AddThis SmartLayers

News editor scores Bradley Wiggins crash exclusive

A news editor at a regional daily scored an exclusive which has gone global after reporting that Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins was injured in a road collision.

Wigan Evening Post journalist Charles Graham was first with the story about the Olympic gold medallist being knocked off his bike in rush hour traffic while cycling through Wrightington.

He found out about the story around 8pm on Wednesday evening after a tip off to the paper from the news desk secretary, whose friend had told her about the accident near a petrol station, which was attended by eight police cars.

Charles’ story reported that Wiggins had been taken to hospital with broken ribs and wrist injuries and made it onto the front page of Thursday’s paper, pictured below, after page designer Andy Williams changed it from home.

After finding out about the collision, Charles then interviewed garage attendant Yasmin Smith who had rushed to the cyclist’s aid, with her quotes widely being used by other media outlets.

He told HTFP: “I phoned the police who said they were ready for a deluge of press enquiries. They said I wasn’t wrong.

“I dashed down to the office and got on the line with the garage and got an interview with Yasmin which has gone everywhere.

“It was a bit of luck really. It happened at a very busy junction in rush hour so there were plenty of people to witness it.”

The story went on the paper’s website and those of sister title the Lancashire Evening Post, resulting in massive page views for the stories.

3 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • November 8, 2012 at 3:38 pm
    Permalink

    Well done to Andy Williams for changing this story at home. He’s too good to be true.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)