A Morbid Curiosity?
I belong to a forum for fans of Formula One, and an ongoing thread is about the recent tragic death of a co-driver in the Welsh Rally. One member of the forum expressed curiosity about the crash and asked if anyone knew of where he could see a video of it.
That has led to an uproar about how distasteful it is to want to see the crash, but is it really as bad as it sounds? I could understand wanting to see just how bad the crash was, seeing as how it took the life of a man, in the way I watched a programme about the crash that killed Ayrton Senna eleven years ago during a Formula One race. Programmes about racing regularly replay the video footage of the crash that nearly killed Nikki Lauda, leaving him with severe burns. My young friend didn't say he wanted to see the men trapped in the car at the Welsh Rally, so is it so very different?
One man has stated that it's the youth of today who want to see such gory things because of their exposure to cartoons and energy drinks. Is that true? I don't think so. When Princess Diana was killed, and a photographer took pictures of her while she was still in the car, it wasn't the young people (meaning those younger than I am) of my acquaintance who wanted to see those pictures, but people who were older than me.
As race fans, we watch races expecting to see crashes. If there are multiple crashes, we call it a good race, so long as our favourite driver isn't involved in it. And yet we know that any one of those crashes could kill a driver, a marshall or a spectator.
Does that make us hypocrites when one of our number wants to see a particular crash? I'm going to go on the presumption that this young guy just wanted to see the damage to the car, not the damage to the man who died, and in that case, yes, I suppose we are hypocrites if we condemn him and yet applaud when a driver we don't like crashes. Michael Schumacher going off track and breaking his leg at the British Grand Prix several years ago springs to mind, because those who don't support him cheered.
That has led to an uproar about how distasteful it is to want to see the crash, but is it really as bad as it sounds? I could understand wanting to see just how bad the crash was, seeing as how it took the life of a man, in the way I watched a programme about the crash that killed Ayrton Senna eleven years ago during a Formula One race. Programmes about racing regularly replay the video footage of the crash that nearly killed Nikki Lauda, leaving him with severe burns. My young friend didn't say he wanted to see the men trapped in the car at the Welsh Rally, so is it so very different?
One man has stated that it's the youth of today who want to see such gory things because of their exposure to cartoons and energy drinks. Is that true? I don't think so. When Princess Diana was killed, and a photographer took pictures of her while she was still in the car, it wasn't the young people (meaning those younger than I am) of my acquaintance who wanted to see those pictures, but people who were older than me.
As race fans, we watch races expecting to see crashes. If there are multiple crashes, we call it a good race, so long as our favourite driver isn't involved in it. And yet we know that any one of those crashes could kill a driver, a marshall or a spectator.
Does that make us hypocrites when one of our number wants to see a particular crash? I'm going to go on the presumption that this young guy just wanted to see the damage to the car, not the damage to the man who died, and in that case, yes, I suppose we are hypocrites if we condemn him and yet applaud when a driver we don't like crashes. Michael Schumacher going off track and breaking his leg at the British Grand Prix several years ago springs to mind, because those who don't support him cheered.
posted by Melinda at 10/23/2005 03:36:00 pm
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