Twilight fan struck, killed by car at Comic-Con

Alan Ball

Obey the crosswalk lights folks. I don’t want to see you here on boing boing except for incredibly silly things, or maybe insightful ones.

franko

seriously, this is awful. that poor woman.

Ceci Land

I’ve never been to a comic or anime convention. Is it normal to “flip the line”? Apparently the organizers of the panel decided to reverse things so that the end of the line became the start. So the woman was running to try to regain her position in line. She’d been camped out since Sunday. Why in the world would the convention organizers do this?

http://twitter.com/samoanbiscuit samoanbiscuit

Because people with power over thousands of rabid fans are sometimes gaping assholes. Surely this lady’s family should be looking into their legal options.
Guest

For the same reasons frat and sorority overlords think it’s awesome to coercive another person to lick things off of floors or answer cell phone calls and come to the house at any hour, regardless of what’s happening in your life.

I think it’s because we still have an instinctual awe of infantile but powerful beings like in Greek and Roman Mythology.

To be respected, have power. Acting like a child abusing your power then becomes the most admirable way to acquire respect. Call it a “bonding” experience later.

aaronmhill

While I understand mw141′s point about not being flippant about the loss of a human life (someone really did DIE here, after all), I find it at odds with the content of the OP.

What ACTUALLY happened here (in the article the OP links to) is that a 53 year old woman was hit and killed by a 67 year old man, while she was crossing the road. That, in itself, is tragic.

The fact that the 53-year-old woman was a rabid Twilight fan has absolutely no bearing on the article itself — she was not hit BECAUSE she’s a fan of Twilight (as far as we know, anyways) and her fandom was not the direct cause of her being hit, aside from causing her to be present at ComicCon in the first place, where thousands of other attendees, who did not die in crosswalks, also were. Are we expected to feel any different amount of pity or remorse because we know she is a Twilight fan?

From the article:
“The woman was in a crosswalk and had a red light when she tried to run across Harbor Drive toward the convention center about 9:20 a.m., said police Sgt. Ron Glass.”

She made a poor judgement call and is now dead because of it. The person who struck her is probably pretty shaken up too; I wonder if he’ll ever be comfortable driving ever again, in the rest of his life.

My point is simply that if you don’t want people to troll your article (with comments like “If only Edward was there to push her out of the way!”), don’t include superfluous troll-worthy details. You could have simply said: “53 year old woman struck and killed by car at ComicCon” and there would be no difference in the conveyed information, except it’s not baited with unicorn meat, or whatever it is that Trolls like to feast on.

marilove

You may want to re-read mw141′s comment…
- aaronmhill
  
  Ah!
  
  Ok I think I understand, after the followup comment — I misunderstood their intent in the first.
http://profiles.google.com/greeneggsandsamuel Sam Archer

Agreed that
“53 year old woman struck and killed by car at ComicCon” would have been a more appropriate title. Though it seems to being to stray from what I figured was the focus of BoingBoing…

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

Today’s threads are telling me “Wow, Boing Boing totally does not need comments on it.”

Alan Ball

Hmm perhaps an option for moderators to lock particular articles?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Jeez. I take an hour off and it all goes to hell.
  
  Also, Disqus has been (once again) broken for much of the day, allowing people to make comments but not allowing me to see them in my moderation panel. Moderation by Ouija board.
Robert

Well, you could always herp derp derp herp herp herp derp
abstract_reg

My response to this headline in real time:

Twilight *snicker* fan *snicker, snicker* struck, *huh?* killed *awe now I feel terrible about judging this person based solely on their taste in literature/film* by car at Comic-con *what a terrible thing to happen.*

I agree with aaronmhill. This headline emphasizes the wrong thing. Fact is this woman was a part of greater fandom and which part of the conference she was attending doesn’t have much bearing on this story.
http://twitter.com/Mike42345315 Mike

Rob, you should consider putting up a paywall to keep people out.
bcsizemo

They are like flames to a moth….I can’t stay away (even though I probably should.)

http://twitter.com/samoanbiscuit samoanbiscuit

The headline is basically DARING people to say something flippant, while the mods are removing said flippancy. Wouldn’t it be easier to just not have such a trollbait headline? The deceased’s being a fan of twilight has no bearing on her tragic death.

Antinous / Moderator

You’re really reading a lot into that headline.
- http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
  
  Sorry I wore such a short skirt today.
- http://twitter.com/Mike42345315 Mike
  
  Do you suppose the 7 people that retweeted and 2 people that favorited BB’s tweet of this post also read too far into that headline?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    If you want a psychic reading, I charge $150 an hour.
    - Tynam
      
      You tempt me to pay up.
- mrpostal
  
  A fictional story where one of the key turning points (at least in the well known film) is where one of the main characters saves the protagonist from a car crash.
  
  VS
  
  Real fan of said fiction gets tragically killed in car crash.
  
  It’s not really relevant to the story at hand, and I can’t see how you’d be surprised that the Internet wouldn’t put that together.
  
  May as well just say “Fan gets killed outside of ComicCon due to mad rush”.
  
  Maybe I’m just weird, but the way it’s worded now, was the first thing I thought of. I think it’s that whole ‘monkeysphere’ thing.
penguinchris

The fact that she’s a Twilight fan does have bearing on the case, but you have to read the story (or an above comment by @google-ac36394faef347d1e746e18f4122748f:disqus ) to find out why – the event organizers decided to reverse the line so that the people who had been camping out for days (such as this lady) so they’d be at the front of the line were suddenly at the end of the line.

This, understandably, must have upset her greatly so she tried to run to the end of the line. She’s a die-hard fan – a.k.a. fanatic – and was willing to do whatever it took to get in.

You can’t really say that the Comic Con organizers are at fault for her death, but it was a dick move on their part. I understand the thought behind it – it seems like a good idea at first, to give people who can’t camp out an unexpected chance to get in – but if you think about it for more than two seconds you realize how terrible an idea it actually is.

I don’t understand the reasoning behind Xeni including the information that she’s a Twilight fan but not that important context either, just to be clear.

Lyzard

Was anyone driving the car? Shouldn’t it say ‘driver of car’ or “motorist hit and killed person with car”?

elix

Woman is hit by a car and killed: Tragedy.

Woman who happens to be a crazy Twilight fan is hit by a car and killed: Tragedy.

I’m kind of concerned about anyone who would deviate from the above assessment.

Ashley Yakeley

Well I don’t think she was crazy. Everyone has their thing.
- elix
  
  I meant crazy as in being an obsessive megafan, not in the “clinical diagnosis of behavioural or cognitive disorder” sense. Because apparently, to some people, that tips you from “human being” to “subhuman waste”.

noah django

this thread is hilarious

Ashley Yakeley

Is this really acceptable?

marilove

I imagine your life isn’t particularly valuable, either. Assholes generally aren’t.

http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

Nobody’s is. Everybody’s is.

Antinous / Moderator

Now that you mention it…..