Sport / Newcastle, NSW

Newcastle's joy tempered by heartache on NRL grand final day after car crash

ABC News Keely Johnson

4 Oct 2026 06:10 AEDT Summary

Disasters Accidents and Emergency Incidents

From the report

Newcastle has woken with a heavy heart on NRL grand final day, after a car hit a crowd of Knights fans yesterday morning.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

ABC News Newcastle's joy tempered by heartache on NRL grand final day after car crash plain
7NEWS Multiple people, including children, injured as car crashes into NRL fans in Newcastle plain
WAtoday Multiple injured after being hit by car in Newcastle plain
WAtoday Ten people injured, P-plater charged after car crashes into Newcastle Knights fans plain
ABC News P-plater in custody as witness recounts moment BMW hit Knights supporters plain
The West Australian Newcastle Knights crash: NRL grand final horror as 18-year-old P-plater ploughs car into crowd plain

Headline check

There is nothing in this headline a machine can check against the report: no figure, no name and no quotation.

Nothing was measured here, so nothing is claimed. How this is checked

This is a summary. The indicators are not. Every score on this page was measured over the full 625-word report, which is the only way the numbers mean anything.

How it is written

Niral Score 14.8 · mostly calm mundaneloaded

10 more readings adjectives, repeated words, sentiment, sourcing and 1 more and 5 at zero

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

final7grand7injured7car5hospital5morning5condition4people4police4statement4team4yesterday4crash3critical3crowd3day3driving3girl3including3left3man3read3stable3affected2ahead2bodily2broken2charged2community2concern2crashed2discharged2driver2everyone2families2fans2felt2harm2heart2heavy2hit2multiple2offences2post2recovery2saying2see2show2since2streets2support2supporters2tempered2thousands2vehicle2woken2woman2

Sentiment -0.3 hostilefavourable Sourcing 68 unattributednamed sources Mood 25.5 sorrowjoyful

5 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

How the article is written, not whether it is correct. How each is measured.

Measured on ABC News’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by WAtoday, The Age, The West Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Sourcing	Sentiment	Happiness
ABC Newsas they published this story	14.8	6	68	-0.3	25.5
7NEWS	5.3	1	84	-0.3	33.9
ABC News	5.6	0	67	-0.1	38.2

How did this read?

Comments

Comments are not open yet. They will be once there is someone to read every one before it appears. If something here is wrong, tell us — that we do read.

Report a problem with these scores or this rewrite — it goes straight into the public ledger.

The same event elsewhere

8 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

7NEWS Multiple people, including children, injured as car crashes into NRL fans in Newcastle Niral 5.3 · calm political 0 WAtoday Multiple injured after being hit by car in Newcastle Niral 4.1 · calm political 0 WAtoday Ten people injured, P-plater charged after car crashes into Newcastle Knights fans Niral 4.2 · calm political 0 ABC News P-plater in custody as witness recounts moment BMW hit Knights supporters Niral 5.6 · calm political 0 The Age Ten people injured, P-plater charged after car crashes into Newcastle Knights fans Niral 4.2 · calm political 0 The Age Multiple injured after being hit by car in Newcastle Niral 4.1 · calm political 0 The West Australian Newcastle Knights crash: NRL grand final horror as 18-year-old P-plater ploughs car into crowd Niral 7.8 · calm political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald Ten people injured, P-plater charged after car crashes into Newcastle Knights fans Niral 4.2 · calm political 0