'm finding elements of the replies to my original post, frankly, bizarre. It seems to me that some are saying that the people who kill other people have suffered enough by their actions, and we should not victimize the perpetrators further by charging them and holding them up in open court. All I asked about was whether the actions had lead to any charges by our legal system that I might have missed. Or decisions not to pursue legal charges (and why). And, as a former reporter, I questioned the role of the news media in not following up on the stories.

[fluffy]

Sorry occasional thoughts, I thought your OP was addressing the lack of media coverage of the outcome of court action, rather than whether or not court action actually took place. Guess I was running with the wrong ball.

[mexi cali]

I'd like to think we can be above that sort of thing.

So would I but the truth is far removed from that because we are emotionally driven.

I too apologize Occasional Thoughts. We have digressed. We did however get it right at the beginning and I support your contention that once the mayhem and dust have settled, it's almost like these horrible incidents never occurred.