The tweet that started it all..
@emmaway20 “Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier. I have right of way – he doesn’t even pay road tax!”
Today, magistrates found Emma Way guilty of failing to stop and failing to report an accident but cleared her of driving without due care and attention. Cyclist Toby Hockley sustained minor injuries when Emma Way’s car clipped him on a narrow country lane in Norfolk on 19 May, but today the magistrates couldn’t decide who’s account was more likely beyond reasonable doubt on the count of driving without due care and attention. BBC story.
Way deleted her offending twitter account shortly after the incident last May. She was subsequently dismissed from her job by her employer following the public backlash. But today Twitter released the account once more and it was quickly commandeered by Singletrack forum regular ‘Allthegear’ who initially teased twitter with some funny tweets pretending to be from Way before coming clean on our forum here
Allthegear
Erm – it turns out the deleted account could be re-enabled…
@EmmaWay20 now belongs to me.
What should we say??
Rachel (not Emma)
Despite coming clean at a very early stage with a statement of intent to use the account to promote the interests of cyclists this hasn’t stopped some twitter users from being sucked in, at least initially, including a so called journalist from The Mail Online.
“@samwebbwriter – Hi, my name is Sam Webb, a reporter for the MailOnline. Is this the account of Emma Way? Please call me on 02036151679”.
Unfortunately, even the real Emma Way wouldn’t call that number because in a parting statement on leaving court today she announced that she had signed an exclusive TV deal. Seemingly with @Daybreak – Who says crime doesn’t pay, eh?
!Emma @EmmaWay20 – Okay, this clearly isn’t really Emma any more. Twitter let the account be reused and I want to say things about this strange situation…
!Emma @EmmaWay20 – Serious: the verdict frightens me. I ride my bike and now people will think there is no big penalty for just knocking me off road.
In further posts on our Forum, Allthegear asked for suggestions from fellow forum users as to what she should use the account for, restating her desire to use it to further the rights of cyclists on the roads.
After checking the VED status of Milk Floats with forum users first…
allthegear – Member
Milk floats don’t pay road tax, do they??
Allthegear (Rachel) subsequently tweeted to her growing list of twitter followers…
!Emma @EmmaWay20 – Definitely knocked a milk float into Tesco’s on way back from court. I have right of way – he doesn’t even pay road tax! #Bloodymilkfloats
So, what should Rachel do with her new found twitter notoriety? Add your contributions to the Forum thread.
