A P-plater in custody after a car drives into Knights fans at Wallsend
ABC News (Australia)'s report from Newcastle, on the eve of the NRL grand final, became the channel's most watched story of the weekend, and two follow-ups tracked the charges and the injured.
ABC News (Australia)Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 404,851 views a day, 25 times a normal first day on this channel (16,416).
P-plater in custody after car crashes into Newcastle Knights’ fans | ABC NEWS
The crash happened in Wallsend, a suburb of Newcastle, where Knights fans had gathered on the eve of the NRL grand final. A car drove into the crowd, and ten people were taken to hospital. Among them was a five-year-old girl in critical condition and a 67-year-old man in a serious but stable condition. Police arrested the 18-year-old driver, a P-plater (in New South Wales, a driver still on a provisional license), and said they do not believe the crash was targeted.
ABC News (Australia) covered it in a report of about seven minutes, laid out in chapters. It covers what is known about the driver, the injured, the moments when the crowd turned on the people in the car, the latest from the hospital, the Knights' response, and how the mood in Newcastle changed once the news spread.
The report passed 360,000 views in its first eighteen hours. A new upload on this channel usually ends its first day at around 16,000. A second report, on the driver being charged and identified, drew well over a hundred thousand views in its first six hours. It was a heavy Saturday for New South Wales news: the same day, the channel also reported on a tornado that tore through Ulladulla as storms battered Sydney and the Illawarra.
On Sunday the channel followed up again. The driver was refused bail on nine charges of dangerous and negligent driving, four of the injured had been discharged from hospital, and the girl and the 67-year-old man remained in a serious but stable condition.
Published on Trari
Read next
Is this your channel?
Share the story with your audience: in a community post, in your channel's description or on your socials. The text and the badge are ready.
You may use the picture, the badge, and link it to this story.
- Channel
- ABC News (Australia)
- Subscribers
- 2,630,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 9,727,633
- Channel views, pace per day
- 951,228 (on a normal day: 1,239,338)
- Video published
- October 3, 2026
- Video views so far
- 360,800 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 404,851
The numbers
For a channel whose new reports usually draw a few thousand views on their first morning, this one moved at a very different pace.
