Cyclist frustrated by police inaction after being "nearly killed" by lorry driver, as rider told he was in "blind spot" and driver in company vehicle can't be traced

On this one the Leicestershire Constabulary response seems dishonest - on the blaind spot point - the driver just has a responsibility to look and see, and misleading in general.

Rep of Leics Constabulary is mud.

The response from Leicestershire Police is poor, completely ignoring the elephant in the room, the very obvious issue with the way the HGV was driven, failing to stop / give way at a junction where legally required to do so. It's almost as if motoring offences have been wiped from the statute book in certain police force areas.

How the driver didn't see the cyclist is beyond me. You can see from the reflections that the cyclist has bright lighting. At night you can't miss that. The driver either was distracted (on the phone) or simply didn't care. Add to that the threatening comments and you have to ask how incompetent the police have to be not to respond? 

Send the footage to the company. Maybe they'll do something, maybe not.

If that cyclist is in a blind spot given they have moved well out from the kerb, I can't see how the driver would see anything smaller than a 7.5T van...

Of course the reality is they approached it at a speed where they assumed they could just carry on through (possibly in this case relying on bright headlights).

I would be very very surprised if a company had enough HGV's moving at night for them not to be able to identify the driver from location, rough time (i.e. within an hour) licence plate and tacho data. All of which are either provided or (in the case of tacho data) are legally required...

This whole story is a collection of pathetic police dodges- they don't make any sense because they don't have to! There is no supervision of the police in any sensible way. The time is wrong...we can't do anything-there is no rear-facing camera...we can't do anything- there is no calibrated overhead drone footage...we can't do anything etc. etc. I have GPS timing on my videos/ photos- this is accurate internally to tiny fractions of a second, and the displayed time (although the ancient unsupported GoPro software only gives minutes) is 'accurate' to a second compared to network or Rugby radio time. If it's not receiving GPS correctly, it doesn't display at all. I'm sure the police would dispute this if it suited them, but it doesn't really apply as they bin them all anyway

It is funny that a company that can afford multiple vehicles of that size can't afford to have a website for the business...

Are calls to 101 recorded? If so, they can verify the time of the video that way and can ignore the incorrect timestamp. (Yes, I know police are just using the timestamp as an excuse to not do anything.)   

Laughable being told to use a cycle lane by some who's probably never used one except to park in....
Passive cycling/anti cycling layout by the local authority from the sound of it.

In defence of 'not using the cycle path', I sometimes use this route and I can confidently state that the bicycle infrastructure on Putney Road is very badly designed. I would advise everyone I know to stay in the main carriageway as it is much faster, safer, and more comfortable. In the space of 500m there are three locations where the flow of bicycle traffic is forced to come to a halt. Two of the locations are light controlled Toucan crossings where the cycle path crosses from one side of Putney Road to the other, and then back again. I have recently reviewed the Putney Road cycle path against the Crow Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic and it does not fare well. If you are interested, here is my review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrGLu9X3Buo

Disgusting inaction from the police, but sadly all too familiar.

If I was this cyclist, I would do an 'audit' of this company. In the same manor as DJ Audits for example.

EDIT: Now that I have read this article fully, it is clear the Police made no attempt (ie s172) to obtain the driver's details from the company.

I think I will ask the BBB about the legitimacy of rejecting video evidence with an incorrect timestamp, when there is first hand witness evidence.

Glad you're okay!

As said before about blind spots, drivers are meant to move their head to look around blind spots. Lorry driver was over committed to junction and rolling through whatever had the right of way.
Also, if they can't trace driver of a company vehicle then that is clearly a Health and Safety Executive issue as it is required by law to know who is driving what vehicle at any time.
Try for a review of the decision and also consider approaching H&S people with information helpfully provided by the police.

JHFC. To paraphrase* Wolfgang Pauli, Leiestershire Police aren't even wrong.

Difficult to know where to start. The wilful ignorance of the Highway Code, general road safety, or the absolute basics of carrying out an investigation. I know it's Leicestershire and not much happens there, but that's no excuse for such halfwitted douchebaggery.

No, the high point - not that I'm suggesting that Leicestershire Police had been at the funny cakes with their morning tea - has got to be their dazzlingly stupid late entry for the 2024 Making Stuff** Up Championship with "you were in the blind spot". In front of the truck, right in the sightline of where the road user coming out from a minor road can and damn well should be looking. Any blind spot would on the NS/RNS of the vehicle. FMJ.

* probably inaccurately, apocryphally, and definitely in the wrong language. ** Just in case my Nanna reads this forum.

Institutionally anti-cyclist

(for what it is worth, my old camera used to occasionally re-set the time stamp, so that the time stamp was out by several years. This was never a barrier to prosecution, including for some quite serious stuff like an assault I witnessed, as well as close passes)