Police tell hit and run driver he's a naughty boy

The recent court cases reminded me of an accident I had earlier in the year. 

Riding home from a group ride along London Road towards Romford I was riding along the marked cycle lane overtaking a stopped line of traffic at a set of lights. 

This may be seen by some as bad practice but the cycle lane was full width and there was at least a foot of space between the cycle lane and the traffic, and the traffic was stationary with no HGVs.

As I was riding alongside a car the driver suddenly accelerted and swerved into the bike lane knocking me and my bike onto the pavement, Luckily I only had a slight injury and my bike was fine. The driver stopped and as soon as he saw he'd knocked a cyclist off he put his foot down and roared off round the first corner.

Although I had a lot of witnesses I eventually recieved a letter from the police saying they had decided not to prosecute for driving without due care and attention and had written to the driver to remind him of how to drive safely. No mention of being a hit and run.

I would like to thank the witnesses and the passers-by for their support if they happen to read this.But the police's attitude did make me feel like a second class citizen. 

This post was edited by raymondox at 09:09pm 13 Jan 2013.

Replies

did they give an explanation? I'm really interested about how violations like that are treated by the police.

No explanation, just said they had decided not to proceed. Somewhat disappointing really. I think if the guy had stopped, helped me and apologised then it would have closed there. The fact he sped off is what really annoyed me at the time and then the police not doing anything just added salt to the wounds.

I would write to your MP for Romford complaining about the police behaviour and copy to the Secretary of State for Transport, Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, and to the local Chief Constable. An interesting new option would also be to copy to your new Police Commissioner for Essex, Nick Alston.There will hopefully be some reaction. Until the police start to take these matters seriously cyclists will continue to be vulnerable, especially since all the evidence suggests that someone who is guilty of one motoring offence is often also committing other offences such as driving without insurance, with a faulty vehicle or is already banned, etc.

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