Forums > Social Discussion > Five teenagers die in a crash in St.Leonards

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_Aime_SILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
4,172 posts
Location: Hastings, United Kingdom


Posted:
End of October and 5 kids die in a car crash in a town next door to me. Teenagers aged between 14 and 17 hit a wall in excess of 100mph.



BBC news coverage



It's sad and its a terrible tragedy, but its bothering me. Alot



Local newspapers and reports are making these teenagers out to be..heros?

A 10 page spread in the local Obsever the week they died about each teenage making out what such nice people they were...

Daniel Carwardine took the same train as me to college, always had his hood up/cap on (take that as you will)..and bullied one of my friends making sexual lewed sarcastic comments towards her.



Squarexbear brought up in interesting fact the other day. If they had managed to kill any pedestrains, or the people inside the house they crashed into then the headlines would read 'Hollington thugs kill citizens in high speed crash' not 'Five Hollington teengers killed in car tradegy'



Maybe this makes me biast? Meh..

I've just watched the parents of Danielle Martin on Merdian Tonight express their grief.

The reporter asked them who they blamed for the accidant. They said they couldn't place the blame until all the facts were in place (there has been speculation that the police were chasing them, rather that following).

This then had me screaming at the television.

Your daughter spent the night drinking in a graveyard with friends. Somebody under the legal age to drive and intoxicated stole a car and you got in it. The driver then crashed and everybody inside the car died.



Going back to the supposed police chase..the parents of all the teenagers seem to be settling some of the blame on the pigs..

An investigation is in place to discover whether or not the police were chasing them..but quite frankly why shouldn't they've been chasing them?

Imagen the scene 5 youths in a car, the driver drunk, most probably dangerously driving. The police have every reason to pull them over...



Huff! Moan! Winge!

EDITED_BY: *Aimée* (1132599716)

mcpPLATINUM Member
Flying Water Muppet
5,276 posts
Location: Edin-borrow., United Kingdom


Posted:
Oh c'mon, they're dead! Let them be!

It's a bad thing to be burying your kids. It's not the way it should be and I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

"the now legendary" - Kaskade
"the still legendary" - Kaskade

I spunked in my friend's aquarium and the fish ate it. I love all fish. Especially the pink ones. They are my bitches. - Anon.


_Aime_SILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
4,172 posts
Location: Hastings, United Kingdom


Posted:
I wouldn't wish it on anybody either.
I'm just angry at the way the media are ignoring the way they died.
Drunk, underage and at the wheel of a stolen car.

_Aime_SILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
4,172 posts
Location: Hastings, United Kingdom


Posted:
Ok, maybe that needs re-wording. The circumstances of the accident..

squarexbearSILVER Member
....of doom!
585 posts
Location: Hastings, UK


Posted:
the media arent ignoring the way they died - they are putting a spin on it that is completely hypocritical. usually they can't wait to get their oar in, abuse 'youths' and asbo culture. normally they would be calling for blood. however, these kids (prime asbo candidates) are dead and suddenly angels, wouldnt hurt a fly, perfect etc etc.



ER HELLO? THEY WERE IN A STOLEN CAR! DRUNK! SPEEDING!



as aimee has already said, had they killed anyone other than themselves there wouldnt be this disgusting outpouring of (fake) grief from the wider community. yes ok so the parents have had to bury their child, dont want to accept that the child was to blame for that etc etc...but its the reaction of other people in hastings thats getting me.



people who met them once turning up to the funeral. the papers screaming 'tragedy'....people discussing how terrible it is. its not terrible. yes, five people died - but they werent five innocent people, they werent bystanders or pedestrians. yes they were kids, but kids who were drunk and stupid and ultimately paid with their lives. ITS THEIR FAULT.

SethisBRONZE Member
Pooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom


Posted:
I'm pretty certain people aren't spitting on the dead children's graves.

They're just pointing out that maybe the media is being somewhat hypocritical in it's portrayal of events. I, too, think that if they'd hit anyone then it would have been "Drunken car thieves kill pedestrian" etc etc.

To change the attitude to drink driving/underage driving so completely based only on the fact that no-one else was killed... it makes no sense.

No parent should bury their child. I can't emphasise this enough.

But it was the childrens choice, and they made the wrong one. You pay, you play. Maybe there will be a good outcome: other people will think twice before drinking and stealing cars.

After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.


_Aime_SILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
4,172 posts
Location: Hastings, United Kingdom


Posted:
If it were a relative being mine, and this is me being brutally honest - I would want the public to know that they were drunk and drivng behind the wheel of a stolen car.

I would be sad, I would have lost a loved one, but it would be a leason learnt for others.

I sorry you think my attitude towards this subject are disturbing, its just what I think.
EDITED_BY: *Aimée* (1132602564)

animatEdBRONZE Member
1 + 1 = 3
3,540 posts
Location: Bristol UK


Posted:
I'm completely in agreement with Sethis here.

the media have taken a completely different turn on this one.

Just because they were children who died, and no-one was hurt.

I have my own stories of Hastings, but we'll leave that to another day...

Empty your mind. Be formless, Shapeless, like Water.
Put Water into a cup, it becomes the cup, put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can flow, or it can Crash.
Be Water My Friend.


animatEdBRONZE Member
1 + 1 = 3
3,540 posts
Location: Bristol UK


Posted:
Written by: squarexbear



the media arent ignoring the way they died - they are putting a spin on it that is completely hypocritical. usually they can't wait to get their oar in, abuse 'youths' and asbo culture. normally they would be calling for blood. however, these kids (prime asbo candidates) are dead and suddenly angels, wouldnt hurt a fly, perfect etc etc.



ER HELLO? THEY WERE IN A STOLEN CAR! DRUNK! SPEEDING!



as aimee has already said, had they killed anyone other than themselves there wouldnt be this disgusting outpouring of (fake) grief from the wider community. yes ok so the parents have had to bury their child, dont want to accept that the child was to blame for that etc etc...but its the reaction of other people in hastings thats getting me.



people who met them once turning up to the funeral. the papers screaming 'tragedy'....people discussing how terrible it is. its not terrible. yes, five people died - but they werent five innocent people, they werent bystanders or pedestrians. yes they were kids, but kids who were drunk and stupid and ultimately paid with their lives. ITS THEIR FAULT.






Well said.



You did the crime, now do the time. Admittedly, the 'time' was extreme, but it was their fault. They're not innocent. it was nobody's fault but their own. This is a completely different spin put on it than the media usually portray.



Whilst I was in Hastings over the summer, My Sister's next door neighbour was killed. He was stabbed in the house next door to his own. (the second house down from my Sister.) He was a father of two children, lived with thier mother, family man etc etc. The local papers said it was a tragedy.



Then they found out that he had a history of agression, that he had been arguing with this family for years, that it was he that went round to the neighbours to have another fight with them, that it was more than likely done in self defence. the papers then stopped talking about it pretty sharpish.



This case is similar in that the children weren't abiding by the law, they were drunk (underage), driving underage, speeding... it's their own fault they crashed, but this time it's a tragedy, and remains a tragedy?! While it is a tragedy that they died, to me, it's more of a tragedy that they were drunk driving, speeding, stealing cars etc. they were no angels.

Empty your mind. Be formless, Shapeless, like Water.
Put Water into a cup, it becomes the cup, put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can flow, or it can Crash.
Be Water My Friend.


mcpPLATINUM Member
Flying Water Muppet
5,276 posts
Location: Edin-borrow., United Kingdom


Posted:
so what can we learn from this?

Mass media lies to you, for its own agenda.

Nothing we didn't learn in school then.

Remember kids, it's just like TV, they're making entertaining programs for you to watch.... noooooo... they're making entertaining programs so that you'll watch the adverts in between! The programs are just like the saccharin sweet smell luring you into a venus fly trap of marketing horror. And it's exactly the same with newspapers. Except occassionally newspapers also like to try and change the way you think and influence your opinions. And not in a nice explicit way, but in a devious underhand sort of way....

meditate

"the now legendary" - Kaskade
"the still legendary" - Kaskade

I spunked in my friend's aquarium and the fish ate it. I love all fish. Especially the pink ones. They are my bitches. - Anon.


jo_rhymesSILVER Member
Momma Bear
4,525 posts
Location: Telford, Shrops, United Kingdom


Posted:
i agree with Aimee here.
If those kids had killed anyone else it would have been a completely different story. It was a tradgedy that they died, but what did they expect, drinking and driving?
It's a shame the media paints the world how they want you to see it, not how it is. x

Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.


BirgitBRONZE Member
had her carpal tunnel surgery already thanks v much
4,145 posts
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)


Posted:
I'm generally a bit annoyed by the way media cover every death - pictures of the whole family, everyone confessing the dead person was the best person in the world, popular at school, hard-working etc.

I don't wish for anyone to die, but I prefer the German way of media, to not print off the person's complete name, but first name and maybe first letter of the last name, and leaving the family etc out of it, and leave it to one or two reputedly bad newspapers or women's magazines to try and exploit the tragedy. Most people know better than to accept money to have their pictures printed in those circumstances though. Luckily.

While I don't agree with giving a bad reputation to dead people, not everyone can have been the best child in the world and the most wonderful student with hundreds of friends. All that info, and about the family's feelings, to me has no place in serious coverage. But hey, what's new, as Meg says media's just trying to sell a story shrug

"vices are like genitals - most are ugly to behold, and yet we find that our own are dear to us."
(G.W. Dahlquist)

Owner of Dragosani's left half


Boo_BunnyBRONZE Member
Sparkely arty Mormon rainbow fairy
933 posts
Location: infront of you, United Kingdom


Posted:
What if they hadn't died?
They would have been called hooligans and vandals and would have been condemned by the media for drink driving.
People have an unusual view of death. it can change the worst person into a saint. It seems so strange.

Property of Fine_Rabid_Dog


squarexbearSILVER Member
....of doom!
585 posts
Location: Hastings, UK


Posted:
Written by: Spanner


This thread does sound very bitter as it hints that some people are not so much arguing that there should be no spin of either kind upon the story, but of people being taken in by "ASBO" stories who are then left wanting when the press changes their tack to "tragedy" stories and everyone else is following the herd. I don't think it can be had both ways and I'd like to think that it shouldn't be had at all. If that isn't the case, I'd love to have it explained to me otherwise. I really would.





ok. this is the response i wrote to your 'close the thread' post last night (i couldnt post it because BT broadband had one of its many little tantrums).

"i would prefer them to treat this honestly - no, they aren't angels, yes they are dead, feel sorry for their parents but remember that actually it was their fault."

my problem with the media, this story, local issues etc is this: there is NO CONSISTENCY. i'd rather have no spin.

the story that LTC brought up about the guy who was killed earlier in the summer - first story 'lovely family man, nice guy etcetc'. then you find out that he was sleeping with a 16yo (as well as the mother of his children....no, ok that wasnt published but hastings is a very, very small place), he was a racist, he had a history of aggressive behaviour and violence and all of a sudden the story disappears, woops.

i have regularly written to the local paper over the past few months pointing out their discrepancies and hypocrises..as you can imagine, those letters go unanswered and unprinted.

strugzBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,964 posts
Location: Southampton - Possibly..., United Kingdom


Posted:
fundimentaly it wasnt all thier faults - just the drivers. Yeh they may have all know what they were doing was wrong - but im sure as hell the driver didnt say to his friends - get in the car so we can all die together!

I was going to rant a little but decided just to add:

I think its wrong to judge someones death by the way in which they lived. No matter how bad, people dont "deserve" to die and no one person has the knowledge of anothers life and circumstance to imply that.

rolleyes

"...We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing......."



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