George Square Crash

[Dave78]

The Daily Record reported a pregnant woman and a child in a pram, it's just the society we live in.

Aye, it's because we live in the age of 24 hour news channels. The journos are desperate to be first with the 'facts'. Nobody has time to corroborate sources, or whatever it was they did in the old days. Print and be dammed, as they say!

[EddardStark]

I understand why people( strangers to the families) need to place flowers, teddies and other things at the site of the incident. Its important for themselves. But is there not someone with the foresight to suggest setting up a fund to be used at a later date by the families for whatever reason. They may have their own charities that they would want to to allocate donations in memory of their loved ones. Hope I am not sounding insensitive.

And the coverage of this incident by the media is simply awful

Edited December 24, 2014 by EddardStark

[sbcmfc]

I understand why people( strangers to the families) need to place flowers, teddies and other things at the site of the incident. Its important for themselves. But is there not someone with the foresight to suggest setting up a fund to be used at a later date by the families for whatever reason. They may have their own charities that they would want to to allocate donations in memory of their loved ones. Hope I am not sounding insensitive.

And the coverage of this incident by the media is simply awful

Not at all.

Public outpourings of grief can often make me quite uncomfortable, or even cringe a bit, but like you, I can also kind of understand it in this case, as it is so close to home, many of us, our friends and families will have walked these streets 100s of times.

That would be a much more constructive way of spending a fiver. Even if said fund could be used by the families. Loved ones dieing can be bloody expensive!

[sonofoi]

I guess checking and corroborating sources isn't high on the agenda of these news organisations.

Creates unnecessary worry and stress for people.

Got a few mates who are old time served journos and their mantra was/is check check and check again - does the story & source stand up and check out - is it credible.

With social media it's become lazy journalism - a twitter source said - a relative on fb said & invariably it's crap!

People's perceptions of what they have seen can be skewed but it's then reported as fact!

Some comedian, never heard of her, was being interviewed on the radio as an eye witness and had the location wrong!

[OLAS]

I understand why people( strangers to the families) need to place flowers, teddies and other things at the site of the incident. Its important for themselves. But is there not someone with the foresight to suggest setting up a fund to be used at a later date by the families for whatever reason. They may have their own charities that they would want to to allocate donations in memory of their loved ones. Hope I am not sounding insensitive.

And the coverage of this incident by the media is simply awful

Any donation or compensation should be done privately by the relevant authorities. I was taken aback slightly when I seen £60k had been donated by three different organisations and a hotline for you or I to donate.

You can't put a price on life, much less a cash refund. All the money in the world won't (or shouldn't) change the victims' families grieving. It's nice that the general public want to do something, but giving cash isn't appropriately meaningful at a time like this.

[sonofoi]

Got a few mates who are old time served journos and their mantra was/is check check and check again - does the story & source stand up and check out - is it credible.

With social media it's become lazy journalism - a twitter source said - a relative on fb said & invariably it's crap!

People's perceptions of what they have seen can be skewed but it's then reported as fact.

Some comedian, never heard of her, was being interviewed on the radio as an eye witness and had the location wrong!

Edited December 24, 2014 by sonofoi

[sbcmfc]

Any donation or compensation should be done privately by the relevant authorities. I was taken aback slightly when I seen £60k had been donated by three different organisations and a hotline for you or I to donate.

You can't put a price on life, much less a cash refund. All the money in the world won't (or shouldn't) change the victims' families grieving. It's nice that the general public want to do something, but giving cash isn't appropriately meaningful at a time like this.

Although for those immediately effected, in the days and weeks following something like this, particularly in the short term before insurance pay outs etc. the bills keep coming in and there can be a lot of miscellaneous costs that not everyone can afford.

[EddardStark]

Any donation or compensation should be done privately by the relevant authorities. I was taken aback slightly when I seen £60k had been donated by three different organisations and a hotline for you or I to donate.

You can't put a price on life, much less a cash refund. All the money in the world won't (or shouldn't) change the victims' families grieving. It's nice that the general public want to do something, but giving cash isn't appropriately meaningful at a time like this.

I was referring to the families choosing the charities. In time this can have a very positive impact on those who have lost loved ones.

[biffer]

Although for those immediately effected, in the days and weeks following something like this, particularly in the short term before insurance pay outs etc. the bills keep coming in and there can be a lot of miscellaneous costs that not everyone can afford.

Exactly. None of us know the financial situations of those involved or the financial hardship their deaths may have caused to their families. Lumping money problems on top of what is already such a dreadful time for them only makes a bad situation worse, so assistance in this way, whilst no compensation for their loss, can help in a practical way in a time of need.

[OLAS]

Although for those immediately effected, in the days and weeks following something like this, particularly in the short term before insurance pay outs etc. the bills keep coming in and there can be a lot of miscellaneous costs that not everyone can afford.

I was referring to the families choosing the charities. In time this can have a very positive impact on those who have lost loved ones.

I know what you mean and I hope I didn't come across as heartless in my post. I just don't see the logic in dishing out money willy-nilly to people affected by tragedies such as this. The next of kin shouldn't have to go through any financial hardship because of a fatal accident. In this case, the city council should see to that just like the police did last year.

If they are awarded compensation over and above that, then that should be a private matter.

[Auld_Reekie]

The problem these days is that people have long since given up trusting what they read in the newspaper or hear on the TV. Social media also encourages a one way discussion where you post something for all to read and it's quickly lost amongst all the other guff long before corroborating/challenging facts come to light. People don't bother challenging inaccuracies as we'd be there all day, and that's assuming we were able to get verified facts quickly enough to challenge a lie/error. Unfortunately, the vast majority don't value the truth or care enough about whether something is true when communicating with others.

I have a little bit of sympathy for the media/press here - they cannot compete with the internet and social media. A story is broken, covered and unless a huge breaking story, is done and dusted by the time they can get it to print or broadcast. But given they sh@t all over people's trust years ago before the advent of social media at least, they can go f*** themselves. The days of a trustworthy press are long gone and unlikely to ever return now. Don't know how they can compete in today's world and make money - between the internet, social media and them having blow every bit of trust people had in them, I don't think there is a way back for them.

And that's pretty sad, because the thought of the internet and social media being my only filter for news, despite the alternative, is pretty depressing. I don't want to have to spend an hour searching and reading a half dozen different articles just to triangulate what's really happening on one story. It's exhausting and more and more, I just find I go without.

[iainmac1]

I can see why people would donate money but it isn't any harder on the families involved in this tragedy than it is for the families of people who are knocked down and killed daily.

[sbcmfc]

I can see why people would donate money but it isn't any harder on the families involved in this tragedy than it is for the families of people who are knocked down and killed daily.

That's very true.

(There was one family who had 3 involved, which is pretty exceptional, but again, there are probably car accidents where this happens every week or so and you read the story, think "that's sad" and move on)

[shaggycoo]

Wife was saying this morning that a couple of gossip sites that she frequents are starting to ask questions of the other workers who where in the lorry before things went pete tong. Seemingly wanting to save your own skin when in danger is not allowed when being a hero is on the table

[Ally Bongo]

Wife was saying this morning that a couple of gossip sites that she frequents are starting to ask questions of the other workers who where in the lorry before things went pete tong. Seemingly wanting to save your own skin when in danger is not allowed when being a hero is on the table

This is the bit that is confusing me

The usual reaction for anyone that is in a vehicle where the driver collapses is to at least try to grab the wheel and steer the vehicle to safety/ stop - normally by turning it into a wall.

The driver doesnt need to have collapsed for this to happen. Its common also if you are learning someone to drive or if you are being taught yourself. The instructor will try and correct your steering if you are going off track

Maybe this was impossible as there might have been no safe place to turn with shoppers everywhere but it did travel some distance in a supposed straight line

I realise we need to wait to hear the whole story

Im worried that the driver's collapse may not be medically related and the longer we are not told the more that becomes likely - however i am still in the belief as everyone else is that it was

Edited December 24, 2014 by Ally Bongo

[Lamia]

This is the bit that is confusing me

The usual reaction for anyone that is in a vehicle where the driver collapses is to at least try to grab the wheel and steer the vehicle to safety/ stop - normally by turning it into a wall

Yeah but what wall would be avaliable without running people over? I am certainly not jumping to any conclusions.

[johnnie x]

Is there not a separate cab at the back for the rest of the workers so would be very hard to do anything.

[Mindimoo]

Every single bit of wall between GoMA and the crash site would have contained many many people. Only other option would have been the Square itself where the swings and big wheel are located. Unless we've been in that situation none of know what we would do.

[Coldo]

For all we know, where it did crash may have been the "best", (apologies for the lack of a better word) place to end up.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Coldo

[Kirk]

For all we know, where it did crash was probably the "best", (apologies for the lack of a better word) place to end up.

Yea it could have been much worse, still doesn't take away how horrible it was though.

Until All the details are out though everyone needs to reserve judgement of the driver etc. Let's just hope it really has been a bad accident and nothing more.

[Ally Bongo]

I am reserving judgement ....however how long does it take to diagnose what happened to the driver ?

We all know someone or of someone who has had a heart attack - it does not take 5 days for that information to be released

As i said i really hope i am wrong but the longer this goes on the more suspicious is gets - a point that was made clear to the authorities on Wednesday

[Toepoke]

I'm sure the driver's next of kin will be aware what happened to him by now.

[stocky]

has anyone considered a bin lorry fault, an accelerator cable jammed or similar.. just a thought...

[Lamia]

I am reserving judgement ....however how long does it take to diagnose what happened to the driver ?

We all know someone or of someone who has had a heart attack - it does not take 5 days for that information to be released

Maybe they have and quite often we don't get told stuff for ages for reasons unknown to us

[Ally Bongo]

Maybe they have and quite often we don't get told stuff for ages for reasons unknown to us

Id like to think they have told the relatives of the deceased

There is still ire over the Clutha tragedy with the time it took them to give answers to that