Official language

[cromwell]

Officials seem to talk in a different language to the rest of us don't they?

Today apparently, the M62 was closed from 2m to 7am because of "an incident".

What does that actually mean?

They may as well just say "the M62 was closed between 2am and 7am because of something". Tells you just as much!

[meriad]

Well yes, but 'an incident' sounds so much more serious than 'something'

But in all seriousness, I am not sure, but I think they refer to accidents that result in a fatality as an incident; if it were a 'simple' collision then they usually say so. It's the same with the trains - passenger on the tracks is one thing, sometimes they say a person has been hit by a train, but usually a passenger incident often means someone hit by a train and they didn't make it

[JoM]

The A5 was closed this morning and I was actually surprised when it was said to be due to a collision and not an incident, or a police incident which is what we hear used a lot around here.