The Absent Driver

Actus reus ex machina.

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

"A casualty was treated for shock after a car drove into a ditch"
@EDP24
https://t.co/Vb49V3R039

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

Or:

“Emergency services were called after some numbnuts who won their driving licence in a local church raffle managed to roll their car in a car park and then failed to climb out of either the boot or the two large improvised sunroofs they’d created.”

https://t.co/hHaage2WLQ

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@MatthewSnedker Two years apparently 😮

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

And this is the style of reporting you get from the BBC *after* an actual human has been found guilty…
https://t.co/1b26whXnl2

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

(Marked down slightly for use of “accident”, but hey.)

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

What’s going on here? This isn’t the Daily Echo’s usual style. Bravo @DailyEchoRachel.
https://t.co/OzZEuZFLBT

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@stonojnr @trinityb38 There’s a Yes Minister remake in this somewhere.

[Ernie Marples 🇪🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇰🇼 @ErnieMarples]

@absentdriver The gift that keeps on giving..

https://t.co/DctohDIlRI

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

The automotive industry moves in mysterious ways.

[Sky News @SkyNews]

Wall 'just exploded' as car smashed into US church during Sunday service https://t.co/kdSDpbEiMq

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

Merry Christmas everybody.

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@DocManniday They missed a bit.

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@DocManniday They missed a bit.

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

Maybe it had drunk too much petrol. It’s the time of year for office car park Christmas parties, after all. One too many litres at the pump and the next thing you know you’re punching holes in shops because that Mini you were trying to chat up snogged the big new BMW instead.

[BBC Yorkshire @BBCLookNorth]

This was the scene at JD Sports in Sheffield a little earlier after a car smashed into it in the early hours of this morning, leaving the store "trashed": https://t.co/0sFcyDv2NT

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

What an honourable car. Having a person collide with you and then die is a traumatic experience for any piece of machinery, but a less morally robust model could have fled the scene. You did the right thing and you are a shining example to other inanimate objects.

[Weekender @weekender_life]

The car stopped at the scene and so far there have been no arrests.
https://t.co/7I46cMZiLb

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

There is of course the possibility that the reporter wrote something sane (ie ascribing agency to the human rather than the inanimate object) and then a subeditor noticed that this was against editorial policy, and changed it, but failed to do so fully.

[📗Matthew Snedker @MatthewSnedker]

I wonder if @absentdriver can shed any light. Does assigning gender to the car help or hinder the absolution of the driver?
#driverless #AutonomousVehicles
https://t.co/4UrDl1kbpH

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

The framing effect is one of the most basic and most effective forms of influence available to the media. Here’s the @seattletimes employing it with precisely zero subtlety.
https://t.co/G21Os6Hpz4

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@DewilliamsMatt Anyway, I may pick this up again later but I have to go. My van needs to drive home 😉

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@DewilliamsMatt You claim that “the difference is meaningless” as if it is inherently true. I would argue that it’s absolutely not. The two examples are different, but that difference is not meaningless, and anonymity certainly does not mean there is no influence.

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@DewilliamsMatt No, to influence the public consuming the media reports.

[The Absent Driver @absentdriver]

@DewilliamsMatt @pro_elbows @coconutlulz @AxleRyde @philatfawley @TwoWheeledAndy @Hackneycyclist @BBCSpotlight @Brick_Safety Oh, well, if—as that tweet implies—this is in your eyes a “me vs you” debate rather than an “is there an influence effect from widespread disparity in the reporting of parties in road collisions” debate then it’s doomed to futility. Have a good evening.