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news
Near Miss of the Day 228: Very close pass at speed - but police won't pursue it
Today's video in our Near Miss of the Day feature shows a driver making a very close pass on a cyclist on a suburban road in south-east London, close to the border with Kent - but unfortunately, the Metropolitan Police decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the motorist.
It was submitted by road.cc reader Stephen, who captured the footage in mid-October while riding on Wickham Way, West Wickham.
He told us: "It was reported and initially the police seemed to want to take action but in the end, they decided that it was unlikely to result in a successful prosecution."
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
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.
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22 comments
Couldn't possibly be a police car could it? In these days of austerity and police cuts, surely they drive Hyundais, not Mercs? Maybe the chief constable's kid out for a thrash in the Merc?*
* Note - For those unable to discern wit / sarcasm, this is an attempt at both...
Agree with what others say above, not to take action on that dreadful piece of driving is just incomprehensible. A killer on the loose again.
As others have said, this need taken back to the Police and taken higher up. The combination of speed, pasing while pushing the cyclist into the door zone, the proximity especially at the speed and choice to overtake on the hatchings should all be re-raised with a senior officer and a specific reason for why they feel they would be unable to prosecute with several clear offences to add together.
I'd probably be contacting my insurers to ask if they would be able to forward the video to the holder of the insurance on that car. Evidence like that might just result in a very hefty insurance hike, as an accident in those conditions would likely result in the insurance company taking a big financial hit.
Good idea. Be sure to make the complaint on actual paper, so that the police have something with which to wipe their arses.
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You should make an official complaint. It is an offence for the registered keeper not to identify the driver.
Given the speed of the vehicle and the seeming reluctance to pursue the matter further it wouldn't surprise me if both the vehicle and its occupant/s are known to the authorities (unmarked police/special branch/military)?
Not justifying, just saying.
I am pretty sure that unmarked police cars would need to have their hidden blue lights and sirens on to do this sort of thing. Military emergency vehicles are not exempt from speeding.
Nope. Police do not have to use blue lights or sirens on to brake the speed limit. There may be operational reasons not to use them, and there are reasons why a driver might choose not to and it is at their discretion. Not saying it is the police, but the lack of lights does not mean it is not a police car.
If only the rider could identify the driver he could start his own private prosecution, after all magistrates might take a dim view of his driving. Doubt the police would be so helpful as to issue a Notice of Intended Prosecution to find out who it was.
What is the actual point of the police?
They constantly complain they have no resources yet seemingly magic up headcount every time there's an opportunity to investigate he-said-she-said type things on social media.
Surely it's not beyond the whit of the police to deal with cases like this?
In my own case, I recently uploaded a video to the Met of a driver having an argument on a facetime video call whilst driving - the car reg, driver etc were all filmed by the passenger in my car from less than 10 ft away - so very visible. Yet no response at all from the Met. Presumably when the same driver runs over and kills someone the police will magic up 30 people on overtime to investigate it.
Also quite noticeable is that I regularly see the same two (very overweight) WPCs on bikes in our local park. They are nearly always sitting on a bench chatting to each other or staring at their mobiles. I can pass again an hour to an hour and a half later and more often than not they are still sitting in the same place - whilst on the roads round the park drivers are speeding, texting and making handheld phone calls with little or no prospect of the police doing anything about it. They could of course be having a break - but unless they have a split shift it's unlikely they are on break for 90 mins on a regular basis.
I'd like to see less whinging about austerity and more effort to use the resources they have more effectively / efficiently. Perhaps some civilian enforcement (on a no find no fee basis) would be a win win? It would be likely to result in a lot more prosecutions, releases police time from a job they can't be bothered to do and for cyclists - the deterent effect would make it safer for us reasomably quickly. I'm sure capita or G4S could do this on a no-cost-to-the-police basis.
The problem you have here is this... the police, like many other public services are feeling the squeeze of government measures / cuts.
In this situation, the public service has a choice... they either suck it, get their workforce to work harder for less, or they stick to their current output and push back on the cuts.
If you look at those options, the first ultimately leads to further cuts, more pressure and stress. The second leads to stress, moaning and loss of public support, however it does not lead to further cuts.
I know what choice I'd opt for.
Therefore, please don't be surprised that our police force are not obviously going the extra mile every time... doing so will simply lead to more pressure and cuts.
In this country? They're the Tories' Prætorian Guard.
If I were you, I'd raise a complaint with the police to get them to have another look at that.
I would be interested to hear from a legal expert why such a video can't give a successful prosecution.
It would be simple enough to work out how fast the car was going
Presumably it is positively identifying the driver. Depending on the seriousness of the offence, it may make sense for the vehicle keeper to 'forget' who was driving and to be prosecuted for failure to identify the driver instead.
I would like to see failure to identify mean the person responsible for the car (keeper, hirer, managing director if no records are kept ..) faces the consequences as if they were the driver, though I can also see a large number of moral and legal issues with doing it.
I seem to remember one a couple of years back where the video appeared to show a deliberate drivng into the rear of a cyclist (black volvo) and the registered keeper only face a very minor admin charge as it was a hire car
A bit more than that. Fine and 6 points each.
Although they would have got a massive hike in their insurance premium.
That was one of the more egregious examples of the state bending over backwards to let a driver off. Both of those drivers knew who was driving. The one who wasn't driving, knew that the other was. The one who was driving, well .. obviously. Rather than a fine or even points, they should both have been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
It's actually pretty easy to work out who was driving. Find the person in the registered keeper's 'entourage' who has the most points. That's your driver.
Pretty easy to prove speeding at the least. Review the footage, got the point of overtake and measure some distances and apply this to the video.
There are specific rules around how speed can be measured and what is needed to prosecute people for speeding. You have to measure the speed, and the device used has to be calibrated. Footage from a cycle camera cannot be used, no matter how egregious. They could be prosecuted for due care/dangerous driving, but not speeding.
Bloody hell, that certainly was fast and close, certainly exceeding the speed limit on the road, which I'm assuming from the lampposts is 30mph. Yet again our so-called justice system lets down the most vulnerable.
Yes its 30mph. The road is quite wide and is popular with driving instuctors as its almost dead straight for about 0.5 mile , wide, relaitivley quiet and has several side roads to practice on, as I did when I learnt to drive over 20 years ago!