The second version was driver-focused. It used the term “crash,” reported the “driver striking a pedestrian,” and omitted what the pedestrian was wearing “when the driver struck him with his car.”
For the third article, the authors use a “thematic” framing. The article grounds the particular crash within the theme of vehicle-pedestrian crashes. There is more detail on where the crash happened, with the pedestrian “attempting to cross Main Street between a bus stop and the Walgreens.” It adds context: “This is the eighth death of a pedestrian in the city this year, an increase of 20% from last year at this time” and notes there have been three recent pedestrian deaths on that stretch of Main Street.
The authors write that “shifting from a pedestrian-focused to a driver-focused text increased perceived blame for the driver. In turn, shifting to a thematically-framed text slightly reduced blame on the driver and increased blame on ‘other’ factors.”
They recommend journalists focus on the crash location and situation and avoid using language that may, inadvertently, assign blame to either the driver or pedestrian. They also encourage journalists to note whether a particular crash was a one-off or part of a trend.
Further reading
When vehicles hit people
Active Road User Interactions With Autonomous Vehicles: Proactive Safety Assessment
Abdul Razak Alozi and Mohamed Hussein. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, February 2023.
Examining Pedestrian Crash Frequency, Severity, and Safety in Numbers Using Pedestrian Exposure from Utah Traffic Signal Data
Ahadul Islam, Michelle Mekker and Patrick Singleton. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, August 2022.
United States Fatal Pedestrian Crash Hot Spot Locations and Characteristics
Robert Schneider, Frank Proulx, Rebecca Sanders and Hamideh Moayyed. The Journal of Transport and Land Use, January 2021,.
Demographic risk trends
Where the Crosswalk Ends: Mapping Crosswalk Coverage via Satellite Imagery in San Francisco
Marcel Moran. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, April 2022.
Racial Disparities in Pedestrian-Related Injury Hospitalizations in the United States
Cara Hamann, Corinne Peek-Asa and Brandon Butcher. BMC Public Health, September 2020,.
Walking Speed of Older People and Pedestrian Crossing Time
E. Duim, M. Lebrao, Y. Duarte and J.F. Antunes. Innovation in Aging, July 2017.
Crossing infrastructure
Impacts of Enforcement Cameras on Pedestrians’ Risk Perception and Drivers’ Behaviors at Non-Signalized Crosswalks
Haojie Li, et al. Journal of Safety Research, June 2022.
Examining Generalization of Motorist Yielding at an Adjacent Crosswalk with Variations of the Gateway Sign Configuration
Jonathan Hochmuth, Brian Crowley-Koch and Ron Van Houten. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, June 2020.
Impact of Crosswalk Lighting Improvements on Pedestrian Safety -- A Literature Review
Elisabeta Mitran, Julius Codjoe and Emmaline Edwards. Louisiana Transportation Research Center, June 2020.
The Impact of Pedestrian Crossing Flags on Driver Yielding Behavior in Las Vegas, NV
Sheila Clark, et al. Sustainability, August 2019.
News coverage
Does News Coverage of Traffic Crashes Affect Perceived Blame and Preferred Solutions? Evidence From an Experiment
Tara Goddard, Kelcie Ralph, Calvin Thigpen and Evan Iacobucci. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, December 2019.
This article first appeared on The Journalist's Resource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.