should this have been shown?

[redcrx]

Mr CRX and myself went to Brands at weekend to watch the world superbikes and other bike races.

Tragically one of the promising young riders, Craig Jones, in the Supersport race was killed during the race.

The race and therefore accident was transmitted live on Sky on sunday apparently. Fair enough, a live broadcast cant be accountable for whats shown.

But last night we sat down to watch the race on Motor.TV, hoping to see exactly what had happened at other parts of track during the superbikes (as we were there we could only hear commentary)

anyway they were showing the supersport, Footage of all the bikers getting ready, Craig Jones there, commentators talking about what a star he could be etc etc.
Then they show the race.

Now i was expecting them to show race highlights and then cut before the awful accident. But NO, they ran the whole thing, even to the point of showing his motionless body on the track as the commentators were calling for the footage to be cut as they knew it was bad.

Is it just me that thinks this was unecessary? After all that was said after the death of Ayton Senner live on the Grand Prix. What was the need to repeat the crash and the footage of that poor young lad?

[888sally888]

There was the lad who died a couple of years ago - his 2 brothers still race. Must be agony for their parents.

I suppose if its your life, you just carry on in their memory. My step son has a bike and I worry about his just on the roads!

[Octavius]

Red, you mentioned about the people there thinking he was dead. I bet a lot of them were clamouring over each other to see more clearly and no doubt taking their own pictures and mobile phone video�s.

It is a morbid fascination, not many people these days has actually seen someone die, and the mere thought of a life ending fills us with such horrific fascination that a few years ago would have not raised an eyebrow. Consider the rubber neckers who want to, yet dont want to see, the resultant carnage in a motorway pile up.

Unless the family have explicitly requested that the video not be shown on national TV, then why not air it? The commentators were probably trying to see how it could have happened in the first place. I think the family said that he died doing something he loved, so in some ways you are seeing him in his final glorious moments doing what he loved and did best.

Nonetheless, a sad end.

[Nosha123]

I haven't seen the footage - nor do I really wish to. I remember watching the GP when Senna was killed.
I guess that during any accident the cameras a bound to be rolling and more often than not they are not fatal. But perhaps there could have been some sensitivity on the repeats - since anyone really curious to see it would easily find it on the web. They could have cut to the marshalls or shown the white sheeting around him - and not shown the bit of him on the ground before he was screened off.
I guess he knew the risks involved - and the dangers of such a sport - but it doesn't change the fact its a tragic incident for such a young man.

[Octavius]

Often the cameras can zoom in close enough to see if there is movement, eyes are open or any signs of life/consciousness at all.

I suspect the cameramen and director were truly hoping he would open his eyes, get up and walk away from it.

[redcrx]

youre right Oct, there will always be those that cant help but be drawn to take a look and when i was younger i can probably say i was like that too.

As far as i know all those people i knew that were witness to it and sat that side of track did not rush to get pics etc. In fact it appeared from our part of track that all those on the start finish line were just sat stunned and quiet.