By: Ankita Kulkarni
July 5 2023
No, viral video of vehicle plowing into a crowd is not from protests in France
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The video was taken when a motorist lost control of his car during an urban rodeo in Bordeaux. It predates the France protests.
Claim ID 84092ccd
Context
A video of a speeding car plowing into a crowd is going viral on Twitter and Facebook with the claim that someone ran over protesters in France to “punish” them for rioting in response to the fatal shooting of a teenager by the police on June 27. The video of the car ramming into people standing on a sidewalk before coming to a stop was shared in a Twitter post captioned, “This driver decided to take matter to his own hands and punish the rioters #FranceRiots #FranceHasFallen #franceViolence #RiotsFrance.” This post alone has garnered over 116,800 views. However, the video is from an unrelated incident that predates the recent protests in France.
In Fact
A reverse image of a screenshot from the viral clip led us to a YouTube video uploaded on April 17 by TF1 INFO— a channel run by the French commercial television network TF1. The video title, translated from French, read, “Wild rodéo in Bordeaux: images of the road trip which injured six spectators.” According to the video description, six people were injured during a wild rodeo in Bordeaux and two of them were in serious condition. “A car left the road on a bend, moving down spectators. The driver was arrested shortly after, along with his three passengers,” the description added.
HuffPost also had also reported the incident on April 16, 2023, noting that the motorist was a 32-year-old who initially came as a spectator to Bordeaux’ urban rodeo event (where some people drive vehicles carrying out high-speed stunts), and was neither a professional nor was accustomed to doing such driving. It details that when he took to driving at the event, he lost control of the vehicle while taking the third lap on a slippery road and hit bystanders. The report included a screengrab from the viral video and added that the driver was indicted and imprisoned.
We also came across a report published by a local media outlet 20 Minutes on April 15, 2023, that included the viral video. It mentioned similar details about the accident as HuffPost and TF1 Info.
All evidence shows that the video was taken weeks before the recent protests erupted in France.
The Verdict
Video of an accident, after a motorist lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into people standing on a sidewalk, has been misinterpreted and incorrectly linked to the recent protests in France.