Details of fatal motorcycle accident released too soon

Dear Editor:

I have just returned from Jim Thorpe, a place I had not visited for 10 years. It pretty much seems the same as it was back then nestled in the peaceful mountain side as described to me by my best friend while we sat in the Sinai desert back in 1984.

My friend was and still is Joseph Giglotti. I flew into town for his funeral to support his family and meet the people who were his friends that influenced his life. I saw on Wednesday night for over three hours in the unbearable heat, I witnessed your town saying goodbye to a dear friend. I would like to say that I was his best friend but it seemed that everyone that Joe knew was his best friend and I was honored to meet them.

As Friday morning came after the burial I was curious to know anything about his last day on earth. Being from out of town I do not know the reporting guidelines you have but I felt the article provided to me was garish, premature and disrespectful to the family and I wasn't alone. Let me say first that there are differences between news, reports and investigative writings. You managed to combine all these into one.

The article dated July the 18th stated that the motorcycle "sideswiped" the first car and later in the article it says "made contact with or sideswiped", what? So where did the information come from? The article even says the "investigative report states", yet at the end of the article it says "this investigation remains open at this time."

Details on any open investigation should not be released to the general public until completion of a thorough investigation. You, and the investigating authorities should be familiar with that. What bothers me most was the attempt of using exacting detail of which describes the alleged cause of death only paints a visual picture in the mind that no friends and especially family should imagine and I will not even repeat it because it was not necessary for professional and responsible reporting.

Please re-evaluate the way in which you write about loss of life and consider the repercussions of what is written and the effects not just legally but emotionally. I would hope that you would reach out to the family and apologize; the pen is mightier than the sword and you hold the ability in that wonderful community to share many things through your paper responsively.

Ricky Goins

New Bloomfield