Clapham Common accident last August - HELP

Hi everyone,

I know this is a long shot but last August, my husband was involved in a cycle accident - he came off his bike and ended up trapped under a London tourist bus by Clapham Common on his way to work. Lots of cyclists stopped as he had been riding in a group of about 20. Lots of people were very helpful and one man got in touch via email to say what he saw happen and that he didn't feel my husband had done anything wrong.

We are having trouble getting back in contact with this cyclist and out of the blue my husband got a letter on Friday charging him in relation to this accident. We are completely shocked as he always cycled really carefully (the cycle is a write-off and so he hasn't ridden since) and especially as he was nearly hit by a car the week before (this was witnessed by a police officer as it was in Brixton just before the riots kicked off!). He has never so much had a parking ticket before!

If you saw the incident and think you might be able to help, please contact me! I would be really grateful. If we want to try to prove he is innocent, it will costs us a huge amount of money and we are loathe to spend this if he doesn't have a hope of winning! There are so many problems with the way this has been handled - it feels like you can be accused of anything and unless you have a fair bit of money behind you, you have no hope of speaking up but just have to make a guilty plea! Please also be careful - this could happen to anyone!

 

Many, many thanks for reading - sorry for the long post!

Elisabeth

 

This post was edited by Elisabeth at 06:18pm 20 Nov 2012.

Replies

  • By gegi at 01:44pm 16 Jan 2012

If he is a member of LCC he is entitled to free legal advice. Please contact the LCC office for details.

Thanks - we have already done this! It is going to cost nearly £1000 to contest. The police did nto warn us at any point that he could face criminal charges for this, they have lost his statement, they have put forward several statements from drivers, all of which seem to suggest different things happened, but there is no way of pointing out the discrepancies unless we agree to pay the legal costs to plead not guilty. My husband doesn't have much memory of the accident and so has been told that will not stand up anyway against the other statements, hence he needs to find other neutral witnesses. If, however, he wants to plead guilty, he does get a 'discount' for any early plea, not that this 'is in any way intended to persuade [him] to plead guilty'!

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