Radio Newcastle DJ gets ban and fine for careless driving around two off-duty policemen on a bike ride

Surely these are issues that we should be bringing to the attention of our new Police Commissioners? I have already, and, of course, he has not bothered to reply(Tony Hogg) suspect he is too busy choosing a nice big expensive car.... what a waste of space.

I have a copper friend who had a bus take him out. He was close to a central refuge with a cycle lane going through it. He was right on the line which is positioned about 1/3 of total width of the space.

The bus or more correctly I should say coach went for the gap at the same time as my mate and his handlebars got trapped in a pole on the outside of the bus that acts as one of the pivots for the door.

He was flipped 360 through the air and landed on his back but fortunately he had a backpack on at the time. He was travelling at about 26mph at the time and sustained injuries that kept him off work for about 4 months I think (could have been a lot worse)

The coach had cameras on the side but it takes shots on a time delay and at intervals NOT as a video. You could see my mate coming off but not the coach coming through the gap BEHIND him.

To top all this the insurance company concerned are still fighting tooth and nail after 2 years NOT to pay out even conducting surveillance on him to "PROVE" hes making a fraudulent claim.

Sorry Guys but there is no justice for us cyclists where RTC's are concerened

a few months ago we had a traffic police car pass our club ride so close you could touch it and then cut up the front riders int he group - on a main road with loads of clear space to pass.

This stuff happens all day every day sadly...

6 months ban, what's with judges?

Once attended a court case for dangerous driving, at a crwon court. The defendant walked, despite the clear evidence. Comment (ironic) from a police sgt on the case, "what do you expect, in this city (in the midlands)they are mostly drivers, 50% illiterate, and 50% illegitamate", so conviction is unlikely as they can all see themselves in the dock sometime...

@ Stumps and Stato. I'm hoping that the cameras on the bus will highlight how close he was as there was no one walking past at the time. The driver also saaid he didn't give a rat's arse about the camera!! The crazy thing is that if I was in a car he would never have attempted the overtake. Am going to go back and try and get them to have a look at the footage. Hopefully something will come about. Looks like a helmet cam is on the xmas wish list now.

I had a motorist drive his car at me in feb in Gateshead after some heated words when he nearly took me off. Then he actually got out of the car and tried to a swings at me then kicked my back wheel as he left, warping it badly. Despite Northumbria Police collecting CCTV footage from cameras on a bus and outside a pub, plus a witness statement from a taxi driver which all showed this, the driver got off scot-free??

I now wish I'd pursued this more, but I had the feeling I was p**sing against the wind. The particular officer involved clearly could not see the seriousness of what had happened.

Disgraceful behaviour from Wappat. It has similarities to what happened to me though despite the evidence, my assailant did not receive a £500 fine or a ban?? Actually it sounds like what happened to me was a worse encounter.

giff77, report it to the bus company, most busses have CCTV now and they will review the tapes if you report it to reprimand the driver.

giff77 - any witnesses ? If not you've got no chance of getting it past the cps, we cant even get domestic assaults run if there are no witnesses .

If there were 2 + then its a runner.

As CraigS says, would this actually have got as far as the courts if the cyclists had not been police? I was narrowly missed by a bus the other day - inches to spare. On catching up at the bus stop and challenging him, he claimed to have given me plenty of room. That I needed my eyes tested and was a danger to myself! On reporting the incident to the police was told they couldn't do anything about it.

Both officers are friends of mine and to say they would lie or fabricate evidence is an insult and a bloody disgrace.

Some of the earlier comments here are beyond belief and utter crap.

Can't quite see what is careless about driving past really close and then stopping to verbally abuse the cyclists. The first act was clearly dangerous driving as he meant to do it and the second act of verbally abusing (his own words) is surely a public order offence.

About time miscreant motorists got treated as such!

And police officers never exaggerate or adulterate the truth?

Obviously the 'Twelve good men and true' were not.

I would like to think it would but I very much have my doubts.

Two witnesses both coppers and they take the word of the single driver over the witnesses! Abandon hope all geordie cyclists.

So even when it happens to the police the court system still goes soft on aggressive drivers!