West Mids Police-thanks for nothing

[BentMikey]

I can't totally blame the police for not doing stuff in a one party vs another party words only near miss road incident. It's not perfect, but here in London at least there is willingness to deal with these, and even more so with camera evidence. Although in most cases it's nothing more than a letter to the driver, it definitely has an effect on most people. Consequences are important, but they must relate to the actual events, verifiable in some way. My word vs their word doesn't really do this, unfortunately.

Just look at the burgeoning numbers of youtubing cyclists (and drivers and motorcyclists), and at the rapid increase in the rate of Roadsafe submissions. It's a popular approach, and it's a quick and easy win for the police, as they are relying on the work of others to leverage their ability to do useful and effective traffic policing with minimal time and cost on their own part.

I'd like to see Roadsafe rolled out nationally so everyone everywhere in the UK can use it.

 

[BentMikey]

If a UK police force spent time investigating an incident where a car brushed against a pannier I'd think I might be paying rather too much tax.

If that same force then spent money on a prosecution, I might start thinking that they were spending poorly and spending it on people who were making extraordinarily poor decisions.

This is so wrong I don't even know where to start.

 

[BSRU]

If a UK police force spent time investigating an incident where a car brushed against a pannier I'd think I might be paying rather too much tax.

If that same force then spent money on a prosecution, I might start thinking that they were spending poorly and spending it on people who were making extraordinarily poor decisions.

If the CPS were to take up the case and pursue it.... I'd try to smile and think about something else.

As a keen cyclist and a driver with a history of speeding endorsements, I think we are pretty well policed.

I've spent a good part of my life overseas and have never been anywhere where the police have been better than ours - Germany and France are right up there, but not better.

I disagree, I think the Police have been forced by the last government to meet targets which has led to the Police not being bothered with low level crime or crime with no chance of a prosecution. Not only that but the widespread use of speed camera's has led to a huge reduction in traffic Police, which is completely wrong and explains lots of bad driving/riding as there is no fear of being caught.

 

[Jezston]

If a UK police force spent time investigating an incident where a car brushed against a pannier I'd think I might be paying rather too much tax.

If that same force then spent money on a prosecution, I might start thinking that they were spending poorly and spending it on people who were making extraordinarily poor decisions.

If the CPS were to take up the case and pursue it.... I'd try to smile and think about something else.

But it wouldn't get that complicated. The police would fill out a form and the driver might get a visit, and then they receive a fine. It would only go any further if the driver refused to pay, or started making a habit of it.

As a keen cyclist and a driver with a history of speeding endorsements, I think we are pretty well policed.

Speeding is fairly heavily enforced, but then most of that is done automatically with cameras. Cameras can't yet be programmed to automatically capture other incidents of reckless and dangerous behaviour.

 

[upsidedown]

If a UK police force spent time investigating an incident where a car brushed against a pannier I'd think I might be paying rather too much tax.

Thanks for that, perhaps we should set a threshold for bad driving at a full on ramming leading to a serious injury, with anything below that classed as sport.

His behaviour shows a complete lack of understanding of other road users and over-estimation of his driving skill level.

 

[fossyant]

Poor driving, but the best you can hope for is it logging. The idiot that tried to run me off the road just got a visit, and it logged. One word against another. You'd have been better smacking the car if it was too close.

 

[upsidedown]

She said she couldn't log it because then there would have to be a follow-up, and there couldn't be a follow up because no crime had been committed. Apparantly i can do a self-report, but that will be filed but not logged.

The last time i reported an incident to West Mids they said they would send somebody round to take the details. They rang every day for the next seven days to postpone the meeting due to being short-staffed, in the end i cancelled the complaint to spare their embarrasment.

This is is stark contrast to Warwickshire Police who have an officer that reads and responds to email, and checks if you want anything doing as a follow up to a report.

 

[Dan B]

Blue sky thinking here: how about a public database of registration numbers linked to insurers/policy numbers (omitting the insured person's name/identifying information, so no Data Protection implications). If you were involved in an incident that the police were uninterested in or you didn't think they'd be interested in, you could submit a report direct to the driver's insurance company with your compensation claim which they would either do something about or not but would in the meantime cost them money to process. Drivers that habitually drove like morons would attract more claims, cost them more money, and see increased premiums come renewal time.

 

[BentMikey]

That's an excellent idea, Dan. I had similar thinking - along the lines of a bike mounted ANPR system that pings up the dodgy vehicles/drivers around you in traffic. That way we could make an extra effort to avoid conflict with that vehicle. Plus with any incident, it would reference with uploaded videos, and do automated roadsafe reporting.

 

[BSRU]

Blue sky thinking here: how about a public database of registration numbers linked to insurers/policy numbers (omitting the insured person's name/identifying information, so no Data Protection implications). If you were involved in an incident that the police were uninterested in or you didn't think they'd be interested in, you could submit a report direct to the driver's insurance company with your compensation claim which they would either do something about or not but would in the meantime cost them money to process. Drivers that habitually drove like morons would attract more claims, cost them more money, and see increased premiums come renewal time.

How do you stop malicious/false claims?

 

[Silver Fox]

How do you stop malicious/false claims?

With great difficulty. The whole ' Where there's blame there's a claim' industry has seen to that.

 

[LosingFocus]

But it wouldn't get that complicated. The police would fill out a form and the driver might get a visit, and then they receive a fine. It would only go any further if the driver refused to pay, or started making a habit of it.

A fine? Based on what, the word of the 2nd party soley? Not sure that's going to work...

 

[adds21]

With great difficulty. The whole ' Where there's blame there's a claim' insurance industry has seen to that.

Fixed that for you.

My wife recently had a prang in the car. Nothing serious, no injuries, but damage to our, and another car. In the last week she's had several text messages saying she could be "entitled" to up to £3,750 for injury following the collision. The important thing to note is that the only party who has anything to do with the incident, and has her mobile number is her insurance company, and they know damn well there's no need to claim for personal injury.

Is it any wonder people are tempted to make false claims (which put up premiums for the rest of us) when this happens.

 

[LosingFocus]

Fixed that for you.

My wife recently had a prang in the car. Nothing serious, no injuries, but damage to our, and another car. In the last week she's had several text messages saying she could be "entitled" to up to £3,750 for injury following the collision. The important thing to note is that the only party who has anything to do with the incident, and has her mobile number is her insurance company, and they know damn well there's no need to claim for personal injury.

Is it any wonder people are tempted to make false claims (which put up premiums for the rest of us) when this happens.

I've had a few of those texts in the last few weeks, and Ive not been involved in any sort or accident on or off the road. Just spammers buying lists of numbers.

 

[classic33]

A similar response was got from West Yorkshire Police by myself.

I wonder how far this sort of attitude goes within the police forces.