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Yesterday evening I happened to walk past the now well-known bicycle accident that took place in front of Marvin Hall. The scene was disheartening — EMTs bandaging a shaken young man who was nervously looking down at his own pools of blood on the pavement. At the time, I would have never guessed that The University Daily Kansan would draw so much attention to this somber incident the following day.

But it did — and I'm thoroughly disappointed by the disrespect the Kansan has shown to both the accident victim and KU journalism (“Biker smashes through back window of car,” Sept. 18). Since when does a quality university newspaper like the Kansan have the audacity to print an embarrassing front-page feature about the victim of a traffic accident, complete with a misleading, degrading headline and an array of gory photos?

First and foremost, Andrew Cirocco did not "hit a parked car," as the headline so boldly stated. The fact is, he ran into the back of a car that had just pulled up alongside a curb seconds before the impact. With that clarification, a reasonable person could imagine Andrew not seeing the car until it was too late. Unfortunately, many of those who caught a glimpse of the headline probably did not bother to read the entire article and discover this, which inevitably led to me hearing a number of students making a mockery of Andrew's gruesome accident today.

I realize that not every day in Lawrence brings fascinating news, but that doesn't give the Kansan the right to take an isolated traffic accident and turn it into a grandiose cover story with a close-up photo of the victim's dazed stare and blood-oozing chin. I thought those types of stories were more the forte of The National Enquirer — though after today's paper I'm not so sure of that.

What happened yesterday should have been reported in a thoughtful, discreet manner, both for the sake of those affected by the accident and for the virtue of good journalism. Sadly, the article was a lowbrow attention-getter that made a young man's frightening misfortune the entertainment for an entire student body.

If you were Andrew, would you be troubled by the article?

—Travis Kimple is a sophomore from Beloit.

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