2013-11-12 - Rider Down/Fatality, Cherry Orchard / Addiscombe Road (London)

RIP rider. I can't believe another death in such a short time.

The press report it as the 11th death this year and compare it to the 14 in 2012. We are not in retail trying to beat last year's numbers. The target should be 0 and anything above that is a tragedy for someone's family and friends.

So sorry for everyone who cared about this man... my thoughts are with you.

RIP. Tragic.

On the bad reporting note - on a basic level of comparability, the stats should be over the same period of time, not a full year compared to less than a year. I know like this sounds like pointless pedantry, but I'm an editor who makes a lot of year on year comparisons and I know which is intellectually honest and which is bullshit pseudo-stats. It's shitty, lazy writing and it really misconstrues the statistics. What if the casualty rate is higher in November and December when it's darker for longer? This is why the comparison has to be exactly like for like. Otherwise it's bullshit spin.

Pedantic editor rant about bad news writing over. At the end of the day the number should be zero.