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I only have the energy to refute 2 points in the article breakdown:

1) (paraphasing) "why was it relevant to say he was wearing a helmet". To raise awareness that it's critical that cyclists wear helmets to increase their chances of survival.

2) "he was struck...use of passive voice , not the result of one or other party's action", maybe because that information isn't available yet? And part of journalistic integrity is to not report that which isn't proven.

It baffles me why cyclists expect to have any lower incident of traffic accidents than any other vehicle using common roadways.



> maybe because that information isn't available yet?

What do you mean? The article they analyse says that a van struck the cyclist. The information is available and is disclosed in the very same article. Yet they use a passive voice.


the article may not have the final police report, maybe the cyclist veered in front of the van?


Are we talking about the same article? The one titled “Cyclist injured in collision with van amid rush hour traffic in Cambridge”? The very same article where the sentence they complain about is “he was struck by a van”?

What information they can be missing that they can write “he was struck by a van” but not “the van struck him”?


The laws being what they are in the UK I imagine 100% of the journalism is written in a passive voice. To do otherwise would risk a lawsuit.


So you think “ he was struck by a van” is safe from lawsuit while “The van struck the cyclist” would not be? Who would be suing in your opinion? the unidentified van?

> I imagine 100% of the journalism is written in a passive voice

Only if there were some way to prove or disprove your imagination. Maybe like reading any newspaper from the UK and seeing that not all of it is written in a passive voice.


The investigation could reveal the cyclist hit the van, by say, running a stop sign (as cyclists love to do).




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