Where I’m from, you have to be careful on the back roads. Passengers will suddenly run out from the trees and just slam into your car.
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 2 days ago
Every time a car hits something it’s described that way, or in a passive voice.
It’s too make the driver/car sound less dangerous.
E.g. “pedestrian dies after collision with car”
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 day ago
UntimedDiffusion@piefed.zip 2 days ago
As someone who lives in car centric city in America, I have never in my life heard a story where a person gets hit by a car and it not be described actively as the drivers fault
SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 2 days ago
It’s your lucky day, then!
Car crashes through Milwaukee beauty salon, causes major damage
Why would a car decide to do that? The poor driver just “lost control” of it when it did. The closest this article gets to blaming the driver is to note that they was speeding, which is an implication, at best.
Here’s another one:
Car crashes into garage on Northwest Side
No mention of a driver at all!
kn33@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The point, though, is that none of those are “a salon crashed into my car”
SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 1 day ago
But neither do those articles actively discuss the crash as the driver’s fault, so the commenter is able to have a first-time-in-their-life experience.
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 1 day ago
The passive voice, simplistically, makes the object of a clause optional (active voice make the subject optional).
Active: car crashes (into salon)
Passive: salon crashed into (by car)
Your example is swapping the object and subject and changes the meaning.