A little over two weeks ago two vehicles collided here on the Vineyard. One vehicle was driven by a young woman of 20, the other by a young man of 22. The woman died. The man and his passenger were injured and airlifted to a hospital in Boston. The local newspaper led its weekly edition with the story. The accident and the story generated almost 300 comments (so far!) on the newspaper's web site. That number is a record for this small island of c. 19,000 residents.
You might think that the comments were largely sympathetic to the dead woman and, perhaps, also to the young man. And, if both parties were Vineyarders, I'm sure that's what would have happened. But, the woman was a Vineyarder, the man was a Brazilian who was here illegally. While a fair number of the comments mourned the woman, the overwhelming majority castigated the man and just about all Brazilians. The accident unleashed a stream of invective against the Brazilians, accusing them of all kinds of evil. It was something that I'm sure many residents did not expect, as most people believe that the Vineyard is a civilized, kind place. And, it is most of the time. But, the bloom is off the financial rose here and people are getting nervous and afraid, which leads to the display of our baser instincts.
Many of the comments cited the fact that the man did not have a driver's license. In fact, he had been previously cited twice for not having a license. As you might expect when someone is castigating his fellow man on the internet, anonymity is the rule. Less than 10% of the commenters used their full name, most used pseudonyms, such as T.A.C.
Now two weeks later more facts have come out as the investigation of the accident proceeds. The woman was driving in excess of 80 m.p.h. on a road where the speed limit is 40. The man, who was making a turn, was driving 9 m.p.h. He had 2.6 seconds to react. He failed to and the woman's car crashed into his and moved both of them another 50 feet. More details will be forthcoming as the investigation moves along. I wonder whether more facts will change anyone's opinions.
1 comment:
One has to wonder whether such emotion would be generated were the victim who died a not-so-attractive, middle-aged, overweight, stranger?
Later facts would seem to suggest the van driver was not to blame, and the young woman suffered the consequences of her own rash actions.
Illogical tirades as appeared in the comments section are not uncommon in such cases. There are those in every community prepared to whip up spite and intolerance at any opportunity.
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