Video showing “speed cameras cause crashes” vanishes from BBC website

A video showing cars losing control and crashing as they approach a speed camera has mysteriously vanished from the BBC’s news website.

The video, provided by Norfolk Safety Camera Partnership, appeared briefly last week in a story headlined “Crackdown on dangerous driving”. The story has since disappeared from the site.

The video was intended to promote speed cameras but critics claimed it actually showed the camera was causing accidents.

The Association of British Drivers said: “We suspect that what happened was something like this… The powers that be asked the BBC to remove the video from its website. The BBC… was only too willing to roll over rather than seek to maintain any concept of journalistic integrity.”

The ABD is demanding the BBC “re-instate” the video.

The BBC had yet to respond to MCN’s questions over the video.

No-one at Norfolk Safety Camera Partnership was available to comment.

The story appeared at the address: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7358372.stm Attempts to load the page now result in the message: “Page not found.”

The ABD said: “The video was first shown on BBC News 24 on Monday 21 April when it was bizarrely used to illustrate a misleading story claiming that ‘speeding’ is by far the biggest cause of accidents.”

For more on this, get MCN on sale May 7.