As is often the case when this happens, the resulting news coverage was succinct (to say the least) and mentioned the death as "resulting from a collision" before stressing that the cyclist was going the wrong way and was not wearing a helmet.
Why is the victim's lack of wearing a helmet mentioned so quickly in this Global News broadcast? A bicycle helmet is not a suit of armor. A helmet is made of foam and plastic and though it'll help save someone's life in the case of a cranial impact, it won't do much to prevent other forms of injuries. Certainly, it's not designed to protect its wearer against any and all injuries resulting from violent impact with a 1-2 ton metal object traveling at high speeds.Has it even been established that the victim here died of head trauma?
The troubling undercurrent to this reporting is its callous presumption of individual responsibility and its normalizing of a violent death.The implied take-away message is that this death is a somewhat deserved/expected consequence to an individual's failure to behave responsibly. There is no acknowledgement that it's simply not ok that's someone's dead.
