Cameras lingering on the aftermath of accidents: Informative and Reassuring, or Tasteless and Unnecessary?

[saunaking]

Informative and necessary and generally TV teams do a great job.
I don't want to see a camera linger on a body that is not moving, but yes they should absolutely pan through the aftermath of a crash and then continue to film newsworthy events like cyclists helping other cyclists, medicos examining riders etc.

Directors did a great job yesterday and at Dwars last Friday too.
And for the love of God, the commentators need to calm down with their complaints about the tv production showing the aftermath. Yesterday that didn't happen thankfully, but some commentators complain about it way too much.

 

[jmdirt]

Informative and reasuring, IMO.
We all have the ability to look away if we feel that it is tastless and unneccesary.

 

[zlev11]

the thing with yesterday is that it appeared to me very quickly that everyone was moving. except for Vine, who they actually did not show very much. Vingegaard was very still but you could also clearly see it was not an emergency situation based on the reaction of the medics attending to him. i can't imagine how awful it would've been to see a bunch of riders laying there for a couple seconds and then they just never showed them again.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I was told 24 hours ago that the highlights of stage 4 would be put up "tonight" (i.e. last night), and then told during the day that they would go up tonight. Meanwhile, they showed the crash and footage of riders lying in the culvert and being put into ambulances for 4 minutes at the beginning of this afternoons broadcast.

Paternalistic and inconsistent.

 

[awavey]

Is it actually your contention that teams should not communicate with the next of kin of riders who have had accidents? That there should be no attempt to keep them abreast of the situation with details that are not yet in the public forum?

no, and I dont believe Ive made that point at all.

I simply dont believe the answer to a crash such as that is flat out "blocking live coverage", there are decision makers in the whole chain, host broadcaster, relay broadcaster, who can choose to do different things with all the coverage theyve got access to, the Itzulia Basque Country broadcasters along that whole chain made poor decisions, some of them appear to blaming each other for that, Im not sure why.

the other aspect I believe where some cyclists next of kin have clearly expressed a preference for live pictures to continue in those incidents, because its the quickest way for them to gather information on situations such as that.

and the answer to that is most definitely not well tough our right to be offended on your behalf trumps your right to want to stay informed in the quickest way possible and well everyones got a phone thesedays so we'll just task someone from one of the teams to immediately facetime them all with the current sitrep instead. even when that likely creates more confusion and harm to those individuals involved than the live tv pictures would have in the first place.


Id summarise my contention succintly as

• dont block live coverage
• make better choices
• dont invent new ways to break things that already work well, just because

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I wouldn't necessary disagree with your 3 conclusions. But you seemed to be opposed to my comment "it does seem a very basic expectation that teams have NoK's details available and keep them abreast ahead of media."

 

[RedheadDane]

Been thinking a bit more about this, and especially how it relates to the Weylandt crash...

The thing is; that was - thankfully - an extreme situation, where it turned out that they weren't showing a seriously injured guy, they were showing a dead guy.
However, in other cases - like the most recent in the Basque country - images did indeed help show that downed riders were okay(ish), or... a lack of images did absolutely nothing to lessen the concern.

Of course, that shouldn't stop teams from using all available channels to get in contact with NoK, perhaps especially since some crashes simply don't have images, and if they start hearing rumours that a loved one has crashed, they're obviously gonna be really worried. I remember reading an interview with Vervaeke's wife, who's also the widow of Demoitie, at one point he had a crash, and - obviously - she panicked.

Just to be clear; my own, personal, opinion is still that I don't think I want to watch stuff like that... but if family members of the riders have said they want to know what's happening, what they say goes.

 

[mrgmyers]

Anyone who has been in a crash will know full well that the victims do not want anyone gawping at them. We do not need to see the aftermath of crashes, only ghouls want to see and will invent any amount of reasons to indulge their unpleasant fantasy..

 

[RedheadDane]

Anyone who has been in a crash will know full well that the victims do not want anyone gawping at them. We do not need to see the aftermath of crashes, only ghouls want to see and will invent any amount of reasons to indulge their unpleasant fantasy..

Unfortunately, sometimes the victims are not able to want anything.

 

[mrgmyers]

Unfortunately, sometimes the victims are not able to want anything.

Even more reason for the ghouls NOT to see then.

 

[Carols]

I for one will Never forget seeing Fabio Casartelli being given CPR on the road. Or Andrei Kivilev, or Wout. Now when it's obvious it's BAD I just Don't Watch.
People who want to watch do and people who don't want to watch don't. The choice is yours.

 

[Bolder]

Anyone who has been in a crash will know full well that the victims do not want anyone gawping at them. We do not need to see the aftermath of crashes, only ghouls want to see and will invent any amount of reasons to indulge their unpleasant fantasy..

I want to know which riders can continue, which might need a bike change etc. Crashes and mechanicals are an integral part of bike racing. That's a fact. It's not ghoulish to not want a dangerous sport sanitized.

Now, of course, if someone is badly hurt and needs medical attention, it should be an easy editorial call to stand back and let medics do their job.

 

[RedheadDane]

I want to know which riders can continue, which might need a bike change etc. Crashes and mechanicals are an integral part of bike racing. That's a fact. It's not ghoulish to not want a dangerous sport sanitized.

This is about cameras lingering after it's become very clear that a rider can not - in fact - continue.

Of course, I have also sometimes found myself starring intensely at footage of a crashed rider, looking for movement, any sort of movement, then breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it.

I for one will Never forget seeing Fabio Casartelli being given CPR on the road.

After Furrer, Ekstra Bladet did a bunch of links to related articles, one of them used the image of Casartelli on the road!

 

[Bolder]

This is about cameras lingering after it's become very clear that a rider can not - in fact - continue.

Of course, I have also sometimes found myself starring intensely at footage of a crashed rider, looking for movement, any sort of movement, then breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it.

Agreed. I also want to know when a rider's moving their limbs, at least...
Sometimes it's necessary to linger a bit, though. Innocuous looking crashes somtimes end a rider's day and vice versa.

 

[mrgmyers]

I want to know which riders can continue, which might need a bike change etc. Crashes and mechanicals are an integral part of bike racing. That's a fact. It's not ghoulish to not want a dangerous sport sanitized.

Now, of course, if someone is badly hurt and needs medical attention, it should be an easy editorial call to stand back and let medics do their job.

And how exactly does seeing injured riders help you see what riders can continue exactly? If they get a bike change footage is normally shown anyway and no one certainly not me is suggesting mechanicals do not get shown as indeed is from a distance initial crash footage, but riders on the ground in agony IS NOT for anyone to see it is ghoulish.

 

[Bolder]

And how exactly does seeing injured riders help you see what riders can continue exactly? If they get a bike change footage is normally shown anyway and no one certainly not me is suggesting mechanicals do not get shown as indeed is from a distance initial crash footage, but riders on the ground in agony IS NOT for anyone to see it is ghoulish.

Eh, ok, you got me. Look, if they get up and ride away despite being bruised and scraped up, that's a clear sign that, you know, they are able to continue. Whereas if they don't, they can't, and a medic is called, the camera should pan away or the TV director cut to another shot.

Honestly it doesn't bother me one way or another but I'm not going to pretend to be sanctimonious about a dangerous sport performed in public by willing participants.

 

[saunaking]

this thread is pointless.
Of course 'lingering' is unacceptable.
But there is no agreement on what is 'lingering'
I wanna see the crash replay.
I don;t wanna see a rider writhing in pain for 10 seconds

 

[RedheadDane]

Whereas if they don't, they can't, and a medic is called, the camera should pan away or the TV director cut to another shot.

However, if there's uncertainty and it first looks bad, but the rider is then able to get up and continue, absolutely show that.

I don;t wanna see a rider writhing in pain for 10 seconds

Not to mention the even worse possibility...