Near Miss of the Day 529: Driver in close pass on country lane (video includes swearing)

Exactly - that driver needs to be caught. Another cyclist or a horse and its rider for that matter could easily be badly hurt, or worse, by that idiot behnd the wheel.

But even if you do report it, theres no improvement, and the police arent interested at all at the moment,so what's the point?

In this specific case - there is no point

But if you take a wider view - the more reports the Police recieve the more the pressure builds up to do something about it

Each report makes ALMOST no difference - but if 5000 reports are filed and nothing is done then it starts to look bad.

e.g. a journalist could issue a freedom on info request about how many reports have been recieved - and how many have been actioned and then ask higher ups - maybe as far as an MP - why this area is sooo much worse then the area next door

Anyone can apply for this information under  FoI Legislation.

I did exactly what you suggested from Cheshire Police and found that about 1/3 of videos submitted were acted upon. Better than I expected

stonojnr wrote:

But even if you do report it, theres no improvement, and the police arent interested at all at the moment,so what's the point?

If you give up nothing improves. Only persistence and pressure will help bring the change that's needed. Whether by more forces treating close passes as a serious crime or by what my suggestion is, setting up a specialist centralised video evidence bureau. The change we're hoping for is moving at an appallingly slow rate but we must continue to do whatever we can to hold these ignorant and often dangerous drivers to account.

Agreed. 

I've simply lost faith in a process that is resulting in no greater feeling of safety or protection whilst out on the road riding, and that no longer even seems to want to prosecute drivers for these types of offences anymore.

I can sympathise massively. I will sometimes do really dangerous ones where I have had to brake hard or swerve violently to stop me becoming a statistic. But with the process of transferring, converting, editing, form filling and uploading taking upto 2 hours, and WMP deciding they will only contact you if it goes to court (never been contacted on a portal upload), I have stopped uploading the "lesser" ones that make up alot of the NMotD ones. 

2 hrs?? Really?? It takes me maybe 15-20 mins for a report. 20 mins if i have to patch together front and rear footage - just drag and drop into shotcut and leave it processing while I go eat some dinner or something.

I file one for every deliberate and life endangering incident. Because what's 15 mins compared to a life?

If it's not then it's weighed up based on how dangerous it was and how much time i have to spare.

Depends on your upload speed and file size. Maybe they included the waiting time.

But even if you do report it, theres no improvement, and the police arent interested at all at the moment,so what's the point?

He's quite correct- the police aren't at all interested, but you have to keep going in order to hurt the b******s. The main aim of the police is to do nothing at all about anything at all. I have rcently concentrated on offences where there is no doubt or 'interpretation' possible, but the police still aim to do nothing. This case shows the extent to which the police will go to deceive, mislead, lie and cheat about how little they are doing to punish offences, and how much they do to assist the offenders. The photo below is of Chevrolet MF09 HYK crashing through a busy A6 traffic light 1.5 seconds after it turned red, on 19.7.20- it was reported with full video and analysis the following day. I waited a couple of months and then started inquiring. I am now sure that the report was filed immediately in the bin, but it has taken until today to find out. It was not until 1st December that I was told by a PC I was not given the Chevrolet (MF09HYK) as this incident was forwarded to the neighbourhood policing team NPT and therefore I cannot comment on the outcome. I could tell from those words that no action had been taken, and the PC knew that, so I wrote to Lancashire Force Control Room. Several letters later, in which I was told that the NPT was very busy but was 'dealing' with the case, I have today been told . In relation to the 1st picture of the Chevrolet below it appears that the Neighbourhood team have unfortunately been unable to deal within time limits due to operational demand. As such we will not be taking the below reports any further. The decision to do nothing was taken back in July when no NPT as sent out within 2 weeks of the offence.

They have still declined, despite my requests, to tell me the name of the officer(s) concerned with filing the case in the bin so that I can make the complaint. I have to write again and if they still refuse, I will go straight to my MP. The outcome of any complaint to LC's totally ineffectual Professional Standards Department is not in doubt, but you have to follow these things through in order to have something done about what is undoubtedly an organised policy of not recording offences. Greater Manchester was caught out 'not recording' 40,000 offences in one year- I think Lancashire have them outclassed.

EDIT: it gets worse and worse- Lancashire Constabulary have now written to say that if I want to find out which officer dealt with the offence report, I have to submit a FoI request! This is, of course, bollocks and is a clear attempt to obstruct a complaint.

Not to report such dangerous driving is to admit defeat, something we should never do.