Thursday 4 August 2011

Surrey Driving Without Due Consideration Case

Approximately 10 miles or so of my commute takes me through Surrey and I have been sending in video clips of bad driving taking place in that area for a while now.  When the Surrey police agree that the driving is bad they generally send a letter (rather as the Metropolitan Police RoadSafeLondon officers do).  The Surrey Police have decided to prosecute one of the motorists I filmed for driving without due care/consideration.  I will say no more about it until the case is concluded save to note that Surrey Police took the intiative on this and required none of the cajoling required for the one case (still as yet unconcluded) based on footage taken by me in the Metropolitan Police area.
The third area I commute through is Thames Valley who have a policy of not even supplying the form to report bad driving unless you are able first to supply the full registration number and the details of an independent witness.  I once tried to circumvent this by contacting my local neighbourhood officer about bad driving in my own village but in accordance with force policy got no response.
I have no difficulty ranking the three forces through which I commute in order of effectiveness:  Surrey is top and Thames Valley bottom.

Subsequent edit: However,as though to remind us that no police force appears to be wholly free of 'motorcentricity', the Mole Valley Police in Surrey have made fools of themselves handing out leaflets to cyclists on Box Hill threatening them with fines for inconsiderate cycling.

UPDATE 08.12.11  Unfortunately it has been discovered that the motorist I filmed, one Christopher Bootle, who was charged with driving without due care/consideration was not sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution within the time required and I have been informed that the summons has now been withdrawn.

3 comments:

  1. Well done Sir !

    Hope the "Met. Police " will take note of the fact that they are out of step with what the majority of " general Public " require these days .

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  2. Isn't the Thames Valley Police chief, Sara Thornton, widely tipped to take over as the Met Commissioner?

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  3. Martin - not sure if you caught this article further illustrating the Met Police's attitude...
    http://voleospeed.blogspot.com/2011/07/problem-with-assertive-cycling.html

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