# Roglic: Hit by a car...or hit by a driver? **URL:** \ **Category:** Pro Racing\ **Tags:** road\ **Created:** [July 31, 2026, 6:12pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753 "2026-07-31T18:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Buddhu](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/kevin_buddhu/32/11747_2.png) [@Kevin\_Buddhu](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Kevin_Buddhu)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 6:12pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/1 "2026-07-31T18:12:00Z")
Can Escape Collective lead a move to use as an editorial choice of a phrase along the lines of, " A driver struck Primoz Roglic…". If not, the current wording, “Primož Roglič [shared on his Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/primozroglic/p/DbdkY3ojQxX/?img_index=1&ref=escapecollective.com) that several days ago he was hit by a car while out training and will miss this weekend’s Klasikoa San Sebastian and next week’s Vuelta a Burgos.” This kind of wording reads like, “A victim was shot by a pistol while out strolling in his neighborhood…”. Let’s see if EC can ditch the passive construction, _and_ put the blame where it needs placement: on drivers: “Primož Roglič shared on his Instagram that several days ago a driver hit him while out training…” What say you, EC? ---
**Author:** ![Lovre\_Mihotic](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/lovre_mihotic/32/912_2.png) [@Lovre\_Mihotic](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Lovre_Mihotic)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 6:40pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/2 "2026-07-31T18:40:25Z")
Usually I would agree but “hit by a car” is a wording used by Roglič in that Instagram post. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Lindsey](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/joe_lindsey/32/5262_2.png) [@Joe\_Lindsey](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Joe_Lindsey)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 6:48pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/3 "2026-07-31T18:48:46Z")
Thanks Kevin - I’ve been back and forth over this for many years now because I agree that the agency aspect is important. But the simple fact is that headlines around this approach are much clunkier than the pistol analogy you use here. Alternate framings of this might be: Driver hits Roglič while out training, rider to miss San Sebastian Roglič struck by driver while training, will miss San Sebastian Driver hits Roglič with vehicle, rider to miss San Sebastian And so on. Each of these introduces grammatical and logical questions, such as what did the driver (a person) hit Roglič with, and “who was training, the driver or Roglič?” (Possibly both, since that driver probably needs training.) “Hit by car” invites its own fuzziness, but generally, most people understand the formulation and it works. If Roglič was struck by an autonomous vehicle, we’d have said that in the headline just to make clear a human driver was not at fault. I’ve changed this in copy because it is easier to accurately convey this kind of action in a complete sentence than it is in the clipped grammatical structure of a headline. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_M](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/martin_m/32/3563_2.png) [@Martin\_M](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Martin_M)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 6:54pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/4 "2026-07-31T18:54:58Z")
“A driver struck Roglic,” while accurate, is incomplete and lacks sufficient information to determine if the driver struck him with a car, with a fist, with a coffee cup carelessly tossed. But I get what you mean and regularly call out local journalists on this topic. “Car struck by cyclist” could have been a headline for Einar Rubio regrettable exit from the Tour. Also lacking in sufficient information. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Kaplan](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/greg_kaplan/32/10094_2.png) [@Greg\_Kaplan](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Greg_Kaplan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/5 "2026-07-31T20:41:36Z")
This same thing came up (too) many times when I was at Velo: How to frame motor vehicle on cyclist collision… while keeping the headline accurate and concise. ---
**Author:** ![JC1979](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/jc1979/32/2145_2.png) [@JC1979](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/JC1979)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/6 "2026-07-31T20:43:48Z")
While I understand the language difficulty, if someone is hit by a cyclist, that’s exactly what we say, not ‘someone was hit by a bike’. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Buddhu](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/kevin_buddhu/32/11747_2.png) [@Kevin\_Buddhu](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Kevin_Buddhu)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 12:11am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/7 "2026-08-01T00:11:49Z")
Joe, I didn’t mean to imply that EC hadn’t considered their approach to this quandry. I also want to acknowledge the dificulty of writing headlines- it’s an art and a difficult thing to do well. On a side note, in an article for EC I shelved (Drivers Want to Destroy My Happiness) about the conflict between drivers and cyclists, I did a cursory analysis of local reporting on cyclist deaths in Ventura County- they almost universally used passive construction, lead with “car strikes driver”, and in my clearly biased position, find and perpetuate that cars kill cyclists. And furthermore, our local paper always adds a link to an article with the pithy tile of “How cyclists can be safe on roads” or some such blather. Clearly, then, cyclists need to ride more carefully to avoid drivers striking them. These articles never suggest that large cars/trucks, distracted driving, and higher road speeds have lead to an uptick to cyclist’s deaths. How a publication decides to write copy after a headline determines how a reader “sees” an event. We all understand that the presentation of facts and how they are delineated to an audience can by their construction affect the reader. I’m not criticizing EC. Truly. What I’m advocating for is for a way to shift how cyclist deaths are reported, no matter what a rider’s Instagram account says. Escape writes to riders , and we all “get it”. We do. I’m just appealing to this publication, the people who I consider the leading cycling messenger in our print world. Again, Joe, thank you for your thoughtful reply. The “mainstream” newspapers and television are where the change needs to happen. And, I hope the the Escape Collective can set this standard as they see fit. Be safe out there. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Buddhu](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/kevin_buddhu/32/11747_2.png) [@Kevin\_Buddhu](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Kevin_Buddhu)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/8 "2026-08-01T00:14:19Z")
Therein lies the quandry. ---
**Author:** ![Jules](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/jules/32/3150_2.png) [@Jules](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Jules)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 12:32am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/9 "2026-08-01T00:32:16Z")
Many times I’ve come close to being struck with a car, then by the driver when I pointed out their poor quality driving ---
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Judge](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/marcus_judge/32/5976_2.png) [@Marcus\_Judge](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Marcus_Judge)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 3:56am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/10 "2026-08-01T03:56:20Z")
It’s such a well-understood phrase that we can assume it’s understood that in essentially all cases there was a person driving the car. As to whether to say that explicitly, it may be helpful to consider similar circumstances such as a person being hit by a ladder, or by a roof tile, or by a trolley, or by any other falling or rolling object that someone forgot to secure or released in a momentary distraction or lack of attention. Only in a very harsh world would intention to harm be assumed. In most if not all such cases it will be understood that there may have been fault on someone’s behalf, but we typically apply “innocent until proven guilty”. Given that is the case, I think that we should allow a car driver the same benefit of doubt as to their intentions and culpability. ---
**Author:** ![Liam\_Mealey](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/liam_mealey/32/12226_2.png) [@Liam\_Mealey](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Liam_Mealey)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 9:02am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/11 "2026-08-01T09:02:33Z")
Laura Laker, a journalist and active travel campaigner did some work on this a few years ago, on how language used in reporting influences wider attitudes, and produced guidance resulting from the work. It may be of interest. [https://www.rc-rg.com/home](https://www.rc-rg.com/home) ---
**Author:** ![Matthew\_B](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/matthew_b/32/5210_2.png) [@Matthew\_B](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Matthew_B)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 1:28pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/12 "2026-08-01T13:28:51Z")
This to me gets to the same problem I have with using “car accident” to describe a car colliding with anything instead of “car incident”. An “accident” is a determination. The event is an “incident” that needs to be investigated. Like the OP I think how we describe events does have an impact on how we view them. A better headline, IMHO, would have been something like “Car driver collides with Roglic”. ---
**Author:** ![SteveC](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/stevec/32/842_2.png) [@SteveC](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/SteveC)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/13 "2026-08-01T23:38:44Z")
> [@Liam\_Mealey](#): > > Laura Laker, a journalist and active travel campaigner did some work on this a few years ago, on how language used in reporting influences wider attitudes, and produced guidance resulting from the work. It may be of interest. [https://www.rc-rg.com/home](https://www.rc-rg.com/home) I came here to recommend this exact same report. > [@Joe\_Lindsey](#): > > “Hit by car” invites its own fuzziness, but generally, most people understand the formulation and it works. If Roglič was struck by an autonomous vehicle, we’d have said that in the headline just to make clear a human driver was not at fault. I’m not sure I agree with this justification. By the same logic, if the driver had used something other than a car, you’d expect that to be named in the headline too. I think the ‘hit by car’ formulation only feels more logically sound through familiarity. ---
**Author:** ![Stochastic](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/stochastic/32/9678_2.png) [@Stochastic](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Stochastic)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 4:32am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/14 "2026-08-02T04:32:52Z")
I agree with your point regarding motorist agency in these kind of things, but…. Although it’s a shitty situation, he appears to be more or less ok. So, I don’t really care enough to look into the particulars of the incident beyond PR’s insta post. That said, do we really know enough about what happened, such that we can say the driver was fully at fault? I think my headline for this specific encounter would be: Roglic sidelined by collision with automobile. If he was severely injured, then we would know more about what happened, and the blame _could_ rightly become part of the headline, if the motorists actions caused the collision. ---
**Author:** ![Lawrence\_S](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/lawrence_s/32/3965_2.png) [@Lawrence\_S](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Lawrence_S)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 8:03am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/15 "2026-08-02T08:03:06Z")
I’ve always thought it simply should be “hit _with_ a car” Puts the responsibility on the operator and specifies the device. The same way something can be hit with a bat… like a baseball. ---
**Author:** ![Jules](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/jules/32/3150_2.png) [@Jules](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Jules)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 8:12am UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/16 "2026-08-02T08:12:31Z")
I’m not overly invested in this. I can see arguments both ways, as have been made here. But if a cyclist dismounts, walks into a bank and holds it up, you damn well know the headline will be “cyclist robs bank” ---
**Author:** ![Slim](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/slim/32/605_2.png) [@Slim](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Slim)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/17 "2026-08-02T21:45:19Z")
Hi Joe. While I greatly respect that you’ve thought about it, I hope you’ll agree that the matter is still one of judgement. I’m on the other side of the line here - your reasoning is clear and true, **and** doesn’t stack up sufficiently to convince me. There is no material ambiguity about what happened when a driver struck a cyclist, nor when Chris shot Rob. Sometimes it’s the verb and other times it’s the noun phrase. As for the clunkiness, let’s just say I have faith in you, and will trade clunk for this accuracy. Please keep reconsidering. ---
**Author:** ![SteveC](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/stevec/32/842_2.png) [@SteveC](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/SteveC)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/18 "2026-08-18T22:18:56Z")
Just wanted to pop back here and say that from listening to the podcasts it’s clear that this is something Escape Collective have been thinking about. Much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Dropped\_Chain](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/dropped_chain/32/4652_2.png) [@Dropped\_Chain](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/Dropped_Chain)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 9:30pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/19 "2026-08-20T21:30:43Z")
This reminds me of the old journalism school headline: “Police shoot man with knife” ---
**Author:** ![jason\_case](https://community.escapecollective.com/user_avatar/community.escapecollective.com/jason_case/32/12604_2.png) [@jason\_case](https://community.escapecollective.com/u/jason_case)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://community.escapecollective.com/t/roglic-hit-by-a-car-or-hit-by-a-driver/5753/20 "2026-08-21T16:47:32Z")
If a headline reads “Driver hit Cyclist” and your first thought is to comment “what did the driver hit the cyclist with?” then I would question if you’ve ever ridden a bike and or why are you trying to divert attention from the actual problem. If the headline reads “pedestrian hit by driver” does anyone question if it was a coffee cup? Something to consider- in a lot of people’s algorithms the dangers of E-bikes is a hot button topic. E-bikes and all the things that average people consider to be e-bikes account for less than 1% of ER visits in the United States currently. Drivers of cars account for well over 60% of total ER related visits. Just an fyi.