This study examines how nine Indonesian online outlets transformed the 20 August 2025 Taman Flora–Bratang traffic accident in Surabaya into stabilised news narratives. Using Theo van Leeuwen’s socio-semiotic framework and a mixed-methods Critical Discourse Analysis, we ask: (1) how actors, actions, time–space, purposes, and legitimations are added or removed; (2) how victims, the car/driver, police, and “road/space” are portrayed (naming, genericisation, activation/passivation, inclusion/exclusion); and (3) which authorisation, moral evaluation, rationalisation, and mythopoesis assign responsibility under breaking-news uncertainty. A parallel, convergent analysis treated sentences (including headlines) as units across nine same-day reports. Quantitatively, we tracked inclusion/exclusion, activation/passivation, gender marking, and legitimation types per sentence; qualitatively, we traced outlet-level patterns via a CDA Matrix, joint displays (actor × legitimation), and a recontextualisation flow. Double-coding (Cohen’s κ template) audited heuristic labels, with discrepancies resolved interpretively. Three recurring narrative packages emerged: (i) a police-led “two-motor” template that simplifies causality and backgrounds the car/driver; (ii) a BPBD-led procedural timeline that individualises the driver yet defers legal judgment; and (iii) a defensive naming-then-denial pattern specifying the car (even plate/model) while disassociating it via surface forensic cues. Early texts privilege authorisation (police/BPBD voice) and rationalisation (procedural/technical accounts); moral cues and mythopoetic framings surface subtly in headlines. Social-actor design personalises/feminises the deceased and functionalises authorities, pre-structuring responsibility maps.