Sir, - It has often struck me that radio reports, on all stations, about traffic flow at peak hours are wholly insensitive. I have thought about this many times since such phenomena as Sky Patrol and Roadwatch have become regular features. It seems to me a question of balancing potentially useful information with a human dimension.
The point was brought home to me a number of weeks ago when a report came over the airways that a "particularly nasty accident had occurred" outside Carlow involving a lorry and a car. "Traffic will be delayed for up to an hour while the wreckage was cleared up," or something to that effect was communicated to listeners at home, at work or unfortunate enough to be sitting fuming in yet another traffic tailback. As it happened, a man died in that crash and I knew him.
Imagine the shock and pain caused to family members and loved ones when they are aware someone is taking a particular route only to hear a seemingly detached voice announcing "a serious accident involving a car and a motorcycle" or "a serious accident involving car and a pedestrian" has taken place there. Such serious injury or death seems to be relegated to mere inconvenience for other road users. Surely a human life is worth more than a salutary 12-second mention. The editors of such programmes should impress on their announcers the importance of choosing language that reflects the seriousness of an incident involving human life. No business meeting or appointment is really so important that we cannot be sympathetic in our recording and reporting.
As I write this letter, a radio announcer has just reported that "an accident has just been cleared". I hope the person or people involved are all right. - Yours, etc., C. Niall McElwee,
Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford.