8 in 10 close pass videos result in action against driver, says police force

On a day on which we have published the 500th video in our Near Miss of the Day series, one police force has said that almost 80 per cent of videos submitted to it showing close passes and other examples of poor driving have resulted in action being taken against the motorist involved.

Northumbria Police have today published a compilation of such videos to coincide with the launch today by the charity Brake of National Road Safety Week, and is encouraging people to upload more footage of drivers putting vulnerable road users at risk on the roads it patrols.

🎥 This shocking footage shows how cyclists' lives are being put at risk by dangerous drivers.

It's been released as part of #RoadSafetyWeek2020 with figures showing an 11% increase in serious injury or fatal collisions involving cyclists 📈

Read our thread to find out more 👇 pic.twitter.com/gRKaOtDLn9

— Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) November 16, 2020

Chief Inspector Sam Rennison, who heads the Force’s Road Safety Department, said: “Modern technology means drivers no longer need to be caught red-handed by the police at the scene of a crime to be prosecuted.

“As it stands, 77 per cent of the footage submissions we do get result in positive action being taken, whether that be a warning or a prosecution.

“But we still don’t see a large number of submissions from vulnerable road users and this week we want to appeal to cyclists to submit more footage.

“A minority of motorists are not showing the required amount of respect to other road users and that needs to change.

“Too many vulnerable road users are seriously injured or killed because they have been knocked down by someone driving in a dangerous manner.

“We have been very good at socially distancing and giving two metres space in the community and now we need to apply that logic to the roads.”

The force said that in the year to August there were 336 incidents involving cyclists in its area with 80 of those leading to serious or fatal injuries.

That reflected an 11 per cent increase in serious or fatal injuries compared to the previous year and is highest figure in the last four years, partly attributable to levels of cycling doubling during lockdown.

Chief Inspector Rennison highlighted, as a number of other forces have done, that examples of poor cycling could not be compared to, or even used as an excuse for, poor driving.

She said: “It is only a minority of drivers who drive in such a dangerous manner that they put the lives of cyclists and pedestrians at risk.

“We are not trying to demonise all motorists but the reality is when a driver behaves in a dangerous manner then it puts people’s lives at risk.

“There are occasions when cyclists behave irresponsibly on the roads but those actions seldom result in a serious collision or a death,” she added.

Indeed, a graphic circulated on social media today, taken from a new report by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, starkly illustrates which groups of road users are responsible for most deaths on Britain’s roads.

We often focus our enforcement efforts against those who do most harm to vulnerable road users.

This chart shows why a lot of that effort is directed at car drivers.

On average 5 people are killed every day in the UK as a result of a collision.

We must all do better.#Fatal5 pic.twitter.com/EqfEGygGQM

— Roads Policing Unit (RPU) - Surrey Police - UK (@SurreyRoadCops) November 16, 2020

It was a point emphasised by Northumbria Police in response to one reply to its original tweet.

Do you know the number of cyclists who collided with a vehicle and led to the serious injury or death of the driver? It's zero.

Don't use a minority of cyclists behaving inappropriately to excuse the behaviour of drivers seriously injuring and killing cyclists on the road.

— Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) November 16, 2020

“Ultimately we are trying to save lives and we believe encouraging more people to submit footage, whether you’re a cyclist or a driver, can help us do that,” the chief inspector added.

Footage of incidents that happen in Northumbria can be submitted to the force by visiting its website and clicking on ‘Report and Incident’.