Near Miss of the Day 399: "For a terrifying second I thought they'd got us"

I wondered if it was Covid 19 related, normally Suffolk police are good at dealing with close pass video submissions, and Id have been fairly confident theyd have sent a NIP in other circumstances even with only a rear facing camera for that overtake

But with all driving courses suspended for 3months, and the statutory limit for a motoring offence to appear in a magistrates court is I believe 6months, so they may well be not pursuing prosecutions for these types of incident at the moment.

Also, further from the roundabout but a blind bend.

Thanks for that, it looks to me as if they also started that overtake immediatly after a staggered junction warning sign.

It seems to me that more and more they are policing/punishing the results of actions rather than the actions themselves and hopefully correcting the decisions being made in the future to prevent collisions

After some overnight thought, I have reluctantly gone along with grumpyoldcyclist in that the footage was not clear enough and allowed wriggle room. They'd probably say they executed a last millisecond F1 overtake, so the cyclists were never in danger.

I'm hoping that "It seems to me that more and more they are policing/punishing the results of actions rather than the actions themselves and hopefully correcting the decisions being made in the future to prevent collisions" relates to the current lockdown world we live in and will only be temporary.

But as we know from many nmotd and other forum topics there is vast inconsistency between police forces on how things are treated.

WillRod wrote:

In my experience, Suffolk has become a lot worse for cycling.

More people moving here, more new houses and a lot more impatient drivers. The area around Woodbridge has been one of the worst affected areas for this, and what was once quite a nice market town has really changed character, and the roads got busier too.

If I cycle to the coast, I now ride on quieter roads even if it takes longer or adds more hills.

That's a real shame, I lived there around 12 years  ago, still have family there and it was always a good place to ride I found.

Although, I don't know about adding more hills in Suffolk, didn't know there were more  

You mean the incident involving killer driver Dr Helen Measures?

I wonder how she's doing nowadays...

I think she might still be trying to get the internet to forget the fact that her awful and dangerous driving killed the unfortunate Denisa Perinova.

Ah yes it was the Helen Measures reckless maneuver that I was thinking of. Just re-read about it and it's still just as shocking six years later that she got away with it! Just awful.

But you see, I thought you might have been thinking of Ayasha Penfold

https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/08/driver-20-spared-jail-for-killing-cyclist...

who was cleared of Dangerous (though plead for careless) when she killed John Durey when overtaking other vehicles.  Didn't get jailed.  18 month ban.  Suffers from ‘survivor’s guilt’ which seems like the new 'get out of jail card' of 'the sun was in my eyes'.

Or they could have been thinking of Gail Purcell, who was so convinced that it was more likely for a sack of potatoes to materialise out of nowhere and strike her car than that there could be a cyclist on the road that she happily carried on driving after running into the back of and killing Michael Mason in central London...

At least with killer drivers Helen Measures and Ayasha Penfold the police gave it to the CPS and the CPS took it to trial.  Didn't happen with killer driver Gail Purcell, the Cyclist Defence Fund had to bring a private prosecution.  Sort of kyboshed by the police "expert" PC Brian Gamble telling the court that drivers cannot be expected to react in within 5 seconds to something at night.  Not in his original report, that particular opinion.  Wouldn't have mattered anyway, which is strange that that particular opinion was given, in that Gail didn't see Mick's bicycle, having lights and reflectors.

Add to PC Gamble's evidence the "tests" that the Met carried out in Charlie Alliston's case and you might be tempted to think that the police don't actually know the first thing about how the roads work...

ktache wrote:

But you see, I thought you might have been thinking of Ayasha Penfold

 

https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/08/driver-20-spared-jail-for-killing-cyclist...

who was cleared of Dangerous (though plead for careless) when she killed John Durey when overtaking other vehicles.  Didn't get jailed.  18 month ban.  Suffers from ‘survivor’s guilt’ which seems like the new 'get out of jail card' of 'the sun was in my eyes'.

 I missed this, what a load of b*lls, my brother used to live near Lenham/Ashford, when I went to visit him he warned me about the locals who all drove down the middle of the road, it was a game of chicken to see who would give way first, drivers in that area are total nutjobs.

I think it's in the highway code - something about in areas with white paint on the road, when driving a motorised vehicle, it's someone else's fault should you kill people

ktache wrote:

Well that was short and terrifying.

Shame the police didn't think that was serious enough for more than a letter.

I'm sure there are those who will explain it thus: it's their own fault for breaking the rules and going cycling.

Indeed, the driver was forced, forced I tell thee!

I guess we have to gentlely inform them that cycling is not against the rules then.

You couldn't meet a nicer pair than Jon and his son.  Glad this idiot didn't cause a tragedy for no reason other that they were in too much of a hurry to drive properly.