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news
NMotD 752Highway Code changes: video submissions made to police rise as cyclists urged to report law-breaking drivers
Submissions to police of video evidence of poor driving have risen since the Highway Code was updated at the end of January according to dashcam manufacturer Nextbase, which also operates the portal many forces use to allow people to upload footage.
Meanwhile, Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox of Lincolnshire Police, who is the national lead on fatal collision investigation reporting at the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) says that “the police can’t be everywhere all the time, but the public can be” – and is urging cyclists to use cameras on their helmets or handlebars to catch law-breaking drivers.
Our own Near Miss of the Day feature now runs to more than 750 articles. Not all of the videos we have shown in the series have resulted in action being taken against the driver, but many have – including some cases where footage has been re-examined after being highlighted on road.cc.
Speaking to Telegraph.co.uk, DCS Cox – who also raises funds through charity runs and bike rides for the road collision victims’ charity RoadPeace – said: “It’s an individual choice, and it’s a choice to report any footage that they may capture.
“But the feedback I have from cyclists and drivers, who find some of the driving standards unacceptable and are deeply frustrated by it, is that they welcome the opportunity to provide footage for us.”
Bryn Brooker of Nextbase told the newspaper that submissions through its portal had risen since changes to the Highway Code – including a Hierarchy of Road Users aimed at protecting the most vulnerable, and motorists being advised to leave at least 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists – were introduced in late January.
He said that whereas drivers who put other road users at risk “just got away with it,” the availability of footage from dashcams in cars or through videos shot by cyclists mean it is now easier to bring law-breakers to justice.
He added that Nextbase is “really aimed at dangerous drivers, not drivers who made a simple mistake.”
Police forces across the country have faced a funding crisis since the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition – which also scrapped targets to reduce road casualties – came to power in 2010.
As a result, many roads policing units throughout the UK are under-resourced, making third party footage captured by motorists and cyclists an essential tool in combatting poor driving that puts others in danger.
Cycling UK policy director Roger Geffen told Telegraph.co.uk: “I wish cyclists didn't feel the need to have helmet cameras. The world would be a better place if they didn't feel the need to do so.
“If we want to normalise cycling, not just for the battle-hardened, Lycra-wearing stereotype of cyclists but as a normal thing that grandparents and grandchildren alike can do as a way of getting from A to B, then we need to take dangerous drivers off the road.
“If dashcam and helmetcam footage is part of the means to do that, in the absence of proper road policing, then so be it,” he added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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81 comments
Funny how every rule gets "stretched" in drivers' favour. I find that over time the stretch beds in, becomes the new normal and then there's another stretch. And that's before the trivialising, denying and and downplaying from the individual driver has even got started.
Cameras and the processing power needed to sit behind them are the right way to go because the offending by drivers is on an industrial scale which needs to be matched. While it's nice to see police Twitter accounts saying they've pulled someone over and vehicle is prohibited, etc, that's just tackling it one at a time.
I hope to live to see a time when every car carries a mandatory tamperproof GPS chip registering speed, position relative to red lights etc. It would take huge political will and would have to overcome a huge amount of whinging, but it's surely the way to go?
Cars are a conflation of transport, and individual power/prestige. A car is many people's greatest expression thereof and many also see it as a way "to stick it to the man". Right from the start, it's often been a puerile game of cat and mouse, drivers and police.
If cars were just about safe, convenient transport (let's not get started on all the environmental/pollution factors just now) then the GPS idea would be a simple one to do. The e-scooters point the way as to what can and should be done.
Add to that, how every Monday the local papers will have a list of where the police will be stationing mobile speed cameras for the next week. Do they also confirm where police patrols will be, or which houses have burglar alarms, for the convenience of the robbing community? ("It's just a war on burglars!").
Intelligent Speed Assist, mandatory on new cars in the EU (and probably UK) from July, may be the first step in that journey.
Yes, definitely a move in the right direction.
That would be fine if and only if you can guarantee that a future government won't be authoritarian and/or Evil...
Quite right. We can't trust the governments not to misuse this information - and previous evidence e.g. from the War on Terror shows that new powers will be misused to some extent.
Fortunately the public has seen through attempts to spy on them e.g. inject them with chips so they can be traced. Social media and the mobile phones we carry everywhere with us be praised! Without these beneficial technologies they'd have gotten away with it too.
Please forgive me, I think you are being sarcastic but I'm not 100% sure.
Forgiven. Self-indulgent of me. I'll try to stick to my less snarky drivel about more better infra and fewer motor vehicles.
I'd settle for just our current one not being evil, but maybe I'm a dreamer
I say that, but maybe you're not the only one?
As I have become older and wiser, having lived under many governments of differing flavours, I don't believe that any of them are competent or able to behave honourably, be it partygate (both Boris and Kier) or Blair with WMD's or Mays handling of Bexit and on an on!
Well, I've been around the block a few times, and this is the worst government in my lifetime; nothing else comes close to their incompetence, venality and outright lies.
Seconded, Johnson is the tenth PM of my lifetime and he sneaks the biscuit for the most corrupt, dishonest and downright disrespectful of the office with insolent ease.
The worst Governments always seem to coincide with the most useless oposition and can do whatever they want. Eventually they lose an election and we hope for positive change but are usually dissapointed with more of the same.
I don't think Boris has done anything as bad as Blair taking us to war and invading another country on an outright lie (Putinesque) - disgraceful!
I'm certainly not here to support Boris or the Tory party - my point is they're all corrupt, lying, useless tossers.
I don't think Boris has done anything as bad as Blair taking us to war and invading another country on an outright lie (Putinesque) - disgraceful!
I'm certainly not here to support Boris or the Tory party - my point is they're all corrupt, lying, useless tossers.
With ANPR and CCTV everywhere, plus the ability to trace mobile devices, the capacity already exists for an authoritarian/evil government to abuse its powers, that genie is well and truly out of the bottle I'm afraid. In any case, the fact that a law or policy could be abused is not always a reason not to have it; ultimately one could say all sorts of things we need for a well-ordered society, from keeping an electoral roll to maintaining a police force, could be abused in the wrong hands (not that I'm saying they're in the right hands at the moment, you understand...).
I remember the clamour from car
wankersenthusiats like "Jezza" to up the speed limits on Motorways to 80mph as "most people" drive close to that due to the 10% give in the laws on speeding. Of course if they had got their way then "most people" would be driving at 90 for the same reason.Consistency of the police response is key - I've mentioned before that over the past 4 years of reporting to the same police force (Norfolk), the response for the same level of close pass/careless driving has varied from constant NIP to warning letters to no further action. The switch between action happens suddenly and then stays consistent for several months, so I can only assume there is massive variation in how different officers interpreted the same offence.
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