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news
Startled phone driver caught by camera cyclist smashes into car before fleeing scene through red light (supplied)Startled phone driver caught by camera cyclist smashes into car before fleeing scene through red light – but police refuse to act because victim didn’t report incident
“The state of road policing in Harrow is zero,” one London camera cyclist has claimed, after the Metropolitan Police failed to act on footage he submitted which showed a motorist, seemingly startled by the rider confronting him over his phone use behind the wheel, smashing into the side of another car while trying to drive off.
Following the collision, the motorist then drove in the wrong lane and through a red light to flee the scene – but the Met told the cyclist that they couldn’t punish the driver because the owner of the car that was hit didn’t report the incident.
The incident occurred in Harrow last May, when a cyclist – who says he has submitted hundreds of videos to the Met showing apparent evidence of illegal driving – spotted the driver of a white Volvo, equipped with what he described as “illegal” tinted windows “where you could barely see anything”, using his phone at the wheel.
After catching up with the driver at a set of traffic lights, the cyclist leaned in to look at the motorist who, as the rider says in the video, still had “his phone in his lap”.
After hitting his windows in response to the cyclist confronting him, the motorist can then be seen attempting to drive off (despite the lights still being red), by moving into the left-hand lane.
However, just as he does so, another motorist approaches from behind, and collides with the side of the Volvo driver.
But, while the motorist who was hit, as well as the occupants of the car in front, got out to inspect the damage, the Volvo driver – his car badly dented on the left side – instead begins to reverse, to cries from the cyclist of “where are you going? Where are you going?”
The driver then moves into the wrong lane, peeling around the stopped cars, and through the lights, which had once again turned red, fleeing the scene.
“He got surprised with me filming, and without looking he turned to the left lane, smashing another car coming from behind,” the cyclist, who wishes to remain anonymous, told road.cc.
However, despite the cyclist submitting clear evidence of a number of driving offences committed in one fell swoop, he says the Met failed to act on it because the motorist who was hit didn’t report the collision.
“I had reported it to Met Police collisions team,” he said. “And despite the driver having Illegal tints, using his phone whilst driving, driving without due care and attention, hitting another vehicle, and jumping a red light at the same time while doing a hit-and-run, they did nothing about it.
“When I chased them up, they said they planned to do nothing about it, despite having crystal clear evidence of what had happened. Their reasoning was that the driver who was smashed into did not report the incident to the police. I tried multiple times, I contacted my MP, raised a complaint, and nothing came of it.”
The cyclist continued: “I want safe roads, and there’s nothing I can do but report it to the Met Police and trust that they will do something about it, but it is getting worse daily.
“Honestly the state of road policing in Harrow is zero. Every day it is getting worse, with no punishment for law breakers. With a constant response of lack of resource.
“I have asked under a FOI request how many police road traffic operations they’ve performed on Station Road (including illegal modifications like number plates, window tints, speeding, mobile phone usage) – their response was zero.
“This is despite over 250 reports on this one mile stretch of road of the crimes you can report to Met, such as close passes, mobile phone use, and red light jumping.”
Last week we reported that the same cyclist, after submitting more clips of driving offences, had been issued with warning letters by the Met – one for “leaning in towards drivers’ windows, especially lone female drivers”, and another for “riding down the middle of the road towards an oncoming bus”.
Criticising the warning letters – the first of which was later detracted by the police, who apologised for their “inaccurate recollection” of events – the cyclist claimed that the Met have “let off many drivers for actual dangerous situations” and said he reports motorists so “my wife isn’t in constant fear when my kids go out to the shops”.
The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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47 comments
Damn these vigilante cyclists! If only I hadn't been cycling confrontationally and there hadn't been a large white (they've changed round here) Post Office van occupying the oncoming lane, the Andrew Broster Roofing van wouldn't have been forced to come much closer to me than to the other van while exceeding the 30 limit
“When I chased them up, they said they planned to do nothing about it, despite having crystal clear evidence of what had happened. Their reasoning was that the driver who was smashed into did not report the incident to the police."
If your neighbour's house is being burgled whilst they are way on holiday do not waste your time calling the police. You are not the victim.
If only I hadn't created this tension by being on the road when the Stagecoach 42 wanted to get through to Dodge City!
https://upride.cc/incident/sk19evw_stagecoach42_closepass/
Always said bicycle vigilantes were dangerous for creating tension on the road, this time this tension was materialized, fortunately only with material damages.
No, just no you are not Batman. Don't create more hate on the road, and put other road users in danger. Record, report and keep it there.
While I would generally agree about not confronting people * there is no "creating" of anything happening by cyclists.
Arguably our road policing policy and practice is helping to avoid creating "tension" and "hate" - in the minds of people driving in an illegal manner. They are mostly totally relaxed about breaking the law in multiple ways!
Unfortunately this does create "tension" - nay "fear" - in the minds of people who want to use the roads in with a feeling of safety. Particularly those not within the protection of motor vehicles. And it will create "hate" in everyone who's delayed by the extra crashes caused by people driving dangerously, and indeed all drivers as insurance premiums rise.
While you're at it you might consider sending your new definition of "vigilante" to the relevant dictionaries, I don't think they've caught up yet.
* I do think people should be confronted about bad behaviour in general, but if they're armed (e.g. with a motor vehicle) it becomes more tricky. Especially if you are unarmed (e.g. on foot or bike). It is also difficult for people to learn when they're angry - which drivers often seem to be, or at least many become when their behaviour is criticised.
Not Vigilantes - the definition of Vigilante means the meat out their own justice. Members of the public submitting videos to the Police for public prosecution is not Vigilantism. In fact when Peel created the police force his exact expression was “the police are the public and the public are the police” so of course the public should should do something when they see someone breaking the law. The fact you think otherwise clearly shows your distain for the law and orderly society.
We agree, I wrote record and report. Had instead of the silver SUV had been a cyclist we could be speaking about a possible serious injury or death.
@chrisonabike I understand that the state has chosen not to prosecute drivers as hard as they should, but I am not the one to change it, while putting other road users at danger as in this example.
Fixed the first part for you; but where does the danger come from here? Would it change things for you if it had been a small child on their bike pointing at the driver and saying "don't do that"? If so, why?
EDIT: there is a systemic issue in that the majority of people in the UK don't consider some road offenses wrong at all. Or perhaps as "ideally avoided" - minor indiscretions but certainly not criminal. These include some speeding, pavement driving / parking, phone use while driving, driving "late" through a red light etc.
Quite a large number would go much further than that e.g. it's OK to have a joint then drive as long as you're not too tonked. Or some violence with a car is sometimes justified (it's their look-out / I didn't injure them so no problem / I only meant to scare them / they had it coming).
In this environment it is quite understandable not to risk spoiling your own day (or worse) for likely no gain. (Personally I tend to agree with the drift of BikeSnobNYC here).
...BUT that doesn't mean "fault lies with the cyclist".
If you cannot see an accident happening on the video posted above, that would not have happened without the cyclist intervention and don't consider this dangerous, I rest my case.
We could blah blah for years, but it is that simple really in this particular case.
You didn't answer the question? (I think we should swap some more notes on dictionaries - mine suggests "accident" is something unforeseeable and the word you're looking for is "crash" but I guess that's not interesting).
Again - not my personal MO to go telling people they're busted while in a vulnerable position, but you appear to be sailing into "she made me hit her" territory, no? How would this be different?
If the question is from where does the danger come, the answer is the moron driver and the vigilante cyclist, since had both not existed, the accident would never have happened. Can we eliminate the moron driver? No, if the police doesn't really want to be eliminated, he will always exist. So let's try to get rid of the vigilante cyclist, by not being ourselves.
Thanks - we're nearly there: "since had both not existed, the accident would never have happened". Since the moron driver wasn't bothering to look where they were driving and/or were to some degree distracted by their phone use (thus the science has it) it is a lot more likely that the driver would have crashed at some point in the very near future - without the need for any cyclist...
By which syllogism if someone crashes a car trying to escape from the police, we should get rid of the police because criminals trying to escape from them will always exist. Eliminate the police and there will be no need for the criminal to drive dangerously to escape them. That should work a treat.
I never said getting rid of the police. The police has special training, different legal framework and more important, different ways to remain visible and attract attention and fear. This vigilante cyclist guy, could very easily seems like a mugger or road rage attacker and provoke reactions as in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDiuJfDYrQI from people not having seen the full scene.
It is kind of funny but the last part is the exact same problem that Batman faces.
Ah, but it's the job of the police (bother them! unless we're being threatened beyond our ability to "sort it out ourselves" in which case they're OK obvs...).
Not entirely cyclisto''s point it seems, but ... apparently there are strong undercurrents not favouring the population at large being in any way actively involved in addressing crime. To many people that appears somewhere on a scale from busy-body curtain-twitching through "snitching" to "being a vigilante".
I probably agree somewhat with a similar course of action to that which cyclisto seems to be advocating for. As in: given drivers are invulnerable and dangerous, and given some may be in fear of people outside their exoskeleton or on a hair trigger, and given some react with rage to any "attack" on them ('you touch my motor?'), AND given that society at large doesn't really sympathise and the law definitely don't have your back...
... then the "retreat, report" bit on the end of "record, retreat, report" is sensible.
Even though at some point we need to get to a situation where the average person (outside the car or within) should indicate to the driver that this is NOT OK.
The stupidity here I don't get, see it all the time - a car that comes, as standard, on all models, with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Bluetooth, together with a button on the steering wheel to operate Siri etc., I don't get why anyone needs to have their phone in their hand! I drive one of these Volvo V60's and my phone goes into the centre armrest, where the USB cable is. Darned thing even reads texts/WhatsApp messages out to you, so whats the excuse for holding it? As for what happens after he gets caught red-handed, well, I have no words, can't explain that much stupid.
Harow is my local area as well. Since the millenium I've been taken by ambulance to Northwick Park A & E 3 times due to driver error. Local met police have attended each. Not a single proscution or any other action, even for the driver that ran over me whilst I was stopped at a junction, or the mini cab driver on his phone. The other incident, I can only be grateful for the CID officers who came out of the police station opposite to give me first aid and call an ambulance, and took my bike inside. The traffic dept. Again nothing. Harrow and NW London traffic police have a serious culture problem.
Just the other day, in the morning, at school time, children everywhere, I cycled alongside a motorist who was on her phone for about 30 seconds before she noticed me and the quickly threw her phone down. Now, I was on a cargo bike, I have very bright lights on the bike, the bike is loaded and it is large and I cycled right adjacent to her right side window, waving at her; - but she did not notice me becuase she had the phone in her left hand and was looking down at it as she drove along past a primary school.
That's seriously poor policing from the Met. Are they trying to match Police Scotland for an inability to address traffic policing?
That's seriously poor policing from the Met. Are they trying to match Police Scotland for an inability to address traffic policing?
I resent this failure to acknowledge the true pioneers and exponents of Zero Effort, 100% Tolerance Traffic Policing!
When there is a such a clear and obvious series of offenses dismissed by the police (and local MP) I feel the driver must be someone who they feel obliged to protect.
Some people are above the law it may seem. I wonder if they are celebrity, royalty , govt official or even police. Somebody who is obviously too big to have embarrassed in tbe local paper or magistrates courts.
Because sometimes a conspiracy theory is true.
This is an impressive new way of avoiding work by the police! Several crimes here (eg. phone use) - so is the new game "if we can identify *one* offense shown as having guidelines saying we need additional evidence we can safely ignore the lot".
might be another reason it's too much trouble for the police to trace the volvo driver...
and why the driver was so keen to get away
Could it also be that the victim didnt have valid insurance/driving license or M.O.T so didnt report it in fear of themselves being investigated???
I mean why wouldnt you roll the dice for free money to repair your car? Id be reporting it straight away if there was any damage. That damage is going to be at least £300-600 at a body repair shop.
No evidence on the video of any interaction between themselves and the cyclist so possibly they simply didn't get the reg number?
In my country it's not even possible to get and keep a registration plate without MOT or insurance...
How do you/they deal with cloned registration plates?
In Norway at least, only the Govt roads authority are allowed to make car plates. Trailers also have their own reg and officially issued plates.
Clones are really not a problem here, partly as getting plates isn't easy.
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