(08-28-2023, 09:37 AM)BIAD Wrote: 28th August 2023, almost two days after the inicdent.
Every so often, a puzzle is presented in the media due to a couple of things that aren't entirely to do with
the actual subject matter of a report. Usually, it's poor informative facts delivered -not for their accuracy,
but for their 'effective' impact on drawing the correct amount of intrigue to hopefully demand the viewer
or reader to tarry a little longer on their TV channel/website/newspaper....
I thought this one was bizarre too!
Just REALLY BAD reporting I suspect.
I did do a little digging about it and...
The dip under the bridge IS much worse than it looks on those photos.
There are reports in the local papers (like Liverpool Echo) of previous incidents where cars have been stuck in deep floods - A woman had to be "rescued" from her stranded car July 8th this year - there's a good photo of it HERE on ITV dotcom
The witness that was mentioned... was travelling in a Taxi ON THAT SAME STREET but the Taxi Driver spotted the bad flooding before entering the water and turned the Taxi around. It was then that the witness thought she saw red tail lights under the water.
Quote:Rebecca Wilson, 27, whose taxi almost drove into the water, told the Liverpool Echo it about 15ft high and the flooding may have been caused by a burst pipe.Source article on iNews
She said: “We went to turn around the car and all of a sudden it looked like a waterfall coming down from the side of the bridge.
“As I looked back out of the window I turned to my mates and told them I thought I had just seen red lights under the water and I thought maybe someone had become stuck. I rang the police just to be safe.
“The water just came out of nowhere and the rain was so heavy that night and a part of me just wished I had turned back and gone home. It was terrifying and I just thought I was seeing things at first and then I saw on the news that there was a car in there this morning.”
My own gut feeling is that the road WAS badly flooded (probably nowhere near 15feet though!) - look at the angle that the car is sitting at in the BBC photo... it's straddling the centre of the road at right angles to the direction of normal travel. That would suggest some unusual movement... either sharply turning the steering to the side (to avoid the flood) or being drifted (partially floating) to the side by hitting the deep floodwater perhaps?
I'll bet that the lighting is crap under that bridge and around dusk (9pm-ish in August Liverpool) it may have been hard to discern just how deep the flood was?
If the driver of the car thought that it was "just a big puddle" they may have driven straight into it before realising how deep and dangerous it was?
I think that the "passers-by" and/or emergency services, as quoted in the original articles probably did wade/dive into the water to help, when they realised there was a car submerged in there, it's just bad/lazy reporting not confirming any of that properly.
The water pressure on the outside of the doors may have prevented them being opened.
The cars occupants may have been elderly, confused or slow to react?
Water may have shorted out the electrical systems rendering the electric windows unuseable or panic may have set in until it was too late?
It could be a genuine and tragic true story.
I just wish that reporters would do their jobs properly instead of this shoddy, click-bait, agenda driven. copy & paste crap that they churn out nowadays.
Thanks for posting! This one did catch my attention as being a bit suspect too.
G