After a long day at my internship, sometimes all I want is a little silence once I return home. But, my roommates and I often joke that an hour doesn’t pass without hearing ambulance sirens.
According to the lead in a Washington Post article, I'm lucky I made it home from work.
About three times everyday in the District, someone walking on a city street gets hit by a vehicle and an ambulance races to the scene. This year, four of those people have died.
It’s no wonder the first week in Washington D.C. students get warned not to listen to music or talk on the phone when out and about.
I like how the lead slaps you in the face with statistics.
The entire article is filled with startling facts. My only complaint is that there are too many statistics--one after the other. There is little human voice. The facts are important without a question and do add to the story.
But there comes a point where all the numbers blur together. The reader might care where the most dangerous intersection is (Howard Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE). But I’m not so sure about the second, third, forth, fifth or sixth. They all mix together.
What I would consider the story’s nutgraph was my favorite paragraph. I typically find nutgraphs really boring, but this one made me laugh. This article was written with some wit.
Some of the region’s law enforcement and political figures gathered Tuesday outside a police station on New York Avenue NW to warn people that walkers and bikers are getting hit — and often. In fact, six pedestrians were struck that very day across the city.
I love how this reporter did her homework. She wouldn’t necessarily need to know how many pedestrians were struck that day, but it made for a great addition.
The story gives many human examples of when people were hit by cars. One of the most startling examples came at the very end the article.
On Tuesday, police released the name of a man in a wheelchair who was killed in a hit-and-run in the 5000 block of Benning Road SE two weeks ago as he crossed in a crosswalk. Police are still looking for the car that struck Gary Green, 55, of Southeast on March 12.
Little details really add to this story in a positive way.
The author said, “said Neha Bhatt, a cyclist who needed months to recover after she was hit by a sport-utility vehicle last year on Benning Road NE.” This is so much better than “said Neha Bhatt, a cyclist hit by a car.” Or when the author not only said where the most dangerous intersections are, but how many injuries took place.
The Washington Post was the only publication to recently publish on this topic. It informs its readers of the dangers of crossing the street, but it provides little information on the Street Smart campaign. My guess is that that campaign inspired the article, yet, all the reader really knows about it is that six pedestrians were hit by a car that day.
I am left questioning what all the law enforcement plans to do addressing the problem.
Comments