First post on cyclecamera.tv

[Matthew_T]

Likewise with BSRU, postcode lottery indeed, I was actually hit by an overtaking (into oncoming traffic, everything clearly visible) HGV last week, suffered minor scrapes and bruises. Police not interested in viewing footage, no cycle racks at police station, yet plenty of free-on-pavement parking outside, blocking pedestrians from visiting the station too, guess they don't want us there at all, seemed annoyed at me even wanting to get it logged, didn't want me speaking to a traffic cop to get his opinion. Response, "we only do that if we attend the scene". Although my plan at the moment is to push a bit harder through their online reporting tool, since those at the local station aren't interested.

Hard to believe there's such a difference.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaO9f8kaOc
hopefully I'll get the ball moving.

I remember when I saw that on Youtube when it was first posted. I think it is just disgusting that they wont do anything. Did you tell them when you went in the station that the lorry collided with you and that you would really like to speak to a traffic officer. (If they fobbed me off in such a rude manner I might not be as nice).

 

[gaz]

Likewise with BSRU, postcode lottery indeed, I was actually hit by an overtaking (into oncoming traffic, everything clearly visible) HGV last week, suffered minor scrapes and bruises. Police not interested in viewing footage, no cycle racks at police station, yet plenty of free-on-pavement parking outside, blocking pedestrians from visiting the station too, guess they don't want us there at all, seemed annoyed at me even wanting to get it logged, didn't want me speaking to a traffic cop to get his opinion. Response, "we only do that if we attend the scene". Although my plan at the moment is to push a bit harder through their online reporting tool, since those at the local station aren't interested.

Hard to believe there's such a difference.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaO9f8kaOc
hopefully I'll get the ball moving.

Try going to the police station and just mention that you want to report a collision between two vehicles.
If you are lucky they will give you a form to fill out. Do not mention you where a cyclist. That way the desk staff don't get involved.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Likewise with BSRU, postcode lottery indeed, I was actually hit by an overtaking (into oncoming traffic, everything clearly visible) HGV last week, suffered minor scrapes and bruises. Police not interested in viewing footage, no cycle racks at police station, yet plenty of free-on-pavement parking outside, blocking pedestrians from visiting the station too, guess they don't want us there at all, seemed annoyed at me even wanting to get it logged, didn't want me speaking to a traffic cop to get his opinion. Response, "we only do that if we attend the scene". Although my plan at the moment is to push a bit harder through their online reporting tool, since those at the local station aren't interested.

Hard to believe there's such a difference.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaO9f8kaOc
hopefully I'll get the ball moving.

Atrocious driving, atrocious response.

However - you are unlikely (not impossible) to see a traffic officer for this. Since the cuts they are rarer than hens teeth, and due to this get to deal only with 'fatal or life altering injuries'. Any other injury RTC gets dealt with by an officer from the normal 'pool'.

We should however deal with yours, as it's an injury RTC, and great evidence available. We won't get a charge for failing to stop and report - he stopped, and you didn't say your were injured so he can assume you weren't and carry on. We won't get a charge for dangerous driving, as the CPS wouldn't run with that. A charge for careless driving COULD be on the cards though, depending on how you wanted to play it of course.

Regardless, make sure the incident is reported and get your reference number. A week later (can take a few days o get allocated and picked up) ask which PC is investigating it, then make contact with them (email is best, phone messages tend to get lost and have no audit trail) and tell THEM about the footage, and ask THEM what they plan to do with it. If you aren't happy with their investigation, the first point of call is a complaint to the station, to an inspector.

Hope you fare a bit better than your first experience, but I certainly wouldn't settle for that.

 

[BSRU]

Try going to the police station and just mention that you want to report a collision between two vehicles.
If you are lucky they will give you a form to fill out. Do not mention you where a cyclist. That way the desk staff don't get involved.

A good idea in theory but our local police decided a town centre location was not a good place to be, being bothered by the public all the time, so they move out of town and the enquiries desk has opening hours not really suitable for someone working normal hours.

 

[daSmirnov]

Apologies for causing a moderate thread-derailment with this video. But thanks CopperCyclist for your input, this is my first involvement with the police - bar their online reporting tools, so insight into how they deal with stuff internally is helpful.

I got a questionnaire statement in the post today, asking for details of the event, which I've signed and sent back, mentioning I've got video footage (again). When I return from my wee cycling holiday in the west-country next week I'll try following up, that should give the bloke in charge of this time to get a statement from the owner/driver of the other vehicle involved. The driver seemed like a decent enough bloke and knew enough to realise his mistake - so hopefully his statement should be pretty similar.

I'll try and get over the crappy response from whoever was manning the desk last week, who seemed annoyed at me even wanting the incident recorded, let alone looked at for potential action.

 

[Matthew_T]

Talking about online police reporting tools, North Wales police has nothing of the such. Therefore, how do I go about putting in either an application of request or some sort of request where people would actually look into the matter?
http://www.north-wales.police.uk/

 

[CopperCyclist]

Apologies for causing a moderate thread-derailment with this video. But thanks CopperCyclist for your input, this is my first involvement with the police - bar their online reporting tools, so insight into how they deal with stuff internally is helpful.

I got a questionnaire statement in the post today, asking for details of the event, which I've signed and sent back, mentioning I've got video footage (again). When I return from my wee cycling holiday in the west-country next week I'll try following up, that should give the bloke in charge of this time to get a statement from the owner/driver of the other vehicle involved. The driver seemed like a decent enough bloke and knew enough to realise his mistake - so hopefully his statement should be pretty similar.

I'll try and get over the crappy response from whoever was manning the desk last week, who seemed annoyed at me even wanting the incident recorded, let alone looked at for potential action.

That's a little better then - it does sound like you had a bad attitude from the initial person dealing with your enquiry - however it seems to have been allocated out and in the process of being investigated by (most likely) a completely different officer - lets hope you think better of your dealings with them!

Just for info though, they will be unlikely to get any formal statement from the driver until they've asked you what you want to do - if you wish a prosecution it could be a statement under caution from him, most likely on tape, at the station, with drivers solicitor if he so chooses.*

What they should be doing now is applying to the registered owner of the vehicle (the company) asking them to name the driver on the day. The company legally have up to 28 days to reply to that letter, so things may move slower than you'd like, but for once that's not our fault!


* I'd like to throw a question open to the forum goers here. Do people think this chap should go to court? Personally (police head off, cyclist head on) I'm in two camps. One is screaming at me that I think of course he should, HGV versus cyclist normally ends in death and that was too close for comfort. The other one is saying 'but he wasn't an arse, perhaps it was an honest mistake, do I want his job affected?' Not sure which way I'd go - but (police head back on) if I was the officer in charge of the case I'd certainly support either.

 

[davefb]

If he hadn't have stopped, I'd have said "throw the book".
But since he stopped I'd have hoped there could be a 'warning' put on record or something? Of course assuming this is the first time he's done this.... If it turns out he's hitting things every 2 months, puts a different slant on it..

Could have been so much worse though

 

[dawesome]

Dangerous lorry driving is not taken seriously

Although the cyclist in question was lucky enough to escape with merely being struck on the shoulder, at speed, by the lorry, it’s not hard to imagine how the outcome could have been much worse. Clipped a little further along the body of the flatbed, a little harder, and he may have gone under the rear wheels.
It was a highly dangerous maneouvre – and a pointless one, because if you know Horsham, you are bound to be waiting at the lights at the end of the road – with the only mitigation being the apologetic behaviour of the driver, who seems startled at how badly he messed up.
Yet the attitude of the police, in response to this incident, is strikingly similar to that encountered by Martin Porter, who writes, again,

Near misses from lorries are not pursued by the Metropolitan Police because (I learnt last week) a safe passing distance is thought to be too subjective. The quality of response from employers of drivers who have passed much too close varies from the highly responsible to the shockingly irresponsible (I have had one example of each in the last few days). It does not take many miles of cycling experience to recognize that action is required to reduce the number of HGV/cyclist collisions which so frequently result in death. A ‘nothing can be done’ attitude would be unthinkable if considering deaths in an industrial, disease, terrorism or virtually any other unnatural premature death outside the context of road traffic collision.​

After having been shown the above footage, Sussex Police are apparently “not interested in attributing blame”. The cyclist even asked to take the video to a traffic officer, but was told not to bother because, again, they “wouldn’t be interested”.

After protesting, I was told a cyclist was clipped by a lorry on the A24 (great I ride on that too) yesterday and thrown into a hedge – they didn’t do anything for him either, so I guess that means its OK to let poor driving continue to put vulnerable road users at risk….
other than asking if I was insured (the cheek) [exchanging details] is all the police were interested in. Looking at the standard of driving involved? Not interested, they “only do that if they attend the scene”.​

Quite extraordinary.

http://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/dangerous-lorry-driving-is-not-taken-seriously/

 

[Cycling Dan]

Dangerous lorry driving is not taken seriously




http://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/dangerous-lorry-driving-is-not-taken-seriously/

if that's the case the incident should really be taken higher. Inform the media, great if you have footage and show how the police service has failed you(media love stuff that criticises the police or anything government related). You can even write to your local MP.

The police are not the last stop.
If you do any of these things and they take notice and even makes it even to a local newspaper the police will then no doubt take action.

In regard to the video,
I would say give the police one more chance if nothing inform your local media!

Force them to do something... ITS YOUR RIGHT!

 

[dawesome]

That article went round Twitter - Sussex police responded defensively and promised "All incidents are investigated".

 

[Cycling Dan]

That article went round Twitter - Sussex police responded defensively and promised "All incidents are investigated".

Im sure they did!

 

[dawesome]

From comments:

Evidently Sussex Police (On Twitter @Sussex_Police) say that “Reports of dangerous driving are always investigated see operationcrackdown.org for details on reporting.”.