Supposed quality newspaper, The
Times, managed to be both ignorant and insulting last
week when it suggested that the cause of the Kaprun fire
lay with snowboarders.
Roger Boyes, reporting from Kaprun,
first spuriously claimed that 'huge concessions' had been
made to attract boarders, a group apparently equipped with
personal PA systems to 'perform their sport to the throb
of mountainside techno music'.
He went on to claim that safety rules
are 'overlooked' because 'snowboarders are seen as Kaprun’s
future'. In his view, boarders 'carry small aerosol sprays
to wax their boards' (and no doubt to sniff as well, Roger?)
and do not worry about "no smoking” signs.
Boyes concludes: 'Snowboarding is
a lifestyle statement, a relaxed, unregulated sport that
nonetheless adheres to strict fashion dictates. In Kaprun
snowboarding became a way of death.'
This is an insult to all snowboarders,
and in particular the many lovers of the sport who died
in the accident.
It's been hard writing this without
being offensive (to Boyes), but if you feel strongly about
this, then why not let the Editor
of The Times know how you feel...
[Thanks to Fiona Brownlee for bringing this to our attention]
French
Funiculars to close?
Initial Accident Report
Kitzsteinerhorn Victims' Fund
Following the tragedy in Kaprun,
a fund has been set up to help with the recovery operation.
If you would like to donate, the details are as follows:
Name of account: Victims of Kitzsteinhorn fund
Bank: Raiffeisen Bank, Kaprun
Sort code: 35 11 2
Account number: 10 12 11 1
