"Drivers like this are going to kill or seriously injure someone": Cyclist knocked off bike claims police "completely unwilling to prosecute" drivers who hit cyclists

A cyclist has questioned West Yorkshire Police's approach to investigating roads incidents, concluding that he fears the force is "completely unwilling to prosecute drivers" who hit cyclists, after he was knocked off his bike in a collision two weeks ago.

road.cc reader George was hit by an elderly driver near Leeds on the 13th November, the 87-year-old woman turning across his path and knocking him from his bike in an incident captured by his front camera. The footage (below) was viewed by the police and the driver referred for a Fitness To Drive Assessment as an alternative to proceedings in the Magistrates' Court for driving without due care and attention or reasonable consideration for other road users.

Following an official complaint, the cyclist believing the driving crossed the threshold for prosecution for careless or dangerous driving, West Yorkshire Police stood by the decision and said it had "no issue" with the outcome and is "more than satisfied that there is no evidence whatsoever of an offence of dangerous driving".

"I don't think that West Yorkshire Police take the safety of vulnerable road users seriously, and at times this turns into victim blaming," George said. "I work with the police on other aspects of public safety, and they take those much more seriously and are keen to avoid victim blaming there. I feel that gross negligence in charge of a heavy vehicle is not seen as a serious issue, but as a simple unavoidable, unforeseeable accident.

"I simply cannot see how such gross incompetence is treated so trivially, or what the threshold might be for treating it more seriously. Drivers like this are going to kill or seriously injure someone — and it could have been me if I wasn't cycling relatively slowly uphill at the point of impact.

"A key problem is that police officers, even specialist roads officers, very rarely have any experience of cycling on public roads, and so they have no empathy or understanding of cyclists. This is an important issue of safety, as well as law and order.

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"Further to this, I'd add that it seems that a key part of the problem is that the police are treating driver-cyclist incidents in the same way as they treat driver-driver incidents, without any adjustment for the fact that cyclists are more vulnerable. So a collision with a cyclist in these circumstances is treated in the same way as if the driver had driven into another vehicle, without any consideration of the hierarchy of vulnerability. This reflects a kind of institutional lack of understanding, or perhaps even prejudice, towards cyclists."

When road.cc contacted West Yorkshire Police for comment on the allegations, we were told that the force would not comment on individual cases, but a spokesperson insisted that the force is "committed to casualty prevention" and employs "a range of possible options in our aim to improve behaviour on the road and prevent the likelihood of them being involved in future collisions".

And while there was no comment specific to this case, we've seen the response the cyclist received regarding his complaint, where the decision-making process behind the case was explained further.

During that response, an officer from the force's Service Review Team explained they previously served as a Roads Policing Officer for five years and "developed a certain level of expertise within the role based on years of experience in dealing with and managing serious collisions, primarily fatal road traffic collisions".

The response went on to state that the officer is "more than satisfied that there is no evidence whatsoever of an offence of dangerous driving" and that they have "no issue" with the decision to refer the elderly driver for a Fitness to Drive Assessment as an alternative to proceedings in the Magistrates' Court for driving without due care and attention or reasonable consideration for other road users.

When West Yorkshire Police was contacted for comment, a force spokesperson said: "We are unable to comment about individual cases. West Yorkshire Police is committed to casualty prevention and works with partners across the county to reduce road risk and deliver our Vision Zero ambition to prevent all road deaths by 2040.

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"Where driving offences have been committed, we employ a range of possible options in our aim to improve driver/rider behaviour on the road and prevent the likelihood of them being involved in future collisions.

"These options include Approved Driver Retraining Courses for eligible lower-level offenders as an alternative to prosecution, a Fitness to Drive assessments where it is believed that the cognitive ability of a driver/rider may have been a factor in a collision, or the full weight of prosecution at court in the case of more serious and repeat offending."