Broken leg

[Ellieb]

But TC, surely an admission that the 'sun was in my eyes' is driving without due care? Isn't that enough to go on with a prosecution?

[andy63]

Thank you Thirdcrank , and I think there are two cases here for me and anyone else who has the same misfortune .
The first is the compensation claim which , can be delt with by the lawyers and insurance companies .
The message this sends out ,
The police failing to take any action , is just saying we can shouted at , pushed, hit , knocked off , even killed . But it's all ok . I 'm 47 and grew up respecting the police and thought that they were there to protect us.
How on earth , are we going to get kids and adults back on there bikes, when if things do go wrong , people have no support .
This country , now seems like the only thing that matters is money .
Not people

[thirdcrank]

andy63

My post was only intended to supplement irc's sound advice, as I tried to explain.

I've posted frequently and at some length (even by my standards ) about how the present situation came about. I was brought up under a system where it was quite rare for a collision - especially one involving injury - not to result in a prosecution. Times have changed. A search on 'priorities' should unearth some of my copious output on the subject.

Ultimately, the responsibility for prosecutions in E &W is that opf the CPS. This is what they had to say last time around in 2007 http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/press_releas ... index.html
The reference to 'public consultation' there prompts me to observe that those are the best opportunities to get something changed in general policies.

It's easy to blame individual officers when nothing happens, just as some are quick to bleat about over-zealousness and quotas being completed when their own name goes in the book.

But TC, surely an admission that the 'sun was in my eyes' is driving without due care? Isn't that enough to go on with a prosecution?

In some cases, it obviously is enough to form the basis of a prosecution although we don't know the result of this current one: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=52208

[reohn2]

....................Wish I could kick the cat lol
Andy

STOP don't do that they'll throw you in jail!

[andy63]

Ok , the cat , just gets a poke with my crutch lol.

I don't think it's the police on the street are to blame , they have a hard job .
He said we gather all the information , and put it forward , then someone in a dark little room , decides everyone's fate .
I am 95 percent sure the sun was not in his eyes .
I shall making calls Monday morning
Andrew

[thirdcrank]

In an exchange like this, it's not easy to know how much others have followed on here and elsewhere. I've linked several times to the cycling lawyer blog by the cycling silk, Martin Porter QC. At one point he had posted in detail all his initially unsuccessful efforts to get his report to the police dealt with in a satisfactory manner. He wrote to various people including the Director of Public Prosecutions. Martin Porter is a top personal injury lawyer. The case is now going through the criminal court system so he has removed all the background stuff from his blog to prevent unfair publicity etc.

Policy is set at the top. OTOH, I'd be the last to say there are no neglect merchants at any level.

[Ellieb]

andy. FWIW I have a clever piece of kit (Starwalk) which tells me that in Northants at 0700 on 30th June the sun should be 17 degrees above the nominal horizon on a bearing of about 075 degrees. Quite high in other words.

[reohn2]

Policy is set at the top.

I'd go with that

OTOH, I'd be the last to say there are no neglect merchants at any level.

And I'd be the first one to (speaking from personal experience) say its deliberate neglect! the police have become a joke unless their credibility is threat by exposure in the media,all IMO of course v

[eileithyia]

This is bad news and you have received plenty of advise from others, I would certainly consider complaining.

One of my cases turned complex, having gone thru a green light and had witnesses tothat efect, I was bundled off to hospital and by the time I got home and rang the police I was told I had gone thru a redlight!

We have since independantly contacted the witnesses and had statements to the contrary, what the police were dong is anyone's guess!

Since then we have also discovered that the driver was underage for the policy he was driving on (taxi driver), clearly the police never discovered that little gem!
So this driver has never been prosecuted,pursued etc.

For my second accident fortunately the police did pursue it and refered driver for re-training... apparently this is supposed to more effective at ironing out poor driving.

[thirdcrank]

If you hope to take this further I think you need to think about strategy. As I said above, I have no experience of the IPCC but whatever the outcome of a formal complaint, I don't think it would necessarily make any difference to the decision not to submit a prosecution file to the CPS. I mentioned Martin Porter QC's own problems with getting the police to investigate something. I've just remembered this: Although it's in the context of selecting a suitable lawyer, there's a section of his blog entitled "Need a lawyer? My tips here." (For some reason it's impossible to link directly, but the link to the blog is here, and the link is then in the RH column of the blog.)

http://thecyclingsilk.blogspot.com/

Finally, if you have been involved in a cycling accident, feel free to drop me an email. I have a passion for cycling and will do my best to point you towards the best legal representation for you.

I don't suppose he could cope with an email from everybody unhappy with the police but it's well worth a try. (Don't say I sent you )

[Phil_Lee]

There is always to option of bypassing both police and CPS and laying informations directly with the local magistrates court.
If you go in and tell the clerk that is what you wish to do, they should (once they have picked themselves up of the floor from shock) be able to advice you on the details you need to provide for this.

[thirdcrank]

A couple of points about private prosecutions.

It's not easy unless you really know what you are doing to prosecute a case. A lot of the hard stuff is procedural, rather than the Perry Mason bit. Motoring stuff tends to have the most legal twiddly bits even for lawyers to deal with, which is perhaps one reason why the self-styled Mr Loophole stays in business. In summary cases, a successful defendant's costs may be awarded against the prosecution and I fancy that would be particularly likely nowadays, when a private prosecutor would generally be seen as stubborn.

The CPS Guidelines say that the CPS should review all private prosecutions with a view to taking them over. Having taken over the prosecution of a case, they should either accept the responsibility of seeing it through or use their power to discontinue the prosecution. ie The CPS can foil a bypassing attempt.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/priv ... index.html

Of course, that decison is amenable to judicial review but for most of us, the establishment of the CPS signalled the end of most of the few that were understaken by private citizens.

[Phil_Lee]

At what point does the ability of the CPS to discontinue the case (even where it has been started by someone else) become conspiracy to pervert the course of justice?
And if someone laid informations against them for that, would they not be precluded from acting to take over that case by virtue of the fact that they were the defendant?

[thirdcrank]

At what point does the ability of the CPS to discontinue the case (even where it has been started by someone else) become conspiracy to pervert the course of justice?

I suppose that if it was discovered that somebody in the CPS was acting improperly eg to protect somebody from prosecution, then that would be a serious offence. Although it's not a case where a private prosecution was stopped, here's an example of what I mean.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/ ... ices.soham

Afaik, there have never been private prosecutions in Scotland, on the basis that they are not a good idea. As with a lot more in the thinking behind the establishment of the CPS, the Scots system has provided the blueprint. It was too controversial to end them altogether in E & W, but that's the way it seems to be heading.

[irc]

Afaik, there have never been private prosecutions in Scotland, on the basis that they are not a good idea. As with a lot more in the thinking behind the establishment of the CPS, the Scots system has provided the blueprint. It was too controversial to end them altogether in E & W, but that's the way it seems to be heading.

Almost right

Private prosecutions are extremely rare but have happened. Two or three successful ones in the twentieth century. You certainly would not be allowed to bring one for a road rage incident.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl ... y-1.694523