I appreciate that Travellers are legally recognised as an ethnic group, although personally I don't think they should be and hopefully one day we might get some more case law that overturns that finding. But we are where we are.
Where I disagree with you is the suggestion that people's attitudes towards Travellers simply amount to blaming an entire ethnic group for the actions of a few individuals. There are legitimate criticisms of aspects of Traveller culture and of patterns of behaviour that settled communities repeatedly encounter.
Traveller communities themselves openly describe extremely traditional gender roles, girls leaving education young, early marriage and expectations of women that I would regard as deeply sexist and misogynistic. There are also longstanding and well-documented conflicts around antisocial behaviour, illegal dumping, unauthorised sites and attitudes towards people outside the community.
Your comment about the “grieving mum who didn’t have the opportunity to get an education” whose fault is that? Once again, the culture, which allows that to happen, in defiance of the laws of the land in which they live I might add which mandates compulsory education to age 16.
Poor behaviour and attitudes don’t become acceptable because of “culture”. Not travellers but some cultures practice FGM, We aren’t racist to point out that some aspects of particular cultures and ethnic groups are abhorrent and deeply problematic,
None of that means that every individual Traveller behaves badly, and of course individuals should be judged on their own actions. But neither do I think it's honest to pretend that widespread hostility towards Travellers appeared spontaneously because settled people collectively decided to pick on a vulnerable minority.
I can't think of another ethnic group about which I hear about and experience such consistently negative experiences from people across completely different backgrounds and parts of the country. That doesn't make every allegation true, nor every Traveller responsible for what another Traveller does. But it does mean I'm not prepared to dismiss every criticism of the community as racism.
And yes, the individuals involved in this terrible crash are responsible for their own behaviour. I don't blame every Traveller for what they did same as I wouldn’t blame every teenage boy. I just don't accept that criticism of wider cultural practices and recurring behaviours is automatically equivalent to blaming an entire race.