Club run - van passenger slapping incident

[perplexed]

Well the letter at least had some effect, I got a call from a police sargent (whilst touring in Belgium, well sat outside a bar with a nice Trappist Dubbel to be exact) to say they were reopening the case and they're now been in contact and taken statements from other members of the group. Whether this leads to any actual action remains to be seen.

Well, it's something I guess.

Keep plugging away!

 

[growingvegetables]

Aye, keep plugging. Good luck, and fingers crossed the police DO something.

But, on the offchance the company keep stalling and it gets dropped again ............ saw this a couple of days ago - near the bottom of this

"The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007"

CMCHA came into force on the 6th of April 2008. Under this act the company vehicle is a place of work and is considered to be an extension of the corporate headquarters. This places an extra legal duty of care on Company Directors and their Managers.

{gulp} Ouch - that looks strong, and too good to be true ........ but it seems straight and legit from googling "Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide vehicles"

If the company doesn't have systems in place to record drivers responsible for vehicles at a particular time, and can't track responsibility for breaches of the law/traffic offences/accidents (or even of the company's own "safe driving code", if it has one) ....... that's H&S failure.

A strong letter from the club to the Directors pointing out that, if the stupidity had resulted in a death as it so easily could, would mean Daddy in court as well as sonny boy .............. hey, it'd be fun to write, and it would earn sonny boy a very uncomfortable half hour meeting. Might think twice next time?

I'll dig around and see if I can find some more.

If nothing else, it's a joyful nugget that I'll use in my own letters to employers

 

[swee'pea99]

Excellent find GV

 

[growingvegetables]

Same page - next para. Hands up - I hate H&S ... but just for once, it might be a useful wee tool.

"The Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008"

The Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 came in to effect on the 16th January 2009 ...... If company directors or fleet managers fail to prove that they have a road risk policy in place with adequate documental evidence, they can face a fine of up to £20,000 or risk a two-year prison sentence if one of their employees is involved in an accident where a breach of Health & Safety occurs.

Even more interesting - OK, you can't complain to the HSE about the road traffic incident; that's for the Police. No worries, you're doing that.

But, if the company are still uncooperative, give the ******s a real headache - that'll live with them for months and months afterwards. Just imagine all the reams of paperwork the daft ******s will have to concoct and produce ...

Complain to the HSE that they obviously don't have policies, incident/accident reporting systems, or disciplinary procedures in place for their work drivers, and that from experience this is posing a very serious risk to vulnerable road users.

 

[benb]

Hands up - I hate H&S

What? Why?

 

[BSRU]

But do these H&S regulations apply to companies whatever their size?

 

[Dave Davenport]

Better not say too much for now, but the police are keeping us informed of progress and we're happy with the action taken and planned so far.

 

[PpPete]

That sounds like good news !

 

[2Loose]

It certainly does.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Better not say too much for now, but the police are keeping us informed of progress and we're happy with the action taken and planned so far.

progress at last, sounds good.

 

[Red Light]

Don't forget that if it turns out well you (and the police) need some publicity locally as a deterrent to others trying the same.

 

[growingvegetables]

That sounds like good news !

+1 - fingers crossed.

 

[HLaB]

+1 - fingers crossed.

+ 1 to that

 

[Watt-O]

One should make a distinction between the crimes that Clarke's assinine "not all rapes were the same" statement was referring to, and this incident. A slap on the arse is clearly not rape, but some kind of sexual assualt, although it's not clear to what degree from the post. The twat in the van was behaving irresponsibly, and more to the point: his stupidity could have caused serious injury to the cyclists. Be interetesting to see what charges are brought against him., if any.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Status report;

The driver was identified and it turns out he's the actual owner of the van, not the firm.

Apparently, he virtually told the police to f*ck off when they eventually got him on the phone.

The police called at his home and work on several occasions to be told he wasn't in / they don't know where he is.

As most of us know, it's not a good idea to piss off plod and his persistence in hole digging resulted in them turning up at his house at 4am and arresting him.

He is still refusing to i.d the 'slapper' and it's now with the cps.

Watch this space.........................

Oh, and the police had to come back and re-take all the statements 'cos (believe it or not) they'd shredded them as soon as the case was originally deemed as 'no further action'.