Mike Sales wrote:The question posed by the O.P. is in the heading, of course.mjr wrote:It should be police investigators. They include it because it's in the manual. The manual is set by the Department of Transport and I think is supposed to be reviewed every five years. The last review was 2011. We get this changed by convincing the motorists at the DfT writing the manual to remove it in the next review. Past reviews have removed factor codes.
For what it's worth, pedestrians currently suffer far more of these victim-blaming codes, including not only "dark clothing" but also "wrong use of pedestrian crossing" (basically going when the red give-way man is showing, but distinct from the usual failing to give way) and even "playing" if children now dare to play ball in the street!
mjr gives an answer, which demands another question.
"Is failure by the driver to observe H.C. paragraph 126 in the manual too?"
If not, why not?
If it is, why is it not used?
In cases where a driver hits a cyclist from behind it must surely be at least a cause, in strict logic.
The manuals are called STATS20 and CRASH if you'd like to check. I don't have my copy right here right now.