My accident...

[glenn forger]

I'd love to be in court when the film is played!

 

[EthelF]

+1 to what a number of others have said - if you don't go through with this he will get away with it & might not learn from it. But at the same time I can understand your reservations.

Presumably he will find out about the video before it comes to court. With any luck this might persuade him to plead guilty, saving you having to face him in court.

 

[Davidsw8]

The driver awareness course 'could' have affected his insurance, but it depends on the company. Some request you to declare it. My wife recently had a speed awareness course, and it made a difference of £4.85 to our yearly quote. Three points would have made a difference of £30.

I know this is easy to say, but magistrates court really isn't that intimidating. You won't be yelled at, called a liar and challenged. You'll simply be asked to recount specific facts by both sets of solicitors, and then the defence will try to find a loophole to get the driver off.

What happens over 90% of the time is that the defendant tries their luck and hope that witnesses won't turn up to court, at which stage it is dropped and they get away scot free. When the witnesses do turn up, they then put a guilty plea in, getting the benefit of an 'early plea' discount. The witness doesn't have to give evidence but has wasted a day turning up.

The magistrates may give you an monetary compensation if he is found guilty.

As a rule of thumb, if the CPS is willing to run something at magistrates court, it's almost certainly going to succeed if all witnesses and evidence are available.

I've probably attended Magistrates Court about 30 to 50 times in my career at a rough guess. I've actually given evidence in one about 4 or 5 times.

Crown Court is a little different - as the cases are more serious in Crown, they tend to try a prosecution anyway even if it's not a 100% cert, so in comparison I've attended Crown Court about 5 times, and given evidence 3 times.

This may be a deliberate attempt here to tug on your guilty strings... just ignore me if you want and remember its YOUR choice, and you were the victim, but... we hear so often on this site of instances where people have an accident and then get a poor
or service from the police. We hear this because these are the stories that get told. You've got a keen officer doing the right thing - give her the back up she needs to get things through to court. He was the one who chose to take it there, not you - remember that!

Thanks CC, that's really useful to know.

In cases where there is video evidence, does the defendant get told it exists and get shown it before they get to court? I reckon if he saw it, he'd take the course straight away and that'd be it.

And yeh, I'm going to proceed with this, I put the report in, it'd be silly not to see it through.

 

[jarlrmai]

nice one, it's a difficult decision when you just want to get on with life, hopefully you'll see a good result.

I too want to be there if/when he gets to recount some bullshit story to the court who are then shown the video.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Thanks CC, that's really useful to know.

In cases where there is video evidence, does the defendant get told it exists and get shown it before they get to court? I reckon if he saw it, he'd take the course straight away and that'd be it.

And yeh, I'm going to proceed with this, I put the report in, it'd be silly not to see it through.

Yes, all evidence has to be made available to the defence prior to the court case.

He may have had a solicitor suggest a loophole to him, or even just suggest the 'see if he turns up trick'. I once saw someone get off because he was charged with 'careless driving' and the defence argued it wasn't careless, it was a deliberate act and so was 'inconsiderate' and the wording of the charge should have reflected that. It worked, he got off, even though careless/inconsiderate are the same act and section with the same burden of proof.

 

[Davidsw8]

It feels like a game of chicken at the moment, all very unnecessary...

 

[Trickedem]

I had a similar issue and the driver turned down the awareness course. I was asked to go to court as a witness and provided various dates. Next thing I know, I was told the driver had been prosecuted. So I assume they pleaded guilty. Please go ahead and offer to be a witness.

 

[gaz]

Wasn't expecting to have to update this again but just had a call from the police and this chap is adamant that he did no wrong and he's declined to go on the course. So, now the police have to proceed with a prosecution which will most likely involve me having to go to court as a witness/victim.

The woman from the police said that she can clearly see one of my lights flashing in the dvd footage and she's keen not to let this go as it'll give him the wrong message.

Not happy about this at all, why can't this idiot just admit he's wrong? Does going on this course affect his insurance? I think points on his licence and a fine will do a lot more damage in that respect.

Anyway, I have a few days to think about it but if I don't want to appear as a witness then they have no case and it's dropped.

Really? they will drop the case? Several drivers have been prosecuted with the use of my footage and i've never had to go to court, including one where I went flying over his bonnet.

 

[glenn forger]

Thanks fellas, my hesitance is just based on the fact that I don't particularly like standing up in front of people talking at the best of times, let alone in a court, in front of a judge and someone who's going to be thinking I'm a complete *expletive* for dragging him in to this situation.

remember that he ignored a give way line, could have seriously injured you, and has lied to both you and the cops. Only one person is responsible for the driver ending up in court.

The driver.

 

[boydj]

CopperCyclist has called it right. You are highly unlikely to have to give evidence. If the guy gets a solicitor who'll then see the footage, he'll plead guilty before any trial actually starts - though he may not do it until the last minute.

+1 for supporting the officer who is pushing to take the case all the way - we could do with a few more like that.

 

[davefb]

god knows why he hasnt done the course... I just did the speed one, ( it was 'interesting', they even mentioned smidsy's)... We got told "think yourself lucky you're not next door in the driving awareness one, it's all day"... not quite sure, but that might have been the one which involves driving and someone checking your 'awareness'..

if you haven't claimed for anything,, well time to talk to people.. the bloke should be thanking the gods you actually managed to avoid an accident....

 

[Davidsw8]

god knows why he hasnt done the course... I just did the speed one, ( it was 'interesting', they even mentioned smidsy's)... We got told "think yourself lucky you're not next door in the driving awareness one, it's all day"... not quite sure, but that might have been the one which involves driving and someone checking your 'awareness'..

if you haven't claimed for anything,, well time to talk to people.. the bloke should be thanking the gods you actually managed to avoid an accident....

Not sure what I'd claim for really, I incurred no costs and haven't suffered any mental anguish besides feelings of irritation and bewilderment that this guy fails to see what he did wrong.

The only thing I'd consider claiming for is if I have to take a day off work to go to Court for this total waste of time.

 

[Matthew_T]

Having watched the video again, I cannot understand why he doesnt accept fault. After you passed the parked car, you were in full view of him. There were not obstructions and the first time you shouted provided him with plenty of time to stop.

The only thing I'd consider claiming for is if I have to take a day off work to go to Court for this total waste of time.

If you claim for the day off work, then it is likely you will get a little bit of compensation. Which will be paid for by the driver.

 

[Davidsw8]

Finally heard from the Met with regards to progress on this.

They've set a first court hearing for the 26th June, I don't have to attend this - I'm assuming this is where he pleads guilty or not guilty and depending on that, the 2nd hearing is where I give evidence. Safe to assume that he'll plead not guilty as this would all have been long over if he'd just taken the awareness course and let that be the end of it.

Unless he hasn't seen the video footage until just prior to the hearing in which case I might be spared the trip to court if he pleads guilty. He has to be fairly confident in his position to drag it along this far, he would've just had to spend one day on a course (and pay for it), now he has to have 2 trips to court plus potentially still pay a fine, plus have points on his licence and maybe even pay costs... I'm curious as to how he can justify hitting a well-lit cyclist at a fairly slow speed with little distraction around though.

Anyone know how long between hearing 1 and hearing 2 usually?

 

[fossyant]

Maybe a month or two. Was the case with the one I attended. No need for the first as its usually in and out.