A dangerous driving trend spreading across social media is turning ordinary roads into a points-based game, and European officials say it has already contributed to multiple fatal crashes. According to CNN’s own reporting, the trend involves mostly young drivers deliberately traveling the wrong way down major roads and motorways, filming the stunt, and posting the footage online for engagement.
The videos have circulated widely on TikTok, and officials in multiple countries say the behavior is effectively being gamified, with drivers competing for views by taking greater risks against oncoming traffic on high-speed roads.
Ireland has seen a sharp rise in the underlying behavior. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said the country recorded 62 incidents of wrong-way motorway driving in 2026 through August, a 32% increase over the same period the previous year, according to CNN’s reporting. “What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact,” Kelly said, per the outlet’s coverage.
The human cost behind those statistics has already been severe. CNN reports that five teenagers died in Ireland in early August in a two-vehicle collision connected to wrong-way driving. In the UK, a separate crash in Middlesbrough killed two police officers, Matthew Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38, along with five other occupants between the ages of 17 and 23, according to the outlet’s reporting.
British officials have also voiced alarm. CNN’s coverage notes that UK Defence Minister Luke Pollard and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham both raised concerns about the trend’s role in encouraging reckless driving among young people chasing online attention.
The pattern reflects a broader problem regulators and safety officials have been tracking for years: platforms that reward risky, filmable behavior with engagement can end up incentivizing the exact conduct that gets people killed. Unlike a viral car-buying tip or a stunt performed on a closed course, wrong-way driving unfolds on live public roads shared with drivers who have no idea a “game” is happening around them.
Safety researchers who study viral driving trends note that platforms reward the exact behaviors that traditional road-safety campaigns spend decades trying to discourage, since a close call or a near-miss generates far more engagement than a boring, uneventful commute ever could. That mismatch between what earns views and what actually keeps people safe is increasingly cited by European regulators as a reason to push for stronger content moderation specifically targeting driving-stunt videos, rather than relying solely on traffic enforcement after the fact to catch drivers who have already decided the potential views are worth the risk.