4 ms·

Tour de France: Police search for missing fan who caused crash with sign

16 points by belltaco 5y ago

ElViajero 5y ago
I was wondering why there was a black United States flag in the background in the Tour de France. But, it is actually the flag of Brittany from a region in France. What looks like starts are actually representations of ermines, and there are only 11 of them.
- agustif 5y ago
  https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera_de_Breta%C3%B1a https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera_de_Breta%C3%B1a
- malobre 5y ago
  Hi from Brittany ! Our flag was inspired by the US star spangled banner around 100 years ago. There's a running joke that wherever there's a demonstration you'll be able to see someone fly the Gwenn-ha-du. Check the wikipedia page [0], it's quite interesting. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brittany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brittany
akudha 5y ago
I wonder what they'd charge them with? Stupidity? From the video, it didn't seem intentional. It just seemed like a dumb person doing dumb stuff...
- jaytaylor 5y ago
  From TFA: The police said they intend to charge the unnamed spectator with “unintentional short-term injury through a manifestly deliberate breach of a duty of safety or care”. And I agree- it's silly to go after the stupid person here, people behave carelessly in similar ways almost anywhere you go. It's actually the fault of the event organizers for not accounting for the 'people' factor.
  - readonthegoapp 5y ago
    These fan-caused disasters seem to happen at every single bike race. Do they? If they don't happen, it seems like a miracle of happenstance -- fans swaying or bikers leaning by a cm or two.
    - rasz 5y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_World_Rally_Championship_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_World_Rally_Cham... shit does indeed happen in multiple sports. Anecdotally in currently running Safari Rally, once again under WRC since 2002, military is providing support in form of soldiers with ARs and 1 meter long wooden batons they will use to beat you senseless for refusing to obey commands. Seems to be working.
  - carapace 5y ago
    The person is leaning way out into the street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7rJfSrW58&t=52s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7rJfSrW58&t=52s This is clearly their fault.
    - tweetle_beetle 5y ago
      This has been more or less normalised in the Tour though. There are hundreds of similar episodes every year, which are just close calls. It's less common early in a stage when the peloton is so large, but hardly a rarity. Close proximity to "spirited" fans is a part of the culture of the race (and other European races). And it isn't really practical to turn 2000+ miles of public roads into a sports venue with barriers, security, etc on a rolling basis for a couple of days. While this person is to blame, it's a case of when, not if, future incidents occur with the current situation. For me some responsibility lies with the organisers.
      - CRConrad 5y ago
        > This has been more or less normalised in the Tour though. So? Is that a good thing? Any attempt to un-normalise it is to be praised, not pooh-poohed.
- ergocoder 5y ago
  Charge the organizer for negligence. If we were to dig through all emails of the organizer, I'd bet at least one employee said "hey, crowd that close looks unsafe"... Then someone else higher up made a decision to ignore it. That kind of race always look unsafe. One rider slip? The whole thing would go down.
IceDane 5y ago
Is this really a good fit for this site? What does TDF have to do with technology, or this article? There is nothing here that has anything to do with anything that hacker news is about.
mxmilkiib 5y ago
I see the Indy (should I deign to still call it that after its purchase by a Russian oligarch several years ago) has started putting all their article images through a tracking system, so my Blockada app (local vpn for antispam) now stops every image on that article being loaded.

16 points by belltaco 5y ago

I was wondering why there was a black United States flag in the background in the Tour de France. But, it is actually the flag of Brittany from a region in France. What looks like starts are actually representations of ermines, and there are only 11 of them.

agustif 5y ago
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera_de_Breta%C3%B1a https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera_de_Breta%C3%B1a
malobre 5y ago
Hi from Brittany ! Our flag was inspired by the US star spangled banner around 100 years ago. There's a running joke that wherever there's a demonstration you'll be able to see someone fly the Gwenn-ha-du. Check the wikipedia page [0], it's quite interesting. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brittany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brittany

akudha 5y ago

I wonder what they'd charge them with? Stupidity? From the video, it didn't seem intentional. It just seemed like a dumb person doing dumb stuff...

jaytaylor 5y ago
From TFA: The police said they intend to charge the unnamed spectator with “unintentional short-term injury through a manifestly deliberate breach of a duty of safety or care”. And I agree- it's silly to go after the stupid person here, people behave carelessly in similar ways almost anywhere you go. It's actually the fault of the event organizers for not accounting for the 'people' factor.
- readonthegoapp 5y ago
  These fan-caused disasters seem to happen at every single bike race. Do they? If they don't happen, it seems like a miracle of happenstance -- fans swaying or bikers leaning by a cm or two.
  - rasz 5y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_World_Rally_Championship_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_World_Rally_Cham... shit does indeed happen in multiple sports. Anecdotally in currently running Safari Rally, once again under WRC since 2002, military is providing support in form of soldiers with ARs and 1 meter long wooden batons they will use to beat you senseless for refusing to obey commands. Seems to be working.
- carapace 5y ago
  The person is leaning way out into the street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7rJfSrW58&t=52s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7rJfSrW58&t=52s This is clearly their fault.
  - tweetle_beetle 5y ago
    This has been more or less normalised in the Tour though. There are hundreds of similar episodes every year, which are just close calls. It's less common early in a stage when the peloton is so large, but hardly a rarity. Close proximity to "spirited" fans is a part of the culture of the race (and other European races). And it isn't really practical to turn 2000+ miles of public roads into a sports venue with barriers, security, etc on a rolling basis for a couple of days. While this person is to blame, it's a case of when, not if, future incidents occur with the current situation. For me some responsibility lies with the organisers.
    - CRConrad 5y ago
      > This has been more or less normalised in the Tour though. So? Is that a good thing? Any attempt to un-normalise it is to be praised, not pooh-poohed.
ergocoder 5y ago
Charge the organizer for negligence. If we were to dig through all emails of the organizer, I'd bet at least one employee said "hey, crowd that close looks unsafe"... Then someone else higher up made a decision to ignore it. That kind of race always look unsafe. One rider slip? The whole thing would go down.

IceDane 5y ago

Is this really a good fit for this site? What does TDF have to do with technology, or this article? There is nothing here that has anything to do with anything that hacker news is about.

mxmilkiib 5y ago

I see the Indy (should I deign to still call it that after its purchase by a Russian oligarch several years ago) has started putting all their article images through a tracking system, so my Blockada app (local vpn for antispam) now stops every image on that article being loaded.