Videos of joyriding criminals have emerged on TikTok as numerous wrong-way horror car crashes have hit the British Isle in a shocking new trend
Criminal gangs are taking part in a brain-dead trend of driving cars down the wrong-side of the road to showoff in front of their social media followers. A terrifying trend has emerged on TikTok of reckless drivers filming themselves causing chaos on British roads.
These gangs of masked joyriding criminals have even bragged about rigging up mobility scooters. The crooks have boasted of swapping out the vehicle’s engine, allowing them to reach as fast as 70mph, in a bid to mock police.
Numerous clips of these daredevil drivers have hit social media. The trend has become a toxic culture which prioritises TikTok likes over other people’s safety on the road.
One video on social media shows a man driving his vehicle at a ridiculous speed of 178mph with one hand on the wheel. And the other filming the social media clip.
Speaking to the Sun, one member of one of these gangs, stated: “I’ve got about 700 followers. You can just rag a car and annoy the cops and you get loads of people watching on TikTok. It gets the adrenalin going.”
Another teen stated these gangs sell cars for as little as £300 as Nissans and Audis are the vehicle of choice for these criminals. The source stated: “There’s nowt better to do and this is a way to make money, innit?
“If you get a good car you can sell it for £300 or £400 and motorbikes for about £200. That’s good money for us. Nissan Qashqai is a good’un to sell easily.”
Speaking to the Sun a senior officer stated: “No traffic officer is going to chase some teenager without a helmet because they’d be to blame if there was a fatality.”
These criminal gangs use hashtags such as #smoked and #chased on social media showing off late night pursuits with them and police. Clips under these hashtags also shows joyriders zooming past police during the day at ridiculous speeds.
The trend comes after the horrific A66 crash in England which claimed the lives of two police officers. The crash occurred after a Volkswagen Passat was driven down the wrong-way of a dual carriageway after a police chase.
Occupants in the Volkswagen Passat, Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak – were also pronounced dead at the scene in Teesside early on Saturday (August 22).
Makai Saddington’s social media has come under fire, as clips have emerged of him taking part in high-speed police chases months before the fatal crash.
Back in May the teen posted a video showing himself driving erratically captioned: “Unfortunately I’m not a nonchalant boyfriend.”
The clip shows the driver of the car joyriding and speeding through a residential estate. One of the driver’s hands are on the wheel of the vehicle and the other is filming the social media video.
The reckless social media trend is not just isolated to the UK. Earlier this month five teenagers in Ireland were killed in a horrific wrong-way head on collision in a BMW on the M9.
The teens killed in the crash have been named Jeremy O’Brien, 18, and Alex McCarthy, 17 from Carlow; Jack Kennedy, 17, and Joey Carthy, 15 from Athy in Kildare, and Kamil Pustkowski, 17, from Limerick.
The BMW on the M9 collided with a Hyundai carrying three sisters and one of their seven-year-old children.
Sisters Ella, Niamh, and Alma Kinsella, all in their 20s and 30s, were hospitalised in the crash alongside Alma’s seven-year-old son. Friends of the sisters have disclosed that they face a “long recovery ahead”.
Despite their serious injuries, friends remain hopeful that they will fully recover.
Downing Street has sounded the alarm on the “glorification of dangerous driving” stating they will take “tough action” on social media platforms if they fail to act.
Defence minister Luke Pollard has called on social media giants to step up. He stated: “They’ve argued for many years they don’t need to be regulated, that they can police themselves. So this is the challenge for them.
“Remove that content.
“They know exactly what content is on their site. They know how their algorithm works. They also know that people post content to get views. He added social media users had been given a “financial incentive” to post “outrageous content.”
Policy director Nicholas Lyes stated these content creators are attempting to use loopholes to stop this type of content from being taken down.
He said: “Social media companies have a duty to ensure that dangerous criminal activities are not circulated for likes and shares. Many of the accounts label content ‘AI generated’ in an apparent attempt to reduce the risk of removal by moderators.”