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Near Miss of the Day 253: Police admit they were wrong not to prosecute aggressive white van driver

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Sussex...

Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series is the third in a row featuring a white van driver – and it’s one that resulted in police apologising to the cyclist for deciding not to refer the case to prosecutors when it was submitted to them.

The footage was shot by road.cc reader James, who told us: “This one was late last year, in Hove.

“It was reported to Operation Crackdown, who sent the driver a formal warning letter but I thought it was definitely worthy of prosecution.

“After putting it on Twitter, the Sussex PCC, Katy Bourne, got involved and Sussex Police emailed me to apologise.

“They agreed it should have been prosecuted, but as the letter had been sent, it couldn’t be upgraded to a prosecution.”

Click through to James’s tweet for the full Twitter thread.

> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?

Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.

If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.

If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).

Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.

> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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8 comments

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caw35ride | 5 years ago
1 like

What does it take (don't answer, I think we all know). It is plain depressing to think thyat a police officer cannot see sufficient reason to prosecute based upon this video. Awful.

Avatar
brooksby replied to caw35ride | 5 years ago
0 likes
caw35ride wrote:

What does it take (don't answer, I think we all know). It is plain depressing to think thyat a police officer cannot see sufficient reason to prosecute based upon this video. Awful.

Depressing, but not really surprising 

I've accidentally found myself watching Police Interceptors or one of those programmes recently.  They have a summing up at the end of each episode.  You've been shown the footage of how the perp has been behaving/driving.  You've seen the police arrest them.   You've seen how they react. And then, in the summing up at the end, you almost invariably hear how "The CPS decided that there wasn't enough evidence/it wasn't in the public interest/etc/etc".

Avatar
zero_trooper | 5 years ago
1 like

So Sussex police have a road safety  campaign (which no doubt they trumpeted about at launch, on social media) and then completely fail to deliver on.

Was the video submitted late on a Friday afternoon by any chance?!?

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Accessibility f... | 5 years ago
1 like

Google Image Search is clever enough now to recognise licence plate numbers from images.  You'd be surprised what a registration search in that can find.

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grumpyoldcyclist | 5 years ago
2 likes

Words fail me......

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jasecd | 5 years ago
4 likes

Ridiculous.

It's a clear case of reckless endangerment and dangerous driving.

Once again the police fail us. 

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PRSboy | 5 years ago
5 likes

Blimey. How on earth is a warning letter appropriate?

C'mon sussex police, restore our faith in justice...

Or at least I would be intrigued to read the reasoning why a letter is deemed appropriate.  Suppose James had fallen as a result and been injured, would a similar response be justified then?

If so, that is setting a precedent that the consequence, not the action, is the issue.  In which case, I look forward to a similar warning letter should I ever be done for speeding in Sussex and no one else is involved.

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thehill | 5 years ago
3 likes

attempted murder?

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