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news
Jeremy Clarkson on BBC The One ShowJeremy Clarkson complains at road closure after fatal crash - and gets educated by the police
A tweet from Jeremy Clarkson complaining about the closure of a road in west London after a shocking crash early on Friday morning in which a man lost his life, with the collision apparently caused by drivers racing, has been met with replies from a number of police officers in both the capital and elsewhere explaining their work to him.
The Metropolitan Police say that the crash happened at around 0140 hours on Friday morning as a “convoy of vehicles” were being driven at speed along the A4 westbound near Hammersmith flyover, adding that the drivers were “suspected of racing.”
A man aged in his 70s, described by police as “an innocent member of the public,” died at the scene while his wife, also aged in her 70s, is in a stable condition in hospital.
Three people – two men and a woman – were arrested at the scene on suspicion of dangerous driving.
Police say that another man, who had fled the scene, later turned himself in and has been arrested on suspicion of the same offence.
Before full details of the incident emerged, Clarkson tweeted:
Dear The Police, I know it was a nasty crash in Hammersmith last night but how can it take this long to re-open the road?
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) June 7, 2019
His tweet, which is still on the social network, received widespread condemnation, including from a number of road traffic police officers whose work includes dealing with the fallout of incidents such as this – one of them the Metropolitan Police’s lead for Vision Zero, Chief Superintendent Andy Cox.
Dear @JeremyClarkson the nasty crash you mention resulted in fatality. As lead Detective I require investigators to secure best evidence from a highly complex scene. It takes as long as necessary. We want roads moving but I hope you understand prioritise quality investigations! https://t.co/QlPrQUsfAG
— Andy Cox (@SuptAndyCox) June 8, 2019
Hi Jeremy, we're sorry this may have caused delay to your journey. Due to the serious nature of the collision, our collision investigation team have to carry out a full forensic investigation which can take time. This is so we are able to provide accurate evidence at court.
— Kensington & Chelsea Police (@MPSKenChel) June 7, 2019
Worth a read next time you're inconvenienced by a police road closure. https://t.co/xyOiEShXQg
— CI Andrea Quinton (@ACQ91) June 9, 2019
This subject comes up a lot @JeremyClarkson so actually I think it's a reasonable question. As an SIO of fatals for 15 years having attended over 150, I wrote a blog to explain it. Hope it helps: https://t.co/LsFdZkCTBP
— Sgt Harry Tangye (@DC_ARVSgt) June 8, 2019
We would like to extend an invitation for you to come out on patrol with us for a shift - so you can see, first hand, what we have to deal with
— WMP Traffic (@Trafficwmp) June 8, 2019
The fatal incident early on Friday morning is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s Serious Collisions Investigation Unit (SCIU).
Detective Constable Liam Kerrigan of the SCIU said: “Our initial inquiries have established that up to nine cars were travelling at high speed at the time of the collision. They appear to have been in convoy and may well have been racing.
“The man who tragically died was an innocent member of the public, driving home with his wife and following the rules of the road.
Police have appealed for witnesses to the collision, or who viewed what happened beforehand, to come forward, including people who may have dashcam footage.
DC Kerrigan added: “I would appeal to those who were driving as part of the convoy to search their conscience and get in touch with police about what has happened.”
Officers can be reached by telephoning 101 or via Twitter @MetCC quoting CAD569/7 Jun. The SCIU can also be contacted directly on 020 8543 5157, and the charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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The small frame, the aggressive posture, lots of standover height.
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As i've said before, the police should be sued for a lot of money when someone they have knowingly ignored has gone on to commit a serious crime....
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You're defending bombing hospitals and refugee camps and starving children.
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At risk of being cynical, and stereotyping the police, it's so they don't have to leave the comfort of their panda cars and pursue on foot when...
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16 comments
Words almost fail me.
Jeremy Clarkson is simply not - if you've ever had to plough through a Top Gear episode - a 'Car Guy'.
Clarkson's currency is Buffoonery. A pathetic "Celebrity": Headlines pay his rent. He's a tosser. A fool. A .... words are starting to fail me again.
His tweetology merely confirms his status in the lower food chain demographic. A plonker. A dick. A........
More seriously: thoughts with the victim of this episode, and thanks to those that are burdened with the responsibilties of attendance and functional duty of care.
I think he has every right to be frustrated, but he is directing his ire at the wrong people.
The overwhelming majority of road traffic collisions as in this tragic case, involve driver error / behaviour as a primary cause. The Police and other first responder services are more than likely equally frustrated at having to clear up the sometimes horrific aftermath and I'm sure that no family liason officer actually enjoys the part where he knocks on someone's door to deliver the news that a member of their family has died.
If Clarkson wants to vent his anger at getting held up then I suggest he takes issue with the drivers responsible for the crash.
At the same time it does put into perspective the delays of hours caused by road closures compared to the seconds it takes to wait and overtake a cyclist considerately.
Why does he?
He has no 'right' to be frustrated, that's his problem as it is with others who are 'frustrated' because another loon has done what far too many motoring loons do every single day of the week, multiple times over in fact. He doesn't even have a right to be on the road in a motorvehicle full stop, he has ZERO right to be frustrated when pretty much all adults including those that drive understand that when there's a big smash that re-opening roads can take a very long time, especially when there are injured parties or worse.
Maybe these frustrated people should go work with officers for a week, including having to tell families their loved one has been killed because some selifsh clarkson type cunt was 'frustrated' that another human being got in their way, oh and that we're srry we can't prosecute because Clarkson cunts are frustrated at the roads being closed for too long so we no longer bother gathering evidence.
this one is to me even worse than most of the other comments he's made, he pretends to not understand so as to get his kicks, but actually he's disrespecting the innocent victims and their families, I hope he dies a horrible death whilst driving and the police just sweep away his motor with his body still inside it just so they can prove a point!
Scumbag!
He's not the only one who does that on Twitter, though. One of the biggest problems with Twitter in particular is blue-checkmarked twits, in any field, posting drivel and then refusing to reply to, retweet or otherwise acknowledge responses unless they either agree or are trivially refutable. At least when you deal with such people in person, you can get a reaction, even if that reaction is uncomfortable silence.
I'll happily echo the previous two comments regarding Sgt Tangye's blog. Very interesting reading in general about the police, not just about traffic incidents.
Cycling-related content or not, I'm gald I read this article because I would not otherwise have read Sgt. Harry Tangye's eloquent and haunting blog post. Reading it should be made part of the process of learning to drive: https://dcarvsgt.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/a-diversion-from-my-day-to-day...
Seconded.
I know they're total tabloid telly, but that's one thing I've taken away from all those Police Interceptors on Camera at Night 999 type programmes - when the police are attending an incident, they are very rarely actually doing nothing.
(Deciding whether to prosecute or not is, I suspect, a different matter...).
"I think it's a reasonable question"— Sgt Harry Tangye
As tragic as this is for the victims family, and as helpful as it is for all of us who get stuck in tail backs to read this, I have to ask, why is it on a cycling website?
Is it because it is a poke in the eye for Jeremy Clarkson? One could argue that he has done a service here, by asking the question allowing the police to reply and his followers to be reminded of what is involved with investigating a serious road incident.
What is the link with cycling? Is this just perpetuating the them and us narative (Clarkson representing the them 'motorist' in this instance) which is probably responsible for a lot of the conflict we all put up with when using the roads?
Agree. There's zero cycling related content here. Pointless giving this oxygen thief the publicity he needs to perpetuate his brand
Clarkson is the unequivocal voice of the entitled ‘motorist’. Given the opinions expressed and positions taken re: Holland Park’s cycle lane/Regents Pk rat run restrictions, and the likely controversy that will accompany the upcoming Royal Parks debate, it’s good to be reminded of what his priorities are (and to see him get slapped down).
That's not how Twitter works. The carefully-written, considered responses came a day after his original missive was fired off with little thought. They were then retweeted by others, but probably by people whose followers don't overlaps much with Clarkson's. If he had retweeted the sergeant's response, even to say, "I still don't agree but I realize now it is not so simple" then, yes, he'd have done a (small) service. His followers might have learnt something. But that's not his brand. His brand is the pub bore, but one with the resources of major media outlets to fake evidence and spread false consensus. Not all motorists are the enemy, but Clarkson has repeatedly demonstrated that he definitely is.
He's more of a bully than a bore.
His behaviour is definitely a key component in anti-cyclist sentiment and aggression on the roads.
No surprise he didn't retweet the police responses or any others. He seems a very selfish, pompous and self-important individual. Has he ever said or done anything publicly that has been for the benefit of others instead of himself? I won't be sad when he finally shuts up.
His reply sums him up - "I’m sure it was terrible. But once the injured are sorted, the number one priority is opening the road. Blame is irrelevant". Early signs suggest that an innocent man was killed by a person or persons illegally racing their motor vehicles on a public road, and Clarkson doesn't believe that prosecuting them is a priority.
I wonder if that was his response after the Westminster Bridge attack as I assume that was closed for several hours at least.
You mean that "POWER" was not the answer to your woes.
Perhaps if you didn't constantly advocate speed...