I'm not sure about this case, but in my experience of a number of incidents in London and Norwich, the answer to the question "Are the police apathetic in investigating cycling deaths?" is a resounding 'Yes'. And it is not only in cases involving deaths that the police are lacking - just about any incident involving cyclists seems to be given a cursory (if any) investigation.
I think of my own case. I get hit and seriously injured by a driver who is driving without due care and attention (as a minimum - personally I'd have said dangerous driving). This happens on a clear sunny day in the middle of Islington - a number of witnesses saw what happened, which is that the driver (of an ambulance) cut across me in order to enter the wrong side of a side street, which was clearly marked as closed.
This was not an ambulance on an emergency call - the driver was parking up to get a pizza. The driver did not start to signal until after he had begun to turn. Despite slamming on the brakes, I hit the vehicle - there was no avoiding it.
The police were called by one of the witnesses. Despite me being seriously injured, the police took 45 minutes to arrive. I actually waited for 25 minutes in the back of the ambulance for them to arrive!
Whilst waiting one of the witnesses (who happened to be a High Court judge) gathered the details of all the witnesses and gave them to me.
When the police arrived, the vehicle and my bike had already been moved - after all, this was rush hour and nothing could stand in the way of people in their cars.
The police stuck their heads round the back door of the ambulance and briefly asked me what happened. They then spent about 10 minutes talking to the driver. They then came back and said that they would talk to me again at the hospital. I asked whether they had spoken to the witnesses - they hadn’t, despite two of the witnesses having waited for over an hour – and so I gave them their details. About 5 minutes later they stuck their heads round the back of the ambulance I was in and gave me back the piece of paper. They also gave me the driver’s details.
I was whisked off to hospital (I say whisked – there was a football match on and traffic was slow to say the least). The police didn’t turn up to see me at the hospital as they said they would.
After a few days I hadn’t heard anything. So I contacted the police and spoke to the officers dealing with the case – who were different from the officers who had attended. They said it was unlikely that there would be any action, as the driver said that he’d clearly indicated and that I’d hit him undertaking. I said this wasn’t the case and that the witnesses would agree with me – only to be told that there was no record of any witnesses in the accident report book. I expressed my surprise and sent them the witness details again. I was told I wouldn’t need to make a separate statement as the brief statement I had made at the time of the accident (which was made when I was under sedation) was sufficiently clear.
More time passed and my solicitor asked for a copy of the police file for the insurance claim, which the driver was contesting. Upon receipt of the file, which the police took nearly 8 weeks to send, it turned out that the police who attended the accident had not entered the details of the witnesses into the accident report book. Even after I had sent the police the details of the witnesses again, they had not been contacted and no statements had been taken. However, in the file was a copy of a letter from the police to the driver confirming that no further action would be taken – this letter had been sent only two weeks after the accident – as they believed I had been at fault!
My solicitor (who had previously worked for the CPS) complained to the police about the slipshod ‘investigation’ but it was too late for any further action to be taken as six months had expired and no prosecution could be brought. A formal complaint was made to the Professional Standards Directorate, but nothing happened other than vague promises that the police officers involved would be ‘spoken to’ – certainly no apology was forthcoming.
I have been involved as a witness in other incidents, including one after a CM when a motorcyclist rode into a group of cyclists. On that occasion, the police who attended were aggressive and started harassing the cyclist who was injured rather than questioning to motorcyclist. It wasn’t until they realised that a journalist was taking an interest did they start to do their job. However, they were reluctant to breathalyse the motorcyclist (as is required) despite this requirement being pointed out to them – and they were trying to refuse to take the details of witnesses, saying we should give our details only to the injured cyclist. It wasn’t until I pointed out to them that there was a specific space in the accident book for witness details that they started to take details. Of course, they stated that no cyclist who was a witness was ‘independent’ – they were all biased because they happened to be cyclists as well.
I complained to the Professional Standards Directorate about these officers’ attitude. I was told that their view of cyclists being automatically biased was perfectly acceptable.
Unfortunately, it seems if many police officers have forgotten that cyclists have a right to use the roads in safety. I am sincerely hoping that having a cycling mayor in London (irrespective of his political allegiances) might help change this attitude – particularly if he sits on the Metropolitan Police Authority.
And don’t get me started on the Crown Prosecution Service’s attitude towards cycling incidents….
