Hit and run advice request

Ok, so earlier today I was out on the road bike when I was hit hard from behind by a car. I’m not sure exactly what happened but I heard a split second screech then all sorts of banging and I was thrown into a grass verge where I landed on my back. I managed to look up and see the color of the car, and that it had taxi reg plates, as it lit up it’s tyres and burned off. I was genuinely amazed to be able to get up with what seems to be only a couple of bruises. The bike had come to a stop 5-10m away from me with (at least) a caved in back wheel.

There were two other witnesses, a farmer and another motorist who both checked I was OK. They both confirmed the color of the vehicle, and that it was a taxi and kept me company while the police turned up. The fog light of the taxi had fallen off which confirmed the color and the model of the car. I declined an ambulance and the police gave me a lift home, with the bike.

The police rang me a couple of hours later to say that despite the color and model of the taxi they were unable to trace it with any local rank. Without a reg number they couldn’t do much else, and they were just going to have to “keep an eye out” for a taxi matching this description.

There was over 200m of dead straight road behind me, it was broad daylight, I was riding away from the sun, only inches from the edge of the road, and I was wearing flouro spandex. There’s basically no way that the driver can have not seen me, if they were looking at the road. The driver took off and might well believe that I’m dead, there’s no way they could know whether I was OK. I really want this driver prosecuted, I want the damage to my bike paid for and I want to know the taxi firm so I never use them as a customer.

What are my options? Should I start by asking the police to do more? See a solicitor? Where I live there is a very active local facebook group, I could appeal for any witnesses who had seen the damaged taxi afterwards or anyone who had just been dropped off by that taxi. Is that sensible? Could I compromise a prosecution case by appealing for further witnesses?

Happy, and very surprised, to have walked away, but furious! Thanks for any help

You could use facebook to get the word out and try and get an id, hang out round the taxi ranks and see if you see it. There is not much the police can do unless they want to stop every taxi.

Next stop would be the local paper with your witnesses but I’d check with the police before you do that.

keep an eye out for taxis with one light missing, conract the MIB, motor insurers bureu and lodge a claim for damages from an un identified driver /vehicle, you have witnesses.

sounds nasty. hope your doing ok?

taxis are registered (with the council?) they should be able to trace a pink hillman (or whatever). police should be able to do a bit more i’d have thought.

On the road that you were on check houses and businesses for CCTV that May cover any area of the road also look out for any traffic ANPR cameras, if you find any if it was me I would make sure the data on any digital CCTV is not overwritten and speak to the officer dealing again and ask that he/ she makes further investigations accordingly. I know there is plenty that can be done to narrow down or identify the exact vehicle nationally if the officer puts their mind to it but I am now retired from the role of Constable. Believe me if you were dead there would be more effort made!

Asking for people to keep an eye out for the taxi would not compromise the investigation or prosecution. I assume there is no cctv in the area either on that stretch or at either end . Local shops often have cameras . That could identify the taxis in the area.

Hope all works out .

Not likely to be much CCTV where it happened, and unfortunately Silver Octavias are ten a penny in Private Hire world. I’ll keep a lookout for you bud, I’m local.

The problem with finding the taxi, is that it might not be from the area where you live. I am in Guildford (surrey) and often see taxi’s from counties hundreds of miles away.

Good luck finding him (or her) though!

@Scapegoat – thanks. I was trying not to give too much away, obviously that worked out well!

So yep, it was a Silver Skoda Octavia. Holt Head road, near Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, heading towards Blackmoorfoot. Approx 2:30pm on the 2nd of Jan. Feel free to share!

Give us your location and details of the car and we can keep our eyes open as well.

Shocking stuff. Hope they get caught.

They were probably texting or something.

the main thing is youre ok. it wasnt the boss of addison lee? jokes aside good luck.

@Rockhopper – thanks, see above for full details

MK1 or MK2 Octavia? Nearside or offside foglight? Im in Hudds this weekend.

Oh and buy a lottery ticket you lucky ****! 🙂

I thought that until you posted the location we had a pretty pointless post….

The silver Octavia was just an example, we could have been looking for a pink Hillman in guildford otherwise ……. 😉

Being knocked off your bike is the least of your problems. I’d say you need to address this first:

I was wearing flouro spandex

In all honesty, glad you’re ok. Try surrounding areas – could have been from Oldham, Halifax, Dewsbury etc. Unfortunately like you say, Octavias seem to be the taxi drivers weapon of choice around here. Can’t remember seeing many silver ones though vs the usual white ones…

Glad your okay , I’d ask the local radio station to ask for witnesses or the local paper to do the same . Somebody other than the driver knows this has happened. It’s a cowardly thing to leave someone possibly badly injured or dead .

Very lucky.Probably have a shared licence and no insurance 😉 if you know what I mean.Be tempted to check out a few taxi ranks in Huddersfield and let the police know if you see anything suspicious / relevant damage

I was wearing flouro spandex

Funsized mars bar inside?

@hora

Not sure if it was mk1 or mk2, but it was the left front fog light. I imagine there was further damage to the car too. Thanks.

I don’t do the lotto normally but I may take you up on that suggestion!

Where there any buses going past at the time ?

Most buses now have CCTV on and might have captured something

Shared this on FB on the off-chance, as I’m local to you. Will keep an eye out. Huddersfield taxi drivers are **** scum to a man, some of the worst drivers on the road, and many of them clearly hate cyclists given the number of punishment passes they deal out.

I sincerely hope they catch him, but sadly it’s not likely given the police’s typical response. Sounds like they can’t be arsed, most likely because you were silly enough to be on the road on a push bike. Scary. 🙁

I live in Elland, I will keep my eyes open pal

I sincerely hope they catch him, but sadly it’s not likely given the police’s typical response. Sounds like they can’t be arsed, most likely because you were silly enough to be on the road on a push bike. Scary.

🙄

The taxi office nearest to this incident has loads of Octavias.I went there this morning and saw four in the space of ten minutes, none of which were missing a foglight.

So, Sherlock, where would you start? A rural road, two witnesses who can confirm the colour of the car, a victim who is pretty certain it’s a silver Private Hire Octavia. No one has seen the driver’s face, and there are literally thousands of Private Hire drivers in Kirklees, not to mention this was bordering GMP, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire.

The police will brief officers to be on the lookout for Silver Octavia Private Hire cars with missing foglights, and will check to see how many silver Octavias are actually registered in Kirklees. They may be able to narrow it down, but given the Taxi industry’s reputation for guardedness, they aren’t all that likely to get a conviction even if they can identify the car.

The police are taking this seriously. I find your “the police won’t give a shit because we’re cyclists” attitude offensive.

@scapegoat – Beaten you to it with my best Jim Rockford impression, you were on the right track, but I snapped him away from the depot. Already phoned it in and reported it down at the station. I’ve got a photo too 🙂

Thanks for all your help.

Thank you for all the nice words and helpful comments. As described above there has been some progress and it’s back with the cops

Commiserations, OP. Regrettably I think it will be very difficult to identify the driver, even if the police find the car. “My cousin was driving innit” etc

@scapegoat, please accept my sincere apologies. I intended no personal offence, and my outburst was expressed in sympathy with el_bandito without appropriate consideration.

In my defence, his original post did seem to indicate that very little action was being taken by the police (“Should I start by asking the police to do more?”). But reading between the lines here it appears that you have provided great assistance to him since his initial questions. I wish you all the best in this and hope that the enquiries are fruitful and that the authorities are able to bring this criminal to justice. Once again, my apologies.

A Huddersfield taxi? Now I understand and I’m pleased you were not badly injured, OP. I see these guys driving every day and, frankly, it does not surprise me in the least.

I hope there were no racist implications in my earlier post!

@el_bandido nice work. I didn’t do much to be fair I just had a nosey round Slawit after dropping the kids off in linthwaite . Good to see your sleuthing paid off.

@mintimperial. No worries, but I see the “everybody hates cyclists and the authorities hate us more than anyone else” BS spewed out so often, it adds nothing positive to threads. I didn’t do much to help, but I do feel strongly that someone who has to prove they are a fit and proper person to drive a taxi has left someone possibly for dead at the side of a rural road. Why would the police think any differently?

Scapegoat , I really hope that el_bandido gets some sort of justice out of this, however, from my current experience of GMP’s handling of the hit and run I was involved in just before Christmas they won’t necessarily do anything. I was using a headcam so everything was caught on film, driver nearly had me head on on my side of the road but caught the rear of the bike as I dived to the left in the last second. Very obvious impact so no excuse for running, but they did. The car registration can be made out in the video and I read it outloud to make sure. The police have written to the owner of the vehicle and the driver has accepted that they were involved in an incident. Police are currently taking no further action.

At the moment I am more pissed off with the police’s apparent can’t be bothered dealing with it attitude than that of the scumbag driver. I haven’t finished with the matter yet so hopefully not lying down will cause the police to deal with it properly.

@andyg68
A lot depends on circumstances, and what actually happened. Were you injured, or was your bike damaged? In your case the police have traced the driver, and i presume interviewed them if they have accepted they were involved, and you now have the wherewithal to claim off their insurance. Prosecution for the offences of due care and failing to stop are likely only in cases of injury collisions. You are entitled to ask them to consider prosecuting, but unless you were seriously injured the police are hamstrung by the CPS, and force policy will mean that only in exceptional circumstances would they take the driver to court.

And before anyone else says it, that policy extends to ALL road users, not just cyclists…….

By a miracle I wasn’t injured but the bike (£1650) is a write off due to the extent of damage to the rear. I have no evidence that the driver has been interviewed, though that will be one of the questions when I write to the police later today. There is nothing in the letter from the police to suggest that they have spoken to the driver other than through the mail.

It would not surprise me if this was policy, however, this is not a minor matter, hit and run is a serious offence and there is clear driving without due care and attention. The driver has shown complete lack of regard for other road users and the law.

As my son said, “If I went round and put a brick through their window, the police would soon be onto me and have me in court for criminal damage”.

The police also haven’t supplied name and insurance information. I’ve worked out name and address myself but that’s a fluke of where it happened.

@andyq68
you stated the driver has accepted they were involved in an incident. I did use the word presume, so we’re into minutiae of language here…..

You are entitled to request the driver details from the police so that you can claim the costs of the damage to your bike from his insurers.

The policy of only pursuing injury RTCs is nationwide. Not everybody agrees with it, but you will obtain redress from his insurer whether or not the case goes to court. Prosecutions for due care etc are time consuming and costly and very very rarely result in anything other than a fine and points for the driver, so would not benefit you directly in any case.

But this could be called dangerous driving (failure to give due regard to vulnerable road users) and there’s also the leaving the scene/failure to report.

Duplicate post

@Scapegoat – whoops, better be clear. My suspect is from a rank in Crosland Moor, not Slaithwaite

The policy of only pursuing injury RTCs is nationwide.

Out of interest, what body decides on this policy? and do you how the public find out about what other policies are in place?