Fauja Singh, ‘world’s oldest marathon runner’, dies in road accident aged 114
The runner Fauja Singh, believed to be the oldest person to complete a marathon, has died in a road accident in India aged 114.
The athlete, who lived in Ilford in east London, was hit by a car and suffered fatal injuries while trying to cross a road in his birth village of Beas Pind, near Jalandhar in Punjab, on Monday, according to reports in India.
Come on, Guardian. "Accident?!" Notice the use of language in these cases. When the person killed is driving, that's a "crash." For example, "crash" was used to describe Kelvin Kiptum's (marathon record holder) death.
Off the top of my head, a couple more ultra-endurance athletes killed when hit by automobiles:
- Jure Robič - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jure_Robi%C4%8D, killed while training
- Bob Breedlove - https://web.archive.org/web/20221206061718/https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/destinations/wrecked/, killed by a truck during the 2005 RAAM
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/15/fauja-singh-worlds-oldest-marathon-runner-dies-road-accident-aged-114Open linkView original on lemmy.world
9 replies
He was trying to cross the street in India.
For reference, although she didn't do it perfectly, this is basically how you cross the street in India. You just walk out into moving traffic and hope they don't kill you.
Similar in Panamá. My husband and I visited recently and was told by out tour guide that was the way. Not nearly as bad as India - folks were pretty good about stopping at a good distance away - but it was still pretty terrifying, especially in Panamá City.
That chick literally waited till traffic started moving for the video.
My years of Frogger in my youth are finally useful!
"Hall died after being struck by a car during the Indian Pacific Wheel Race from Fremantle to Sydney, on 31 March 2017. At the time he was placed second in the race and had covered 5,024 km."
I'm going to quibble with OP calling for this to be called a "crash." If two vehicles collide, or a vehicle collides with a pole or building, that's a crash.
But this would have been more of a "squelch."
an olympic cyclist was killed in Colorado two years ago by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel
@[email protected] So far this user's entire activity on Lemmy has been (seemingly targeted) racism against Indian people (here and previous comment), whining about immigrants to Europe (first comment; in this community), and calling themselves "apolitical" despite doing nothing but politics here. Can they be given the boot?
numblyscrabbyeach was eaten by a grue