Thanks for reporting facts on fatal accident

THE EDITOR: May I first commend your newspaper on its accurate reporting of events. Newsday is my favourite newspaper and I customarily begin my day with it, confident that I have been correctly informed. I refer to our telephone conversation on Saturday December 4, 2004. I expressed my thanks for your accurate reporting of the vehicle accident in which my brother, Russell Gomez, was killed, and explained how the family’s overwhelming grief was further intensified by the inaccurate reporting of the said accident by a radio station. This radio station repeatedly and incorrectly reported that the deceased, Russell Gomez, 22 years of age, lost control and crashed his vehicle.

My brother, Russell Gomez, 49 years of age, father of a son 25 years of age, and a daughter 20 years of age, was always a very responsible and defensive driver, characteristically known for his patience, especially behind the wheel of a vehicle. As a matter of fact, he always stated that when one was licensed to drive a vehicle, one was also licensed to kill. He looked upon a vehicle as a “legal weapon” if not driven in a caring and responsible manner, and also with the deepest respect for both human and animal life. Based on the above, the family feels the radio station’s incorrect report of the accident is an assassination on his character as it implies that he was either driving recklessly, or, as others have questioned, under the influence of alcohol. May I also interject that he neither drank alcohol nor smoked.

This incorrect news report was received by his nephew in England, who found it difficult enough to accept the fact of this sudden and violent death. Adding to his trauma was the report that his responsible uncle lost control of his vehicle thereby implicating that he not only caused his own death, but also caused critical injury to others. Persons responsible for a “news report” are trusted to be accurate, and to seek and clarify information before release to the public, thereby, avoiding unnecessary embarrassment to innocent parties, and also not adding to the unbearable burden of the grief already being carried. May I conclude that other media houses in this country need to take pattern from the management team of the Newsday.Thanking you for your kind indulgence.

JULIET GOMEZ
Petit Valley