Rear ended on Friday

[Nortones2]

Assault with a car is a serious crime. In fact there were two assaults, the contact with the wheel, and the attempted side swipe, and failure to stop at the scene of an "accident". If I lash out with a hammer, but the victim avoids it, is the outcome a CPS cop-out? Not a chance - its only by good fortune that serious injury has been avoided. If there is evidence of assault the CPS should take action, and the police have no right to second-guess the CPS! Here is a link to the CPS guidance: http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/section9/chapter_a.html

 

[yenrod]

CAB, LOOK AT IT LIKE THIS WAY - someone else will get her ! karma..

 

[Cab]

All of the points about persuing it are correct, but I'll need the CCTV footage to be clear and to back me up. Lets wait and see, I'll give it till Wednesday and phone and see if they've looked.

 

[Keith Oates]

Be interesting to hear how it goes, Cab!!!!!!!!

 

[starseven]

Oh dear, that sucks!

Get three quotes for the repairs to your bike, tell them to spare no expense. Launch a civil claim to get your money back through the small claims court. It's very easy you can do it online and my experience was that results come very quickly indeed once they realise that they are being sent a court summons. I started proceedings against someone from eBay who mucked me around and stole money from me, the day the letter went out I received payment in full.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp

Second that. Online moneyclaim is easy and effective.

 

[catwoman]

Be interesting to hear how it goes, Cab!!!!!!!!

Good grief! What a horrible thing to happen.
I've had a few incidents with motorists threatening me and experience over the years has taught me just to ignore them. Very difficult sometimes but I do now manage it.
The most frightening incident was when a man got out of his car and threatened to smash my face in! Just for being there and using the road! I find I am more prone to aggression from car drivers in the run-up to Christmas for some reason, perhaps they are all drunk at that time of year.
Being female I think I may be a little less responsive to aggression from other road users than many of my male counterparts on two wheels. I'm less likely to come out the winner should it come to fisticuffs. Which where I ride it could very well do. I feel dismayed that the perpetrator was female!
I second Keith's request, let us know what happens.

 

[Søren]

Cab - threaten them with the IPCC. (and i don't mean the climate change lobby.) Just simply go in, give them the ultimatum 'prosecute now, or i make a formal complaint.' They'll not want the investigation even if they think it'll be found in their favour. CCTV or no CCTV.

Without the CCTV they've got nothing and I wouldn't dream of trying to prosecute. That IS a waste of time. If there IS footage covering it then I may well make such a demand.[/quote]

That's not necessarily true. This driver has committed a careless driving offence, perhaps even intentional criminal damage. They have also failed to stop and report as required. I understand you have a witness who has a bit of a garbled version, nonetheless will be able to testify that an incident did occur. The police can then interview the driver and I'd imagine be able to make a fairly strong case against her. Her only real defence against failing to provide her details is if she felt strongly intimidated by you, and went immediately to the police station to report the matter.

CPS and police prosecution decision makers do place extra weight on an immediately made complaint which evidences that someone was clearly wronged. If the driver also came to the police station immediately to make counter allegations about the manner of your riding, then that would have to be considered, but if not I'd like to think that CPS would consider prosecution.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

That is useful to know Soren. Cheers.

 

[Cab]

That's not necessarily true. This driver has committed a careless driving offence, perhaps even intentional criminal damage. They have also failed to stop and report as required. I understand you have a witness who has a bit of a garbled version, nonetheless will be able to testify that an incident did occur. The police can then interview the driver and I'd imagine be able to make a fairly strong case against her. Her only real defence against failing to provide her details is if she felt strongly intimidated by you, and went immediately to the police station to report the matter.

CPS and police prosecution decision makers do place extra weight on an immediately made complaint which evidences that someone was clearly wronged. If the driver also came to the police station immediately to make counter allegations about the manner of your riding, then that would have to be considered, but if not I'd like to think that CPS would consider prosecution.

Interestinr, thanks Soren. I'll bear that in mind when I follow this up.

 

[Road Fiddler]

Ceb i am late to this thread but the response from the police was poor and if i was you i would be complaining. Did the police give you the incident number? this is a number made up of date time and the number of the report for that day. If you report anything to the police always get this number. If an incident goes further then a crime reference number is generated which you can also get at a later date.

It is not down to an individual officer to decide if the CPS will act or not.

CCTV evidence would be great in this situation then the police could possibly charge the female but if good policing came into play the police pay a visit to the female to get her side of the story and they would give her a very hard talking too about her behaviour, after all she has used her car as a tool to intimidate you. If she is capable of this many police officers would be interested in what else she may have against her.

Sadly the officer you spoke too was not a traffic officer and may have been a civil worker working on the front desk. I would have been inclined to have asked to speak to the duty Sargent once i had been told that. My feelings are that a traffic officer would have seen this very differently.

You need to contact the police re the CCTV as that would have been pulled on the day of the incident. If it has been pulled you are able to view the tape yourself under data protection act but this can be a slow process so i would say if they tell you there is nothing on CCTV because it was pointing the wrong way or they just could not see from the angle ask if you view the footage if they say know ask how you can under the data protection act.

My advise in situations like this is not to confront the aggressor but to get straight onto your mobile and dial 999, the police response would be swift in this sort of incident.

Are you aware of the other witness shearing details with the female. I bet she was only saying she would be a witness. Did she she the female drive into you and try to ram you off the road, i bet she would change her mind very quickly if she did especially once the police start asking questions. So dont worry about her.

When dealing with the police and court system you just need to tell it how it happened in a way that justifies your actions and stick to it.

Good luck with it mate

 

[Cab]

I do have an incident number so I can (and will) follow it up. I'm prepared to go looking at the CCTV footage if need be, of course.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Just an honest question - how can one view the CCTV under the guise of 'Data Protection'?

Doesn't seem to be logical to me, but then the law rarely does.

 

[Road Fiddler]

You can ask to view any public cctv system. I used to nick shoplifters and they would ask to see the cctv evidence or get shown it by police and the next day they would be back in shoplifting but try to avoid doing anything in view of that camera. The problem was our company worked the worst shops in the country so we used many different cameras and moved them around and we all wore covert cams on our bodies. We used the tricks we had picked up whilst working high end surveillance jobs and used it to great effect against shoplifters. We used to get called cheating so-n-so's and accused of entrapping them, i cant see how why they thought that.

 

[BentMikey]

So us helmet cam users are naughty boys then?

 

[Cab]

Well, after my conversation with PC about what would happen, they have recorded it as 'no further action requested'. I'm livid, that wasn't what we agreed, and I'll follow that up by going straight to the people who do the traffic policing here (as apparently it would be up to them).