Ten Londoners a day injured by hit and run drivers - Jenny Jones urges action

Ah dear... Yes been a victim of a couple of road rage assualts on London's streets, par for the course when commuting in London I am afraid and partly what pushed me back in moutain biking instead of getting mowed over on Essex roads.

What surprises me most about this article is there is a Traffic Police Force in London. I have lived here 8 years and was ignorant of this forces existence mostly, I suspect, because I've never seen one on the street...

Also been the victim of a hit and run in London.

Driver slowed down, looked out of the rear view mirror and then drove off. Number plate was useless to the police, though they did log it on there system so it'll be flagged up on the ANPR system. I never heard anything back.

Not really surprised to be honest.

I was knocked over the other week by a coach pulling into the cycle lane on Putney Bridge. It just drove off and another cyclist asked if I was okay.

Slightly grazed and a bit shocked but didn’t feel it was worth the hassle of reporting to be honest.

The coach had a big sticker on the back saying Cheetah Coaches BTW.

A friend of mine was knocked off his bike at a busy junction in South London last year. He landed heavily and broke both his elbows and was lucky not to have more serious injuries. The elbows healed well fortunately. The car driver, who had turned left on my friend without indicating, had sped off after the incident. The traffic cameras that should have caught the incident were apprently pointing in the wrong direction, or perhaps the police simply weren't interested.

The attitude of the police with regard to hit and run incidents is appalling. If the incident involves a fatality they do tend to take action but otherwise they don't seem to give a toss. Don't get me started on how the police treat bicycle theft - but in short it seems as if the victim is considered a nuisance.

On my commute I pass plenty of vehicles that are clearly unroadworthy but the police never seem to notice. And I also pass many vehicles being driven by people smoking cannabis but again, the police don't seem to care.

One of the issues that really gets up my nose as a road user (car, motorcycle and cyclist) is the focus on controlling speeding in recent years. Actual traffic policing has been downgraded as a priority, with the result that unsafe vehicles and poor driving and hit an run incidents ahve all been allowed to continue. A decrease in the fatality rate has occurred but had the police taken positive action on road policing, this could have been rather more significant in terms of scale.

given the number of near misses I've had, I'm surprised the numbers are so low...

It's information such as this that makes me think I should just give up cycling in London. It's bad enough when the morons have a driving license but when they don't, anything could happen.

The Evening Standard's use of the term "collision" reinforces the misinterpretation of these incidents as though the victim is somehow implicated.

"Collision" surely implies that two objects with similar mass and speed but travelling in different directions come into contact with each other. Subatomic particles "collide" in a particle accelerator. Asteroids occasionally "collide" with the moon or the earth. Motor vehicles travelling in opposite directions "collide".

When a motor vehicle hits a pedestrian, cycliss or horse rider, that is not a "collision" because the mass and velocity of the two are wildly different - the motor vehicle knocks down, runs over, hits, or whatever, the pedestrian etc.

@gazzaputt I completely agree. They do not care about cyclists at all - I was hit and they had the lady responsible but said the maximum fine she would receive would be £30 and it wasn't worth their time pursuing the case. In the hospital the doctor told me had I been in my 40s or 50s I would have been very seriously injured (apparently you're a bit more springy in your 20s). They don't seem to be interested or able to do anything about bad, aggressive, careless or dangerous driving in London....

As for bike thefts.... don't even get me started on the London police forces!

After being a victim of a hit and run in 2009 I'd like to add the Metropolitan Police's disinterest in pursuing hit and run cases.

Whilst being attended to by a paramedic in the ambulance the kindly WPC insisted I signed her notebook for a statement. The fact the both my hands were bleeding badly seemed to pass her by. With her being insistent that I sign the notebook the paramedic had top ask her to leave the ambulance and follow us to the hospital and speak with me there. The WPC never did.

I had to follow up to make sure that CCTV from the area and local buses was obtained. Even then the footage wasn't reviewed by the police!

Unless the drive bothers to stop it seems the Metropolitan police can't be arsed.