[Allen Key]

Quite often on ‘Near Miss of The Day’ I see the obvious disappointment when some really bad driving only results in a “warning letter” being sent out.
I’m not very familiar with the various police documents and I’ve never actually seen a warning letter (and google didn’t really help).
Does it warn the driver something along the lines of “if the same thing happens again, you’ll be fined” or, maybe not? I really don’t know.
How long does this “warning” last for, is it a permanent thing or just till the next offense?
I’m just trying to understand the reason for sending them out, Oh… and when they ‘say’ they sent one out, is there any way of really knowing? 😉

Thanks

Topic

[markieteeee]

Does anyone have any

Does anyone have any knowledge of a vehicle being seized due to subsequent offences?

[Allen Key]

Thanks for the detailed reply
Thanks for the detailed reply Fifth Gear, very much appreciated 🙂
Disappointing, hearing about the “shared contempt for me as a cyclist” tone – I expect it from the driver, but not the officers – are they all DailyMail readers or something? (joke)
Thank you for your efforts in reporting the incidents as well,
Cheers

[wtjs]

This is repetition, but…

This is repetition, but…

Driving courses are worthless if they’re online, and not much better if they’re genuine. ‘Having a word with the driver’ is even more worthless if that’s possible. I suspect that an ‘official warning letter’ has some meaning, but I only know that from the amount of effort Lancashire Constabulary puts into not sending them and just sending ‘educational material’ instead. The problem is that the sort of driver, often a BMW driver, who really deserves punishment is the sort who completely ignores any ‘nudge’ type of punishment because they regard it as a badge of honour. Points on the licence is the only effective deterrent: that’s why we’re still enduring endless NMotDs and the occasional death, because the police can’t be bothered. The main police weapon against the people they consider to be the real villains (cyclists reporting offences with impeccable video evidence) is ‘refuse to tell them anything!!’

[HoarseMann]

With Thames Valley, you need

With Thames Valley, you need to have had 3 warning letters within 3 months. That seems to me a flippin’ high rate of offending that they’re willing to tolerate before taking further action.

[Recoveryride]

What they should be: an

What they should be: an official way of saying ‘your card is marked, son – watch it. If this happens again, you’ll be in bother’

What they are: who knows?!

I am still of the opinion that a PC  turning up at the door, or (perhaps better still) the offender’s place of work, and delivering a stiffly-worded formal verbal warning, would be the ideal solution. 

[brooksby]

My wife got a letter a bit

My wife got a letter a bit like that for speeding, one time.  She hadn’t noticed that a signed speed limit had changed sicne the last time she’d travelled a particular road, and thinks she got flashed by a camera.

[mdavidford]

Should a collision occur

Should a collision occur between the vehicle and any person within the road closure, then offences such as Careless or Dangerous driving could be considered.

Erm, really? So you can’t be careless or dangerous unless you actually hit someone?

[Fifth Gear]

I have reported dozens of

I have reported dozens of close passes mainly to Thames Valley Police over more than eight years. Only one resulted in anything more than a written warning and sometimes only verbal or no action at all. In the case of verbal warnings I know that in some cases the officers clearly communicated to the driver a shared contempt for me as a cyclist, communicating to me the driver’s complaints as though they were valid although I had behaved entirely legally. These were almost certainly counter-productive. 

As for the written warnings the police have refused to divulge their contents to me so it is impossible to know anything at all about their value except to say that a prosecution or driving awareness course in lieu would have been appropriate and far more effective.

Last year one close pass driver attended a driving awareness course but I have no idea why this one driver was treated more seriously than all the others. I can only suppose the driver had other convictions.

On another occasion a driver undertook me while we were both turning right and clipped my handlebars. It was a hit and run. Although the police accepted a cock and bull excuse for that the driver attended a driving awareness course for the collision, which fortuitously didn’t cause any injury.

There is never any way of knowing if the police are telling the truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Awavey]

Geez Id hope it’s more than
Geez Id hope it’s more than what the Met send out as that’s barely worth the paper its printed on, but I doubt it’s as wordsome as the one from Suffolk either,as that’s come from a specific PC at a local police station, and not the place,which is confusingly in Norfolk, youd deal with for close passes.

[Allen Key]

Ok, thanks for that. Yes,
Ok, thanks for that. Yes, google did bring up various letters but I was curious what the letter is specifically for a close pass/near miss; what the crime is listed as, and what the deterent is.

[Tom_77]

There’s also this form of

There’s also this form of letter, which is a Section 59 notice. I don’t think these are sent very often for the sort of thing you see on NMOTD, they’re more aimed at anti-social driving – the yoofs in their badly modified cars driving like twats in the Halfords car park.

[Tom_77]

Google turned up this, I

Google turned up this, I believe that’s the sort of thing they send.

[kil0ran]

More seriously, they do go on
More seriously, they do go on record and can be used in the event of a repeat offence. They’re not a formal caution though.

[kil0ran]

No way of knowing. It’s the
No way of knowing. It’s the paper equivalent of the village bobby having a quiet word with your parents when they’ve caught you scrumping from the local Freemason’s orchard

[Author]

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