Surrey Police has released the full footage of an incident involving a group ride of cyclists, who were stopped and issued fixed penalty notices at the weekend for ignoring a red light, amid questions over the video originally shared on social media that did not show the offence being committed.

Addressing the hundreds of replies on the original post, the Surrey RoadSafe account posted a second video showing the moments leading up to and, crucially, the actual offence being committed, the group of four cyclists filtering to the front of a queue of stationary traffic on Copsem Lane in Esher before crossing the stop line and making a right turn while the traffic lights were red.

“Following on from yesterday’s post, there were a lot of questions raised as to whether the cyclist had travelled over the stop line when the lights were red. As you can see from the downloaded cleartone, the lights were red when they crossed the stop line and then continued,” the account said alongside the video below.

When contacted by road.cc, a Surrey Police spokesperson added: “Officers from the Vanguard Road Safety Team were in an unmarked police car on Copsem Lane travelling towards Esher Town on 13 January 2024. At this junction, the left lane is to go straight, right lane is designated right turn. There was queuing traffic in right lane, and the left lane clear. Both lanes were governed by a red traffic light which was clearly visible at the time.

“At 08.40 am, four cyclists continued in lane one with unmarked directly behind where the officers observed the cyclists contravene the red traffic light in lane on, failing to stop at the solid white stop line. They continued through, moving across in front of the waiting traffic in lane two. Traffic lights were still red when they crossed. The cyclists then turned right where the unmarked followed and stopped them.

“The cyclists were warned of their vulnerability and that they put themselves in danger of a collision and injury. All were issued with a £50 fixed penalty ticket for ‘contravention of a red traffic light’ and given suitable safety advice for the future.”

The original footage of the incident shared on social media by Surrey RoadSafe only showed the moment the riders made the turn, having already crossed the stop line before the video started. This raised concerns from some, many of whom accepted that an offence had almost certainly occurred, but who questioned why a video [seen below] used for education purposes had been edited so to avoid actually showing the offence.

Rory McCarron, cycling lawyer at Leigh Day explained: “They probably did but the worrying issue here is that they didn’t actually show the offence of crossing the stop line when red.

“Police normally request evidence of close passes etc. with back video leading up to the offence. If a motorist (or pedestrian/cyclist) presented this video in this form, with the start cut off, the police would reject it straight away.”

In response to the full footage he later added:

Another cyclist replying to the post showing the extended footage said: “Thanks for clearing this up. Why initially only post the cropped video only showing the moment after the offence?”

A third rider added: “Thank you for posting the whole thing. The additional footage makes it clear that there was indeed an offence committed. Everyone needs to obey the rules, and the bigger the vehicle the more vital this is.”