thirdcrank wrote:Looking on the bright side yet again, I see that Mr Huppert is going to continue to have plenty of time to devote to the affairs of CyclingUK, rather than being busy in Parliament.
Which reminds me, what happened to this Inquiry? Sunk without trace?
Here is what happened; https://allpartycycling.org/inquiries/justice/
Basically what we already knew/identified a long time ago and not much has actually happened, I would have added the impact that near misses were no injury has occured has on people that cycle. I realise that the close pass initiatives have being used by some forces but without evidence most people are reluctant to do anything simply because the police are not interested. If I were swinging a sledgehammer whilst walking on the pavement and happen to get that near your face the police would do something about that, do the same thing with a far more dangerous weapon and the police basically tell you to sod off.
The report made 14 recommendations:
* The Highway Code should be revised
* The driving test must be changed to help improve driver behaviour towards cyclists
* Professional drivers should be retested more frequently
* Roads policing should be given a higher priority
* The Government and other local authorities should adopt similar partnerships to the ones in London in other parts of the country, to counter the risk posed by illegal freight operations
* The Department for Transport and Ministry of Justice should research the growing discrepancy between road casualty figures
* More police forces should adopt close passing enforcement practice on a wider scale
* The police must ensure that a higher standard of investigation is maintained in all cases where serious injury has resulted
* All police forces should ensure that evidence of common offences submitted by cyclists, or other witnesses, using bike or person mounted cameras or smart phones is put to use, and not ignored
* The length of time required by the Police to serve a Notice of Intended Prosecution for a road traffic offence is currently just 14 days and must be extended
* Confusion and overlap between ‘careless’ and ‘dangerous’ driving means that often bad driving does not receive the level of punishment that the public feel it should, the MoJ should investigate how these offences are being used
* The police and CPS should ensure that victims and bereaved families are always kept adequately informed throughout the process of deciding charges
* The Ministry of Justice should examine the reasons behind the decline in the use of the penalty of disqualification
* The Soft Tissue Injury Reforms – the ‘whiplash reforms’ – should not include injuries to cyclists or pedestrians