Startled phone driver caught by camera cyclist smashes into car before fleeing scene through red light – but police refuse to act because victim didn’t report incident

“The state of road policing in Harrow is zero,” one London camera cyclist has claimed, after the Metropolitan Police failed to act on footage he submitted which showed a motorist, seemingly startled by the rider confronting him over his phone use behind the wheel, smashing into the side of another car while trying to drive off.

Following the collision, the motorist then drove in the wrong lane and through a red light to flee the scene – but the Met told the cyclist that they couldn’t punish the driver because the owner of the car that was hit didn’t report the incident.

The incident occurred in Harrow last May, when a cyclist – who says he has submitted hundreds of videos to the Met showing apparent evidence of illegal driving – spotted the driver of a white Volvo, equipped with what he described as “illegal” tinted windows “where you could barely see anything”, using his phone at the wheel.

After catching up with the driver at a set of traffic lights, the cyclist leaned in to look at the motorist who, as the rider says in the video, still had “his phone in his lap”.

After hitting his windows in response to the cyclist confronting him, the motorist can then be seen attempting to drive off (despite the lights still being red), by moving into the left-hand lane.

However, just as he does so, another motorist approaches from behind, and collides with the side of the Volvo driver.

But, while the motorist who was hit, as well as the occupants of the car in front, got out to inspect the damage, the Volvo driver – his car badly dented on the left side – instead begins to reverse, to cries from the cyclist of “where are you going? Where are you going?”

The driver then moves into the wrong lane, peeling around the stopped cars, and through the lights, which had once again turned red, fleeing the scene.

“He got surprised with me filming, and without looking he turned to the left lane, smashing another car coming from behind,” the cyclist, who wishes to remain anonymous, told road.cc.

However, despite the cyclist submitting clear evidence of a number of driving offences committed in one fell swoop, he says the Met failed to act on it because the motorist who was hit didn’t report the collision.

“I had reported it to Met Police collisions team,” he said. “And despite the driver having Illegal tints, using his phone whilst driving, driving without due care and attention, hitting another vehicle, and jumping a red light at the same time while doing a hit-and-run, they did nothing about it.

“When I chased them up, they said they planned to do nothing about it, despite having crystal clear evidence of what had happened. Their reasoning was that the driver who was smashed into did not report the incident to the police. I tried multiple times, I contacted my MP, raised a complaint, and nothing came of it.”

> Police apologise as charges against “dangerous” cyclist accused of “riding on the wrong side of the road” while filming phone driver dropped on eve of trial

The cyclist continued: “I want safe roads, and there’s nothing I can do but report it to the Met Police and trust that they will do something about it, but it is getting worse daily.

“Honestly the state of road policing in Harrow is zero. Every day it is getting worse, with no punishment for law breakers. With a constant response of lack of resource.

“I have asked under a FOI request how many police road traffic operations they’ve performed on Station Road (including illegal modifications like number plates, window tints, speeding, mobile phone usage) – their response was zero.

“This is despite over 250 reports on this one mile stretch of road of the crimes you can report to Met, such as close passes, mobile phone use, and red light jumping.”

> Police warn camera cyclist about “leaning into lone female drivers’ windows” to capture phone use evidence – but later apologise for “inaccurate recollection” of incident

Last week we reported that the same cyclist, after submitting more clips of driving offences, had been issued with warning letters by the Met – one for “leaning in towards drivers’ windows, especially lone female drivers”, and another for “riding down the middle of the road towards an oncoming bus”.

Criticising the warning letters – the first of which was later detracted by the police, who apologised for their “inaccurate recollection” of events – the cyclist claimed that the Met have “let off many drivers for actual dangerous situations” and said he reports motorists so “my wife isn’t in constant fear when my kids go out to the shops”.

The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.