A man died on campus on Sunday. He was a delivery man for one of the food outlets in the AUS student center (you can get almost any kind of food delivered here, not just pizza and Chinese). He was out on a road on campus on his motorcycle when he was hit by a car.
Depending on who you talk to - including people who swear they saw it happen and others who are in a position to know due to well connected sources - the man was killed instantly. Or he was alive for a while before paramedics showed up, late. Or he was wearing a helmet. Or he wasn't. Or it was a student who was driving the car that hit the motorcycle, or it was someone else. The only things we know for certain are that he was 31 years old, and that he was from Nepal.
The reason for all this uncertainty is severalfold.
1. News coverage of events like these is inconsistent. It is often hard to find out what "really happened" during some incident.
2. The university has yet to release any kind of official statement, unless you count the brief status update on fb where "they" (whoever was behind the keyboard at the moment) said they could not release any kind of official statement, due to:
3. Legal reasons. All kinds of information that is usually released immediately in the US and elsewhere when an incident like this occurs, remains obfuscated indefinitely here.
While I certainly understand that the university is hesitant to release any kind of official statement against the advice of the police or their lawyers or whoever, I still wish they would. We need to know more about this man who died and not treat his death like it was just another thing on just another day. At the very least, increased official attention to this tragic accident could encourage a (probably temporary, sigh) more attentive and conservative driving habits on campus by both students and faculty.
In the meantime, students are taking matters into their own hands. From the AUS fb page:
I really hope this happens. As she says, it really is the least the AUS community can do.
Depending on who you talk to - including people who swear they saw it happen and others who are in a position to know due to well connected sources - the man was killed instantly. Or he was alive for a while before paramedics showed up, late. Or he was wearing a helmet. Or he wasn't. Or it was a student who was driving the car that hit the motorcycle, or it was someone else. The only things we know for certain are that he was 31 years old, and that he was from Nepal.
The reason for all this uncertainty is severalfold.
1. News coverage of events like these is inconsistent. It is often hard to find out what "really happened" during some incident.
2. The university has yet to release any kind of official statement, unless you count the brief status update on fb where "they" (whoever was behind the keyboard at the moment) said they could not release any kind of official statement, due to:
3. Legal reasons. All kinds of information that is usually released immediately in the US and elsewhere when an incident like this occurs, remains obfuscated indefinitely here.
While I certainly understand that the university is hesitant to release any kind of official statement against the advice of the police or their lawyers or whoever, I still wish they would. We need to know more about this man who died and not treat his death like it was just another thing on just another day. At the very least, increased official attention to this tragic accident could encourage a (probably temporary, sigh) more attentive and conservative driving habits on campus by both students and faculty.
In the meantime, students are taking matters into their own hands. From the AUS fb page:
I really hope this happens. As she says, it really is the least the AUS community can do.