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Just had a very aggressive driver - silly overtake into a hairpin that caused him and I to skid, followed by blocking me at the next queue while shouting I should be on the cycle lane and refusing to drive on. I then went to overtake his stationary car where upon he swerves at me, forcing me into the path of oncoming traffic...
Quelle surprise that his 10 year old rusty Freelander MOT is out of date....
Worth reporting or just ignore an aresehole?
Do police Scotland have a reporting process other than 101? I can't find anything.
Definitely report.
I don't know how, but I'm sure others will be along who know how to.
Due to lack of video upload facility and the like, its a 101 call for Police Scotland. Definitely do it
Do police Scotland have a reporting process other than 101? I can’t find anything.
Nope, you've got to call them, then they'll want to come out to speak to you for details. Definitely report. Guessing by the reference to no MOT you've got the full registration which is helpful.
I got knocked off in the past when passing a tosser who deliberately turned their vehicle into me after being a dickhead earlier with a punishment pass. All on camera.
My total sympathy. These things really wreck your mood even if you’re not hurt
Report if you can
I'll 101 later.
Indeed I'm fine, and didn't feel threatened at all* until he swerved at me...
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.
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*He was a rather rotund chap who looked like I could win a fight merely by running around his car until he had a heart attack...
There's a contact form on the Police Scotland website. I used it to report someone. PS replied to ask a few more questions then a few days later sent a message saying the driver had been contacted and spoken to about his behaviour.
yeah, 101 it.
We reported bad driving to the popo, driver in question had no mot either so they were very interested and paid him a visit.
Definitely report to 101. Chances are if he’s has no mot, he hasn’t bothered with insurance either.
Report him, the expired MOT is likely favourable for you, they’ll not do alt about the incident but he may get points for mot, tax, lack of insurance et al..
Ps hope you have better look with police scotland, west Yorkshire police do nothing for a cycling going through a car windscreen caught on CCTV ,
Report him.
Report him. He should not be driving eith that mentality. Or an out of date MOT.
For Police Scotland you can avoid the queue on 101 by using the contactus form on the website or emailing contactus@scotland.police.uk.
Please make sure you include location, time and date and a description of what happened and the vehicle details and your contact details.
You have no idea how frustrating it is to receive emails that say "dangerous driving by car on high street" which if we're lucky have an email address to reply to.
We may not be able to do much about the driving unless you have corroboration from another witness or camera footage but can put a marker on for no MOT
As with all things in life that involve human beings the response from the individual cops will be variable depending on how the perceive it, their personal biases, management priorities, how busy they are etc. I’m not suggesting you lie of embellish what happened (that is counter productive) but you might want to make sure it’s clear you considered his behaviour to be threatening and abusive, because that opens up an avenue that is not just a road traffic matter then!
I would say is don’t bother reporting unless you are prepared to go through the whole process of sitting in a court waiting room all day (probably in a years time) if he pleads not guilty. If it’s bad enough for that, and unusual enough for that (at one point if I had reported every driver in Edinburgh I saw on a phone I’d potentially have been unable to go to work as it was multiple per day, every day!) then report. Do you have video or another witness? Otherwise, at best he will probably get a warning.
no MOT doesn’t carry points it’s a fine only (same with tax). Presumably MOAB knows how to check if insured and that checked out.they’ll not do alt about the incident but he may get points for mot, tax, lack of insurance et al..
101 was an half hour wait and has a message to not stay on hold if it does not require police attendance asap.
Form on website used.
Let us see what happens.
Numpties are driving among us.
For those of you local, this is coming down Hillfoots Road at Causewayhead. Which is a 20 limit, and on a bike I am easily at or above that speed...
For those of you local, this is coming down Hillfoots Road at Causewayhead.
Ha, that's part of the issue - just check out the Causewayhead Cares FB group if you want your blood pressure to rise. Anti-cyclist mentality is rife there after the recent improvements on Casewayhead Rd and surrounding area.
Never had any success without video evidence, but with footage attached I get a confirmation that a prosecution is taking place within a day or two. Police Scotland have a reputation of looking after car drivers to the detriment of everyone else, though.
I wish there was the holy grail of small camera + decent image quality + good battery life for the bike.
So the Police have called back - they want to speak to me, and agree it is an issue. PC is a rider himself and was of the view that reporting these things and relaying to drivers that they are being dangerous/numpties is a Good Thing.
Ha, that’s part of the issue – just check out the Causewayhead Cares FB group if you want your blood pressure to rise. Anti-cyclist mentality is rife there after the recent improvements on Casewayhead Rd and surrounding area.
TBF, the council has made an absolute hash of the work and the many, many months of dodgy roadworks is really not helping relations between residents and multiple road / pavement users....
" don’t bother reporting unless you are prepared to go through the whole process of sitting in a court waiting room all day (probably in a years time) if he pleads not guilty. "
Agreed. My experience is well out of date but at one point certain Glasgow divisions refused to go to driver's houses at the request of other cops to warn them. The logic being if the driver denies it you can't warn them. It is a he said/she said. They said "If you have the evidence we will charge then for you".
On the other hand if you have video or other corroboration going to court can be satisfying. I was in bed after nightshift one time. Heard a crash outside. A guy who had only cleared a 2 inch square hole in his iced up windscreen had hit the back of a parked car. He the drove off and didn't report it. Luckily my wife who was downstairs had also seen it and we both wrote the reg down. Ended up at Glasgow Sheriff Court about 9 months later. Both of us gave evidence. I enjoyed telling the court how the driver go out, looked at the damage, then walked back to his own car, banged his head of the roof, then drove off.
Convicted of careless driving and fail to stop or report. As far a I remember he got a short ban.
Which is a 20 limit, and on a bike I am easily at or above that speed…
I think you meant to say that “whilst I am aware that speed limits technically only apply to motorised vehicles, I aim to keep to the same limit on the bike so I am neither slowing down other traffic nor riding so fast that I might cause a hazard to pedestrians etc” 😉
😉
Good that the Police have got back to you - makes me wonder if the vehicle/driver are already known and you are helping build a case.
Obviously it is easy to slip just over the speed limit set for vehicles while on a bicycle with no speedo, though it may be considered unwise 😉
Deliberately swerving a vehicle at someone endangers their life so ought to mean jail.
"no MOT doesn’t carry points it’s a fine only "
Unless it's tyre offences, those are worth 3 (each if the court is feeling truculent).
tyre offences (s41A RTA) are quite different from MOT offences (s47) you can have a perfectly roadworthy vehicle with no MoT or you can have a bit of paper (valid for 12-13 months) and bald tyres.Unless it’s tyre offences, those are worth 3 (each if the court is feeling truculent).
Police Scotland have a reputation of looking after car drivers to the detriment of everyone else, though.
In Edinburgh they have been helpfull on occasions I have reported stuff even checking CCTV for me
Police Scotland have a reputation of looking after car drivers to the detriment of everyone else, though
Keep hearing that about the forces round here, which is slightly odd as I've a few mates who seem to be able to commute to work, upload a video to Notts/Derbys/Leics Police and have confirmation that a warning letter is being issued or further action being taken by lunchtime
GMP are by all accounts a bit haphazard.
I've had occasion to report a driver - Freelander / Discovery type vehicle, pretty ratty - for an unnecessarily close pass - think he'd mis-judged overtake of three cyclists and I was the front runner - reg. taken, called or reported to local Grampian police, went in to make statement a few days later - he was spoken to about driving. Best I could do. Take view that it's always worthwhile in case he has history, or reacts badly to the polis.
...
My best story from years back in local cyclists group was - they always cycled through small village on a Sunday - Hopeman IIRC. One Sunday am, a guy got really aggressive, gave verbal abuse and threatened them. One of the group reported him. Polis turned up to his house to make representations about his behaviour around the cyclists. "Who are these guys anyway, just a bunch of dickhead cyclists" was his opening gambit.
PC: "Well sir, let's just say they include the local sheriff, a traffic inspector, a DCI, and a couple of local solicitors..".
They didn't see him again for a long time. 🙂
doesn't no MOT invalidate insurance, meaning a separate offence?
@cynic-al if there is a policy in place and there hasn't been an accident/likelihood of a payout then an insurer will likely confirm that the insurance policy was valid, therefore no crime of no insurance.
you can have a perfectly roadworthy vehicle with no MoT or you can have a bit of paper (valid for 12-13 months) and bald tyres.
A common scam i've seen was swapping wheels with a family members car to get it through the MoT.
Weird to see them out swapping some knackered, bald old tyres *on to* a car at the side of the road...
"doesn’t no MOT invalidate insurance, meaning a separate offence"
No. Some policies have it written in but it's an unreasonable term so is ignored. The insurance company would never be able to refuse to pay out to the third party. If the insurance company find a fault with the vehicle which would have caused an MOT fail AND that fault contributed to the cause / severity of the accident they MAY be able to reduce the payout to the policy holder.
An update.
The driver was from 40 miles away. Local police were not inclined to drive there on the off chance the driver might be at home.
They've got more local police to pop round and drop a note through his door asking him to call my local officer.
So far, he's not called...
I've suggested that at the very least a letter telling him he has had a complaint... apparently that's the sergeants decision.
They are keeping the complaint on record.
3 years ago I had a different run in which ended up in me being pushed and shoved around while trying to get a driver not to drive into a group of children. Police Scotland then refused to do anything as the driver was from Hull.
So the moral of the story is to not have any interactions with drivers from out with your own neighbourhood....
I can appreciate not driving an 80 mile round trip for that, what I don't like is the complete lack of shits to give.
Mind you, the force is as buggered as any other public service, hardly surprising they're not spending time on something that's not an easy win.