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Update for those that were interested...
received a letter from the collisions investigator last night saying that they have decided no further action to be taken, as apparently not in the public interest to proceed.
No information as to whether my discussion was a factor in that decision or not.
Does that mean the guy still has to attend the course ?
IT said "no further action" so my guess is no.
The guy who turned across me in May 2013 was initially going to get an awareness course which I agreed to, it was a mistake on his part not a deliberate hurt a cyclist action.
Turned out in the end that he's only just wiped off the points he'd had for driving with due care and based on that and his 6 points for speeding the police took him to court and he got a ban and a fine.
Interestingly the police officer rang me to tell me this even though he wasn't obliged to do so. The police were excellent throughout.
not in the public interest to proceed.
Do we get to vote on that?
Do we get to vote on that?
no. If the evidence was "word on word" , then the CPS view would be to drop it, if it ever got to the CPS from the Collision Bureau. If the guy knows this and has decent advice, he will choose the court route when given the option. Without independent witnesses or an admission by the driver the case is dead in the water. Even if the guy has made a full and frank admission on interview, then the expense of taking it to a court [b]may[/b] mean that it is not "in the public interest" (which in these days of bean-counting is a weigh up of cost v benefit)
Awareness courses are available to drivers who admit the offence and agree to go on them. No matter what the OP's opinion is, it is still up to him to take that option. The only input the OP actually had was to agree that he would be happy to let the police make that offer.
So, perhaps a lesson to us all. The driver may have appeared all contrite at the time, but probably took a gamble when faced with the choice of losing a day's pay plus the cost of an awareness course, or a three pointer and less than half that in fines. If my licence was clean I'd opt for the points, especially knowing what I know about the appetite of the CPS to prosecute minimal injury accidents.
Now, Restorative justice is another matter. I might be tempted to suggest he could "walk a mile in my shoes", and join me on a rush hour commute. He may learn to respect bike safety a bit more after ten miles of being buzzed by private hire drivers, buses and other blithe morons.
If the evidence was "word on word" , then the CPS view would be to drop it, if it ever got to the CPS from the Collision Bureau. If the guy knows this and has decent advice, he will choose the court route when given the option. Without independent witnesses or an admission by the driver the case is dead in the water.
FWIW, it wasn't word on word, as I mentioned earlier I had an independent witness who co-operated with me, and the officer who investigated, and the driver also did admit fault.
The letter said it did make it to the CPS but they decided not to proceed as not in public interest.
The police investigated in a timely manner, kept me informed, and I am satisfied that the driver and I sorted things out between us amicably. Overall I am reasonably happy with the outcome, maybe I would be happier if he had gone on the course but I'm not bitter that he hasn't, [i]I believe[/i] that he got the kick he needed and was genuinely remorseful.
Now you raise hell. He has got away with it and there is good chance that all he has is a big smug smile.
My answer was going to be the course, being that the penalty doesn't solve the issue, though discourages doing it again but if he's not sure what he did or failed to do then it doesn't help.
But if he's let off with nothing then that's even worse.
Daft that's it's not in the public interest for a case like this, but dare to do 35 in a 30 and instant fine / offer of a speed awareness course, either way near £100 in their pocket.
brooess - Member
OP - whilst I endorse the comments on here about the speed awareness course being very thought-provoking and having a long term effect, when I went on mine it was about general driving, very little focus on how to drive around cyclists.
Mine made it quite clear it's not about how to get past those pesky cyclists, but about awareness of them in the first place and not being in such a rush, taking more care. Most the incidents aren't on overtaking them anyway but at junctions, and the observation videos pointed this out. They also stressed the "it's fine if bikes are two abreast" and how that's better for overtaking if it's a large group of them. Though there was a lot of anti-bike hate in the group I was in and discussions about cyclists weren't positive.
Not that mine was anything about crashing into cyclists, it was just speed awareness after getting caught speeding down the M4... to get to BPW to go riding 😀