
Broadstairs mum meeting MPs over graduated driver campaign
Ms Entwistle said: "We hope that all the MPs we speak to will back us."She said that the campaign petition, which had just over 103,000 signatures when first brought to Parliament in April, now has nearly 108,000 supporters. "Our main hope is they [MPs] actually formalise and put graduated driving licences in place," Ms Entwistle said, adding: "I won't stop pushing until something changes."According to national road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, a fifth of all collisions in 2023 involved a young driver."Statistics also show that young male drivers are proportionately most likely to have an accident in between the age of 16 and 24," said spokesperson Harriet Hernando.A campaign by Ms Entwistle and other local residents saw Kent County Council introduce extra speed restriction measures around the site where Ethan crashed on Dumpton Park Drive.Further efforts have been made to get a community speedwatch group up and running. This went live in March, meaning there is now a police-issued speed monitoring device near the site.The driver of the car Ethan was a passenger in admitted to causing death by dangerous driving on Tuesday. The Department for Transport said it recognised the increased risks faced by young people on the roads but it was "not considering graduated driving licences".
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The Sun
16 minutes ago
- The Sun
M60 traffic: Major UK motorway remains shut 12 hours after motorcyclist killed in horror crash
A MAJOR UK motorway remains shut 12 hours after a motorcyclist was killed in a horror crash. A man in his 50s died at the scene after the crash on the M60 in Greater Manchester yesterday evening. 1 Greater Manchester Police were alerted to a crash involving a motorcycle on the clockwise carriageway at 8.15pm yesterday. The incident happened between Junction 18 and Junction 19 near Middleton. Emergency services found a man in his 50s with serious injuries at the scene. Despite the best efforts of the paramedics at the scene, the man succumbed to his injuries. No other vehicles were involved. Crash investigators are now appealing for any information or dashcam footage from anyone travelling near the scene. The motorway remains closed this morning while the investigation continues. In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said: "At around 8:15pm yesterday we were called to reports of a single-vehicle RTC involving a motorcycle travelling clockwise on the M60 between junctions 18 and 19. "Despite best efforts of the emergency services, a male in his 50s sadly died at the scene of the collision. "No other vehicles were involved and we are now appealing for more information to understand the circumstances that led up to the collision. "We are particularly interested in anybody who may have dash-cam footage of the incident." National Highways said: "The M60 has now re-opened anti-clockwise between J19 (Simister) and J18 near Middleton. "The clockwise carriageway remains closed due to a police led incident."


BBC News
16 minutes ago
- BBC News
'It will only get worse' - Ditcheva on social media abuse
Dakota Ditcheva says she expects social media abuse to only get worse as she continues her fighting 27-year-old is fast becoming one of the most recognisable female faces in MMA and she has more than 300,000 followers on is used to going viral for her knockouts, but as calls grow for social media platforms and governments to do more to protect users, specifically female athletes, Ditcheva says he has stopped reading comments on her posts."[Hate] is a given in this sport, which is so upsetting to have to accept that and be prepared for that as a sports athlete and it's something I've kind of been training myself for," Ditcheva tells BBC Sport."My mum is constantly making sure I'm not reading certain things and preparing me for it getting worse and me avoiding it. I'm lucky I can speak to my parents and siblings."Ditcheva has spoken openly in the past about the sexualisation she faces on social media and recently had a man contact her mother claiming they were in love."I had a certain person who started messaging my mum and saying we'd been speaking, and that I liked their post which meant that we were together and in love, and it got really obsessive," Ditcheva says."It kind of freaked me out and it got really intense, the type of stuff they were typing. I was lucky I had my mum who helped me deal with that and kind of explain what these people are going to be doing."This is not something we're born to understand, and born to put up with these strange occurrences all the time, we're just normal people living normal lives and getting worried about stuff." 'People are only brave when they can hide' Obsessive and dangerous messages are not something new for female athletes. Tennis star Katie Boulter spoke to BBC Sport about abuse and death threats she has received mother Lisa Howarth is a former fighter herself and was a multiple-time kickboxing world champion. Ditcheva's brother is often seen at her side at month, PFL fighter Ditcheva travelled to South Africa where she beat Sumiko Inaba to stay undefeated, despite fracturing her hand in the fights is usually when Ditcheva switches off from social media, but she says a complete detox is not something she can afford to of the Lionesses stepped away from social media during their triumphant Euro 2025 campaign, including Jess Carter who revealed she had been the target of racial abuse."Us fighters struggle with [switching off]. If we don't keep posting, keep our accounts engaged, then promotions don't want us and we don't build our name," Ditcheva says."It would make a lot of difference for fighters if they didn't have to stay active in that crucial [fight] week."As athletes continue to speak out about the abuse and the government committed to exploring further safety measures, Ditcheva echoed calls from Boulter and others to introduce identity verification."Verification and having to upload your passport or things like that would make it safer, it would change everything," Ditcheva says."People are only brave when they can hide behind weird accounts, and when they have to put their name to something it would automatically shut them up straight away."


Auto Car
an hour ago
- Auto Car
When racing got real: The nail-biting early days of British touring cars
Gregory was also a director at Brands Hatch, so the Kent circuit staged a trial run on Boxing Day 1957 – and, this being a success, the host to the first points-scoring BSCC round in early April 1958. Enjoy full access to the complete Autocar archive at the In cold and dry weather, the first saloon race proved 'quite the most interesting of the afternoon', we reported. 'It was won almost as a foregone conclusion by Jack Sears, adding yet another victory to his string of successes with the Austin A105. But in the sub-1200cc class, tremendous battles were going on. For 11 laps, the A35s of George 'Doc' Shepherd and John Sprinzel circled as a pair, inches apart, until finally Sprinzel managed to overtake. 'There was a second race for cars up to 1600cc and over 3500cc. The [Mk1] Jaguar 3.4s, driven by Tommy Sopwith [son of the famous plane designer] and Gawaine Baillie, again took first and second with impressive ease.' Sprinzel and Sopwith won out again at Brands later that month, while Tommy Bridger made himself unpopular, you might assume, by topping the 1200-1600cc class in a German Borgward Isabella, 'making the most of its fine cornering'. Sprinzel made it a hat-trick as the BSCC headed to Mallory Park in Leicestershire in May, while Baillie benefited from Sopwith's car shedding a tyre – and Harold Grace 'had a spectacular escape when he inverted his Riley 1.5 in a ditch'.