Cycling UK Forum

I have one, handlebar mounted, bought after a few dodgy moments on my previous Home Counties commuting.

In the past few weeks I have footage of chasing a fox for ~100m, a herd of red deer crossing my path and several flocks of Exmoor ponies.

Last year I sent the video of a particularly stupid and dangerous overtake to Avon & Somerset's finest, who replied within a day saying they would take it further (caution or prosecution) and thanked me for 'helping to keep our roads safe'

I'm sure a good many people use them to the good, but the curse of social media ensures that a number of people deliberately try to provoke motorists just to get their fifteen minutes of fame in a youtube clip.

I see it's just two years to the day since I posted the above. The linked article below has appeared in many media outlets today

One in four dash cam submissions to police end in prosecution

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/drivi ... osecution/

In absolute terms 8,000+ cases were prosecuted on the basis of camera evidence from the public. (Although the headline mentions dashcams the article refers to both dashcams and helmet cams.)

I wonder if that 8,000 includes cases where there was a bad crash and the police appealed for footage and similar cases. Bearing in mind that that figure is quoted as being for prosecutions, so any advice/ cautions/ safety courses will be on top of that, it doesn't leave that many reports to result in no action.

I wonder with submitted footage, how easy it is to determine whether an offence has been committed. Where the footage clearly shows someone doing something wrong - using a phone, not stopping at a red light, etc, colliding with another vehicle, then it’s fairly clear cut. Something like footage of a close pass is less clear in a lot of cases, because a forward facing camera doesn’t really pick it up well.

The norm is to use a powered vehicle - car mostly. Police are, if you like, hyper-normal, by definition. Humans tend to reject those who appear different. We cyclists remain rejected, in spite of our positive impact on the health & well-being of ourselves and others. Go figure, as they say over the pond...

The full text of the latest Avon & Somerset reply to a successful camera footage submission is:

"Mr X

Thank you for taking the time to upload your footage, which has now been processed. As a result of this report I can confirm a positive outcome in that the driver will receive either a warning letter, a fixed penalty or a prosecution.

Thank you for helping to keep our roads safe.


Michael Bullock
Team Supervisor
Central Ticket Office"

I can only read this as meaning that one of the three things will be done, presumably the warning letter, since I have never heard further.

It used to include a note that as a witness you would here nothing more, and also refer to the action in the past tense:

"Mr X

Thank you for taking the time to upload your footage which has now been processed (a warning letter or a fixed penalty or a prosecution has been issued). Thank you for helping to keep our roads safe.

I can confirm that as you are a witness to this offence, you will not receive any further updates."


I have about sixteen of these since February 2020, with a seventeenth saying that they had decided to take no further action. I assume this means either that I am good at judging what the police will regard as worth admonition, or that our back streets have too many impatient drivers who do not know how to behave near cyclists. Most drivers round here do know when to give way, but sometimes it does feel that too many do not.

I submit the footage based on feeling at the time of being startled or nervous and later assessment of the video to check that the street widths and layout of parked cars do make it clear that a pass was too close, or that there was some other aggravating factor like forcing an oncoming vehicle to stop, or driving steadily through an amber light. It is useful to use vehicle widths, and wheel diameters to give distance measurements.


[EDITED AFTER MORE CAREFUL COUNT 12 FEB 21]

I appreciate that you have no way of knowing which specific offences the police have decided have been committed but can you give a bit more detail? eg Have you reported inconsiderate driving or something more cut-and-dried like ignoring traffic lights. I ask because I'm impressed by your success rate.

Scanning the titles of my reports generally close overtakes, and cutting in, close oncoming, overtaking close and into oncoming traffic, overtaking at a junction, running an amber light and pavement parking obstruction. All in suburban roads.

I assume the offence for which a warning is issued will be whatever is usually prosecuted for close passes in close pass operations, presumably careless driving.

Fast oncoming squeeze


Pavement obstruction - ladies with pushchair forced to use road


Amber Gambler - shown to drive steadily towards amber light, just crossing completely before red


Suburban close overtake - scale provided by parked vehicles


Overtaking squeeze with oncoming car - vehicle with headlamps on forced to stop

Close overtake at junction - there is a T junction obscured by the car and I was signalling right

Thanks for that, especially going to the trouble to attach those images. I'd agree it's probably been treated as either careless or inconsiderate driving.

Very interesting. Thank you.

We've previously discussed the different responses from different police forces. Does it feel as if the positive response from this one has been driven by an individual?

Thanks

Jonathan

Here's the video for my incident, I received the same reply from A&S police as above.
It's the second car overtaking

https://youtu.be/FJajsQMerek

Jdsk wrote:Very interesting. Thank you.

We've previously discussed the different responses from different police forces. Does it feel as if the positive response from this one has been driven by an individual?

Thanks

Jonathan

I'd make a comparison with exam technique, where it's important to read the question carefully and then answer the question. By that, I mean that I fancy a lot of cases go nowhere because the person making the report doesn't follow the criteria set by the relevant police force.

Beyond that, and going by some of the experiences posted by others on here, it may be that some forces are less receptive to reports of this type, with a tendency to find reasons to dismiss them.

Once upon a time, I'd not have considered a warning letter a success, but "traffic" prosecutions have collapsed.

I did have an incident recently. where a motorcycling Youth thought it was funny to Cuff me round the back of the head, the Police took it seriously, I shan't say too much as the case is still open.

ON the more positive side I have used the camera to post videos to friends and family of various bits of wild life I have seen along the way.
And bore them silly with Clips of my rides.

Cambs / Beds / Herts are disgracefully on record indicating they will do nothing with submitted video footage by cyclists.