Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Bertha HarianBertha Harian

News Reports

I’ve sustained enough

Why is it that people are never just “hurt” or “injured”? They have to “sustain” minor/major injuries. This sort of police jargon for crime or accident stories really gets my goat! More so when they are repeated in news articles. What happens when the injuries are healed? They stopped sustaining? Or when the injuries kill? They were unsustainable?  At least, I no longer have to read about ambulances which “rushed to the scene”. That was such a huge bugbear for me. Did we really expect the ambulance to cruise to the scene?

Anyway, crime and accident stories always seem loaded with cliches. A pity since so much wonderful language can be used to greater effect. So here’s one I never hope to read….

As Mr X walked to his favorite coffeeshop for breakfast yesterday, little did he know (as if he would!) that he would be a victim of a hit-and-run. The tragedy (isn’t it always?) occurred at 6am along Y Road, eye-witnesses said.  An ambulance rushed to the scene (NOTE: it did NOT cruise) where Mr X laid in a pool of blood (it usually is a pool; puddle has less impact). He sustained severe head injuries (probably his skull was cracked but that doesn’t sound so elegant) was rushed to hospital (again, to denote SPEED). Doctors said he was now fighting for his life (aren’t we all?). Police are investigating. (that last line is obligatory and standard police fare I believe)

Written By

An ex-journalist who can't get enough of the news after being in the business for 26 years

Further reading

News Reports

I am glad that Minister of Communications and Information Josephine Teo told MPs yesterday that their specific questions on the circulation fiasco disclosed last...

News Reports

That $7,000 cabby How do you catch out a person on a lie? Or maybe he wasn’t lying, just exaggerating, stretching the truth, so...

News Reports

There’s one word which I am beginning to swear at – facility and its plural variant. Things that are physical are now a facility...

Money

What’s the job of the news media? It’s to make sense of what people are saying, put stuff in perspective and tell me what’s...