Elf's Shrine

My Thoughts on the Learner Bike Accident

Now, I realise that I am probably presenting a defensive stance towards the issue but if people can bash, I can say my piece.

On the part of the school. I am not saying that the school was absolutely blameless but is the amount of bashing equitable to what they should have been expected to do? Whilst this incident showed that the existing safety measures could be challenged, would many people have questioned the adequacy of the safety measures implemented before this incident happened? I would not know the answer, because these are just questions in my mind.

Would a reasonable man, asked to inspect the building and safety measures, have declared them as adequate or inadequate?

Still, I understand all the comments on the safety measures and indeed they are not that nasty. What I find truly nasty and irresponsible are the comments on the learner's gender. Do they mean to tell me that by being a female, she deserved to crash and burn? Ok, she didn't burn but I certainly do not believe that it was a matter of fact that she should have deserved it just because she is a female. This is coming from someone who is a supporter of the school of thought "Females are a special breed of drivers" so I guess that says a lot.

Would a male trainee have fared better under the circumstances? Maybe, probably. Then again we would never know for sure since we cannot ethically conduct trials to measure the significance of gender influences in such conditions.

Would the accident have been less serious if it was not in a multi level building? Maybe the bike could have crashed through the fence and the learner would have ended up on a busy road. Now that would have been seriously nasty. Yet again we can't know for sure.

If we cannot know so many things for sure, we should probably stop badmouthing and bashing. We should instead give the unfortunate person our blessings for a swift and complete recovery.