BBC “sorry” cyclist “did not appreciate” headline branding crash which saw drink driver kill ice hockey star and brother while cycling a “car accident”

The BBC has apologised for its use of the word ‘accident’ in a headline and story concerning the deaths last week of US ice hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, killed while cycling by a suspected drink driver who allegedly told police at the scene that he had consumed “five to six beers” before the fatal crash.

Responding to a complaint from a reader, who described the vocabulary used in the article as “biased and incorrect”, the broadcaster said that it was “sorry if you did not appreciate how we chose to cover this issue initially”, noting that the headline had since been changed to clarify that the Gaudreau brothers had been killed in a “bike and car crash”, while removing all references to an ‘accident’.

The apology comes two years after the BBC defended its use of ‘accident’ when describing road traffic collisions, with the broadcaster telling one Radio 4 listener that “we try to use language that ordinary people use, not the language contained in reports and documents”.

The article at the centre of this latest complaint was published last Friday, when it emerged that professional ice hockey player Johnny Gaudreau, a 31-year-old father-of-two, winger for the Columbus Blue Jackets ,and one of the National Hockey League’s most popular and successful players, was killed the previous night while riding his bike with younger brother Matthew in Salem County, New Jersey.

> Ice hockey star and brother killed while cycling by suspected drink driver who allegedly had “five to six beers” before fatally striking cyclists from behind as he tried to undertake another motorist

Local police said that 43-year-old motorist Sean Higgins was attempting to undertake another driver, who had moved into the middle of the road to pass the brothers, when he struck the cyclists from behind. They died at the scene from their injuries.

According to the police affidavit, the officer who arrived on the scene detected a “strong odour of alcohol”, while Higgins failed a field sobriety test and allegedly told him that he had consumed “five to six beers” before the collision.

The 43-year-old also allegedly told investigators that he thought the driver of the SUV was trying to stop him from passing, and that his alcohol consumption had contributed to his impatience and reckless driving.

But according to the opening paragraph of the BBC’s original news article on the fatal collision, Gaudreau and his brother were “killed in a car accident in New Jersey on Thursday night”, while the headline read: “NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and brother killed in car accident”.

The BBC’s original headline

The use of the term ‘accident’ prompted a number of complaints from readers, including one who forwarded their criticism – and the BBC’s response – to road.cc.

“The vocabulary is biased and incorrect. The reported incident was not an accident,” the reader told the BBC in the complaint seen by road.cc. “Under US law, if a fatality occurs during the execution of a criminal act, the culpability is on the felon.

“Please inform the public which activity out of drinking half a dozen beers, getting into the driver’s seat of a motor vehicle, or turning on the ignition was accidental, because the subsequent vehicular homicide would have easily been avoided given an omission of any of them.

“Please inform your editorial staff of the statistics around KSI (Killed or Seriously Injured) in collisions between vehicles and cyclists, vehicles and pedestrians, and then cyclists and pedestrians, before writing any more pieces around the death of individuals when a bicycle is involved, or when reporting on roads-related issues, as the bias towards motonormativity is astounding.”

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This negative feedback from cyclists prompted BBC News to this week alter the article’s headline to refer to a “bike and car crash” instead, while the opening paragraph’s use of ‘accident’ has been replaced by ‘crash’.

The current, modified headline

Responding to the above complaint, Linda Lewis, a senior journalist on the BBC’s news website and a broadcaster and former presenter of Radio 4’s PM programme, said: “I have looked carefully at the article and the information you sent us. I have also discussed it with the writers.

“We appreciate your concerns. Following feedback from readers, we did change the headline after publication to refer to a bike and car crash rather than an accident. We have now also changed the first sentence of the article as well to remove the word ‘accident’ and I am sorry that that was initially overlooked.

“In our article, we quoted New Jersey police as saying the brothers were ‘riding their bicycles on a rural road in Oldsman Township when a car struck them’.

“We also included a further comment from the police: ‘Mr Higgins is suspected of driving while under the influence of alcohol and currently is in the Salem County Correctional Facility, New Jersey Police said’. So the circumstances of what the police believe happened were made clear.”

She continued: “We are sorry if you did not appreciate how we chose to cover this issue initially, but I hope that the amendments we made will provide some reassurance that we handled the story correctly, in line with our Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, impartiality, fairness, and decency which underpin all BBC reporting.”

> “We try to use language that ordinary people use”: BBC defends use of “accident” to describe road traffic collisions

As noted above, this latest apology comes two years after Radio 4 listener Toby Edwards complained to the BBC after an 11am news bulletin on 28 September 2022 announced that “figures show that 39 people died after road accidents involving the police between 2021 and 2022”.

Edwards asked the BBC’s complaints team at the time if the broadcaster was “sure that all of these collisions were indeed accidents”, or whether “the term ‘accident’ was used mistakenly instead of saying ‘crashes’ or ‘collisions’?”

As Edwards noted in his letter to the BBC, the Media Guidelines for Reporting Road Collisions – coordinated by journalist and road.cc contributor Laura Laker alongside the Active Travel Academy at the University of Westminster, and launched in May 2021 – advises reporters to:

Avoid use of the word ‘accident’ until the facts of a collision are known. Most collisions are predictable and before an enquiry or court case the full facts are unlikely to be known. It is particularly important to avoid the word when someone has been charged with driving offences. Using ‘crash’ or ‘collision’ instead leaves the question of who or what is to blame open, pending further details.

At the time of the guidelines’ launch, Professor Rachel Aldred, the director of the Active Travel Academy, noted that “language matters, as it helps shape how we see and treat others”.

However, in a reply to Edward’s letter, the BBC’s complaints team said: “We note your concerns about our use of the world ‘accident’ in the news report. We were referencing data released by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IPOC) that said: ’39 people died after road incidents involving the police between 2021 and 2022’.

“We’ve discussed your concerns with senior staff in BBC News and, although we take your point that ‘collision’ may have been a preferable word, our job is to write radio scripts that are relatable and understandable, and we try to use language that ordinary people use, not the language contained in reports and documents.

“‘Traffic accident’ is common parlance and we don’t feel here its use materially altered the accuracy of the story. The Road Collision Reporting Guidelines are guidelines, not rules.”

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Criticising the BBC’s response at the time, DCS Andy Cox, now at London’s Met Police, said: “‘Accident’ implies it was unavoidable, just one of those things, bad luck. Instead, many fatal ‘crashes’ occur because a driver made a choice to be dangerous or reckless, and to selfishly break the law.

“Words matter, and can help change an embedded mindset and save lives.”