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How The Media Covered a Tragedy

The December car crash involving six Washington and Lee students splashed across local and regional news, and created a public relations crisis for the university.

W&L students traditionally kick off exam week with an off-campus, unsanctioned party on Saturday night. The hubbub turned tragic when 20-year-old Christopher Hanson crashed his SUV, carrying five other students home from the party. He tried to pass another car in a no-passing zone and lost control of the vehicle, colliding with a tree. Hanson suffered minor injuries and was charged with DUI and reckless driving, according to a story byABC affiliate WSET-TV.

The other students in the car were hospitalized, and the W&L community held their breath as sparse details circulated about two critically injured students who were rushed to the hospital in Roanoke. Suddenly the story morphed from a drunk driving accident to a frenzy for information about hospitalized students, because one victim was a young woman, who could not be identified because of her injuries. She carried no ID, and we all wondered why none of the other passengers could remember who she was. The sorority hotline kicked in and my housemates frantically called and texted friends, checking in and trying to account for everyone.

We received an email from the university that morning with some details, but not enough to keep rumors from swirling. In this case, no news was bad news, and all we heard were convoluted snips from friends of friends of friends. I suppose the university either didn’t know details or couldn’t tell them, but people were in panic mode trying to account for their pals and classmates, presenting a serious PR issue for the school that lasted from the early stages of the crises throughout the days following.

At the time, reports seemed repetitive, because beyond the bare facts, the details about the hospitalized students didn’t develop quickly.

Once the woman was finally identified, Twitter erupted with news and updates about the two students. The W&L community followed updates as they happened. I remember refreshing my screen, wanting to be the one to tell the latest tidbit. The W&L online community created a hashtag in honor of one of the injured students, Kevin Dyer: #KevinDyerFanClub, and students used that tag well beyond the time of the initial accident, throughout winter break, reminding each other that these two students were still in critical condition, and not to stop praying for them.

Now that the dust has settled somewhat, the facts finally are more clear.

A quick Google search yields results of stories from Lexington's News Gazette, the Rockbridge Weekly, the Roanoke Times, and the Vienna Patch, to name a few. The stories were published in print and online, and are basic, brief accounts of the facts of the night.

All written by different reporters, the coverage reminded me of my “Intro to Reporting” class, where 20 students wrote almost identical stories using the same set of facts. The News Gazette's piece was the most thorough, I thought, probably because Lexington residents have a more specific baseline understanding of Lexington geography, culture, and police action. But as clicked through all the stories, I lost interest reading them because I did not get any new information from the subsequent stories.

One story did cover the human element particularly well, a piece in the Vienna Patch, a paper out of Vienna, Va, the hometown of one injured student. The piece linked Vienna with the accident by recalling his high school days and his athletic successes. If I were from Vienna, I would get so much more from this story than the others. In fact, I still appreciate the story more, even though I didn’t go to high school with him or go to book club with his mom, or other ways Vienna citizens might be interested, because when reading stories like this, one can’t help but realize the scariest part about a tragedy like this: it could have been anyone.   

Because what I think is interesting, is that as a W&L student, I could see so much more to the story than just a bare-bones police report. These students were athletes, honor students, greek members, classmates (Kevin Dyer sat next to me in my journalism class… it kills me to think that he was probably planning on taking our journalism exam the day after the accident). It all hits close to home.

W&L’s student newspaper, the Ring-tum Phi, is working on a detailed piece right now which will add impact and depth to the story, because there are a lot of other factors involved which W&L outsiders might not know.

For example, W&L students take “Traveller” to parties, a bus system that runs on party nights. But this particular party was unsanctioned, out in the country, during exam week, and the weather was icy, all reasons why Traveller was not running.

The party was sponsored by a fraternity who was involved in another serious accident earlier in the year when a porch collapsed at a party. W&L’s chapter of the fraternity is facing serious consequences and has had their house revoked, but outsiders might not know to link these two events.

University administration is dealing with balancing student autonomy while still regulating risky behaviors: how much control over the social scene can the school realistically have? President Ken Ruscio emailed the student body reflecting on the tragedy and encouraging students to reevaluate their behavior. He invited comments, concerns, and ideas, an offer that I’m hoping will engage the student body. Dean of Students Dawn Watkins also implemented a new newsletter, called the Student Scoop. The first issue talked about the accident.

 The struggle isn’t over for these two students, who are still recovering in hospitals nearer to their hometowns. I hope that W&L continues to pray for their quick and complete recovery.