A66 crash shows pontificating about social media is not enough - Jayne Dowle

Carrying five young men under the age of 24, it collided with the police vehicle at around 3.40am. No-one survived the impact.

There is no evidence - so far - that the occupants of the Passat were filming their law-breaking and reckless behaviour for likes and shares. However, it has been reported that TikTok accounts linked to some of them showed car chases set to rap music.

This by no means reduces the impact of these devastating deaths, but it is almost irrelevant if this particular tragic incident was being filmed for social media or not. The fact remains that such videos already exist and pop up on feeds, distributed by algorithm.

Only the weekend before, on the M9 near Dublin, Ireland, another five young men died - again, outrageous TikTok videos of reckless driving had been linked to some of the occupants of the car.

The BMW they were travelling in, on the wrong side of the motorway, crashed into another vehicle, seriously injuring three sisters in their twenties and thirties and a seven-year-old boy, who were on their way to Dublin airport for a family wedding in the UK.

More lives lost and ruined. One of the Dublin dead, Joe Carthy, was only 15, three, Kamil Pustkowski, Jack Kennedy and Alex McCarthy, were 17. British social media laws hold no sway in Ireland, but the idea that any of these would have taken notice of any ban on under-16s accessing social media is beyond questionable.

Both incidents - and pray there are no more - should be a massive wake-up call to politicians. Too often, their world presumes that people will be reasonable, sensible and simply abide by the laws of the land because they have been laid down.

What the wrecked vehicles and lives must surely prove is that in reality, this just does not happen. There are countless young people who consider themselves to be far beyond the reach of the law - this is a truth that the government has to face, and fast, or more lives will be lost.

Innocent families and police officers doing their job are suffering and dying. Emergency services workers, arriving to sift through the wreckage, are left traumatised by what they have witnessed. What more of a wake-up call can there be?

TikTok has hosted hundreds of videos of reckless behaviour by car drivers and motorcyclists, it is reported. Following the Dublin incident, the platform said it was monitoring related content and removing videos and accounts that break its rules. Of particular concern, it says, is content that depicts activities likely to be imitated and that could cause significant physical harm, including risky driving.

This has to be made mandatory and ongoing. According to the online safety regulator Ofcom, under the Online Safety Act, social media platforms are required to minimise children’s exposure to content which encourages dangerous stunts and challenges,

Ofcom has a vital role to play; it must show its teeth and not allow TikTok, or any other social media company, off the hook; constant monitoring of such dangerous content is required.

Also, parents and other responsible adults have to step up too.

Whether parent, teacher, social worker or accidental role model to a teenager, responsible adults should be prevailed upon to call out such dangerous behaviour and set a positive example themselves. And this starts with our Prime Minister.

People who share footage glorifying dangerous driving are “doing something that's truly reprehensible”, Burnham told reporters. This is true, but he should also consider his own approach to TikTok.

Whilst he’s been praised for making policy more accessible in quick soundbites, his embrace of the social media platform gives it huge credibility.

He must put down his phone and lead from the front.