BBC prompts fury by asking 'who is to blame' after van swerves into cyclist

Broadcaster has now apologised for the tweet which it said was designed to 'stimulate debate'

BBC Sussex has been fiercely criticised after tweeting a video of a cyclist being rammed off the road by a van and asking “who was to blame”.

The tweet, which has since been deleted, showed a video of a white van approaching and overtaking a cyclist from behind on the A27 road near Cowfold.

As the van passes the cyclist it appears to swerve deliberately into the cyclist, who is pushed onto the grass verge at the edge of the road.

The footage of the incident, which happened on 30 April, was reported to Sussex police after it provoked outrage on social media when it first appeared at the weekend.

The company who employed the driver, Vidette UK Ltd, has since fired him over his conduct.

In a statement published on Facebook, the company’s managing director, Ian Frazer, offered his “sincere apologies” to the cyclist who “was unfortunate to experience a very irresponsible and dangerous move” by their employee.

He said the driver in question was “full of remorse” for his actions and though he thought his apology was sincere, he felt it was important to make an example of him to other employees.

Twitter users condemned the BBC for its tweet, saying:

BBC Sussex later tweeted its apologies to those who were offended and said it had been trying to “stimulate debate” but admitted “the wording was ill-judged”.

The cyclist was unharmed in the incident and a cycling campaigner had been invited onto the BBC Sussex' breakfast radio programme to discuss the dangers facing cyclists on the road.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "This Tweet was ill judged and did not reflect our coverage of the story. It was deleted."