A regional daily has apologised to a widow after wrongly reporting her husband had died in a car crash after a police chase.

The Hull Daily Mail has said sorry to Samantha Rogerson after it made the claim in a live blog about the crash that claimed her husband’s life.

The Mail reported it was “understood” the crash had followed a police chase, although it was updated an hour later with this reference removed.

But the claim prompted Mrs Rogerson to complain to the Independent Press Standards Organisation under Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 4 (Intrusion into grief and shock) of the Editors’ Code of Practice.

The scene of the crash covered by the Mail

She said the story had inaccurately and deliberately sensationalised the crash, leading to upsetting comments on social media.

The police informed her and her son that the Mail had reported that there had been a police chase, which Mrs Rogerson caused her son to doubt the police’s version of events.

The also said that she felt she had to watch a recording of the crash, in order to make herself feel sure that there had not been a police chase.

The Mail said it regretted any distress or upset caused by the blog, but did not accept that the Editors’ Code had been breached.

It said it had been contacted by a source which stated that police cars had been pursuing a car prior to a serious crash, and shared contemporaneous screenshots of social media messages which were speculating as to whether there had been a police crash.

A journalist had attended the scene, and reported that the composition of the scene supported the narrative they had read about online.

Within an hour of publishing the story, the Mail was contacted by the police clarifying that there had been no police pursuit and the blog was amended to remove the reference to a police chase, while a clarification was published along with an apology for any distress caused.

During IPSO’s investigation, the Mail agreed to write a private letter of apology to Mrs Rogerson and her son, which she said would resolve the matter to her satisfaction.

IPSO therefore discontinued its investigation and the full resolution statement can be found here.