It was almost two decades ago. A reporter was taking photographs and making notes of a tragedy that occurred approaching the narrow bridge, known as El Puente, that used to span the Gila River near Three-Way Junction.
It was one of the worst head-on collisions he had ever seen in his career. At that time the road descending toward the bridge was narrow and there was not much room for driver error. One vehicle had crossed the roadway’s center line and struck an oncoming vehicle head-on. Besides both vehicles becoming mangled, one of them caught fire. That vehicle’s driver was dead at the scene. The other driver died enroute to a hospital.
Two Arizona state patrolmen, that is Department of Public Safety officers, had just finished taking measurements and collecting other vital information. They took a well-decided breather from the carnage with which they had just dealt.
The reporter and one of the officers began discussing what had just occurred. The officer said he had long wondered about the reporter’s use of the terms “accidents” and “mishaps” in describing wrecks. The reporter sputtered as he said, “Well, those are just expressions I’ve used over the years — terminology I learned when I was a cub reporter.”
The officer’s response was neither a lecture nor a criticism. He simply said there are rarely “accidents.” There is almost always a cause for a “wreck, crash or collision” that occurs. It may involve driver inattention, speeding, lack of sleep, failure to properly maintain one’s vehicle. Put bald tires and bad brakes in that category.
Add reckless driving to the list. Let us not forget a factor that tops them all — drunken driving.
Of the list of causes for wrecks, collisions or crashes is something that hardly existed when the patrolman and the reporter had their conversation: cell phones, especially when they are used for “texting,” sending and receiving messages to be read on the small screens of cell phones.
In many states there are efforts to ban texting while driving and although there are major efforts to publicize the danger of texting while driving, a great many people continue choosing to ignore that advice.
The highway patrolman said in that long-ago conversation with the reporter that what may constitute a genuine accident is large animals, deer or elk — suddenly jumping onto the roadway while one is driving through the high country. Avoiding hitting the animal may be impossible. Around Clifton and Morenci, it is Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep that sometimes dash onto the road in front of a vehicle and there may only be a split-second for a motorist to react.
A factor is that deer, elk and big horns are very well camouflaged and difficult to detect among roadside shrubbery and their appearance on the road can be so sudden. For motorists, it is one more reason to obey speed limits and be aware of their surroundings. That can no doubt be more difficult when either speaking on a cell phone or having one’s attention to the road diverted while texting.
What the reporter took from his conversation with the state patrolman was that what the use of “accidents” and “mishaps” does is soften the image of what actually occurred on the highway, especially if it involved a rollover or a head-on in which someone was critically injured or killed.
He concluded that soft-peddling a tragedy by avoiding the use of crash, collision or wreck is a disservice to the newspaper’s readers.
The newspaper reports about many positive events and accomplishments such as school honor roll lists. However, it is also a newspaper’s responsibility to examine and report on the unpleasant and sometimes ugly, tragic facts of life. That includes reporting about crashes, wrecks or collisions. Those words, more often than not, more accurately describe what happened than does the term “accident.”
We hope that by reading a story or seeing a photo of a fatal crash, at least some people will slow down, pay attention to the road, avoid using cell phones while driving, not drink and drive and even check their tires for wear.
By the way, the town of Clifton has an ordinance prohibiting the use of cell phones while operating a vehicle. An average of 6,000 vehicles travel daily through Clifton. In just a couple hours of observing traffic, many motorists can be seen using a cell phone on the way through town.
Clifton has a small police department so officers hardly have time to enforce the no-cell phone law.
Walt Mares is the former editor of the Copper Era newspaper. He lives in Clifton.