Accident caused by driver on phone - police not interested!

brat

Tilt wrote: »

No, I think you will find that the police decide whether to charge someone with an offence, the decision to prosecute is made by the CPS (clue is in the title; Crown PROSECUTION Service)

http://www.cps.gov.uk/victims_witnesses/reporting_a_crime/decision_to_charge.html

The decision to prosecute for careless driving is most usually made by the police criminal justice units, not the CPS.

The CPS may occasionally decide not to prosecute someone on their assessment of the evidence, eg in a not guilty plea, or they may decide on the evidence to prosecute 'careless' rather than 'dangerous' driving (for which they would advise), but they don't as a general rule decide who to prosecute for careless driving.

A prosecution for careless driving in most cases such as the inattention that caused this accident would be decided by civilian staff in the police HQ. Most cases would be disposed of via driver improvement scheme or prosecution via correspondence, and wouldn't ever pass the eyes of a CPS lawyer.

Tilt

brat wrote: »

The decision to prosecute for careless driving is most usually made by the police criminal justice units, not the CPS.

The CPS may occasionally decide not to prosecute someone on their assessment of the evidence, eg in a not guilty plea, or they may decide on the evidence to prosecute 'careless' rather than 'dangerous' driving (for which they would advise), but they don't as a general rule decide who to prosecute for careless driving.

A prosecution for careless driving in most cases such as the inattention that caused this accident would be decided by civilian staff in the police HQ. Most cases would be disposed of via driver improvement scheme or prosecution via correspondence, and wouldn't ever pass the eyes of a CPS lawyer.

Funny that. In that case I suppose it differs from area to area (which of course it dosn't).

The reason I say this is because I was involved in a case about 20 years ago when someone in a van collided with the side of my car while travelling in the opposite way THE WRONG WAY down a one way street. They failed to stop BUT I managed to obtain the VRM from a witness. Obviously I reported the incident to the police and spent over an hour at the police station making a statement. The officer dealing said that first of all they needed to trace the other driver (obviously) and he (the officer) would be looking at the possibility of bringing a case of either careless or dangerous driving depending on witness accounts. At the very least it would amount to driving without due car and attention plus failing to stop.

About a week later I had a phone call from the officer dealing who said that the other driver had been traced and been questioned about the incident following which, I was told he had been charged with failing to stop, driving the wrong way down a one way street (or what ever the equivalent offence for that was then) and careless driving. I was also told that at witness (the one who gave me the VRM) had also gave a statement so all looked good at that point.

Then after about a further 3 weeks I had a phone call from the officer dealing that the CPS had decided NOT to prosecute for careless driving OR failing to stop after reviewing the "evidence". I was categorically told by the officer dealing that it was NOT his/the police decision, it was the CPS. Apparently the driver said he did stop "round the corner as there was no where for him to stop at the scene and he was suffering from shock". So seems like someone was telling me porkies unless the system has changed since then.

However, I did get my car repaired at no expense to myself.

Hintza

Quentin wrote: »

Y

You cannot use your guessing powers to suggest something is amiss in the injured party claiming for his injury.

Of course you can. It has been shown that every man and his dog is in on this fraud these days. The OPs OH will know.

I have been at the receiving end of one of these claims and I can not believe how deceitful some people can be.

hollie.weimeraner

brat wrote: »

The decision to prosecute for careless driving is most usually made by the police criminal justice units, not the CPS.

The CPS may occasionally decide not to prosecute someone on their assessment of the evidence, eg in a not guilty plea, or they may decide on the evidence to prosecute 'careless' rather than 'dangerous' driving (for which they would advise), but they don't as a general rule decide who to prosecute for careless driving.

A prosecution for careless driving in most cases such as the inattention that caused this accident would be decided by civilian staff in the police HQ. Most cases would be disposed of via driver improvement scheme or prosecution via correspondence, and wouldn't ever pass the eyes of a CPS lawyer.

The Police will make a decision whether to prosecute and will generally charge or report for summons any offenders. The FINAL decision on whether the matter goes to court rests with the CPS based on the evidence and what chance they deem a successful prosecution will have.

Some forces now have a CPS lawyer in house who looks at the evidence before any decisions are made

catkins

Quentin wrote: »

You weren't even there yet make out there is something wrong claiming for injuries caused by someone else's negligence.

Your husband has been lucky, the driver he hit not so.

You cannot use your guessing powers to suggest something is amiss in the injured party claiming for his injury.

No, I wasn't there but I have heard what my husband said and seen our car and the car my husband touched!. Our car is completely shoved in at the back. The car my husband touched doesn't have a mark on it.


There is no way the driver in the car my husband touched has any injuries. I know how people like to pretend. I have several friends who have faked whiplash etc to gain money and I used to work for solicitors dealing in car insurance claims so have seen and heard it all.

catkins

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Golden rule,,if someone rear ends you,,dont get out of the car...assume the position,clutch your back/neck/whatever...

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Yes,especially if your car is an old banger/clearly a write off...

What a great attitude! No wonder car insurance is so expensive when people decide to claim whether they are injured or not.


It would never have crossed my OH's mind to claim unless he had actually been injured. I was concerned as it was obviously a very hard shunt into our car as shown by the damage to our car so have been asking OH every day if he is ok. He is absolutely fine.


A neighbour asked yesterday what had happened (she saw our car) and when I told her she immediately said "I hope X is claiming for whiplash". I asked why he would when he didn't have it and she said "I got £3,000 for claiming when I didn't really have it"!!!


If the guy in the car in front can live with his conscience claiming then it's up to him. I expect the driver on the phone who caused the accident will also claim


I am not expecting anything to come of the fact that the driver responsible was on the phone but I am just annoyed that the police will stop drivers just because they are using or looking at their phone, even when stopped at lights, and yet when an accident is caused they are not interested. It's obvious the driver was distracted because he literally braked as he hit our car which the driver behind him testified. That's why he caused so much damage and pushed our car a distance into the car in front.

C_Mababejive

#27
Well we could digress but i would merely counsel that if you are involved in an accident of reasonable severity then you would be wise not to appear too agile, to at least give some indication of injury and to gather as much information at the scene as possible especially photographic evidence.

The reason why is that injuries such as soft tissue trauma are not usually evident right after the accident.

As an example, a few years ago i was stopped at a red light and a dipsy young girl ran up the back of me.

The impact was sufficient to push my vehicle forward a short distance.

I presume she was doing her make up or texting.

The imact was sufficient to damage the rear of my vehicle necessitating repair.

At the scene, i didnt notice any symptoms mainly I guess because i was dealing with the accident.

The day after i was in great pain affecting my neck and shoulders.

The pain continued for months, i had to have physio,anti inflamms etc.

Thankfully i had gathered info at the scene and submitted a successful claim.
The real answer is for people to pay attention when driving and not to prevent aggrieved persons from making legitimate claims for damages.

brat

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

The Police will make a decision whether to prosecute and will generally charge or report for summons any offenders. The FINAL decision on whether the matter goes to court rests with the CPS based on the evidence and what chance they deem a successful prosecution will have.

Some forces now have a CPS lawyer in house who looks at the evidence before any decisions are made

Different forces will have different arrangements, but you are right, the police make the initial prosecution decision. This means that if the police decision makers decide against prosecution, the CPS will not normally get to know anything of the case.
In my force for example most minor cases including careless driving (iirc up to low level injury) will be decided upon by 'case coordinators' - civilians, often retired sergeants or inspectors, who work to guidelines set by the CPS. In Tilts particular case (presuming a simple case of careless driving), the decision whether to prosecute would be taken by the case coordinator based on those guidelines. They have a close working relationship with CPS and would seek advice from them on more complex matters, but CPS don't have a personal professional input on most of our minor cases.

Spicy_McHaggis

Tilt wrote: »

Funny that. In that case I suppose it differs from area to area (which of course it dosn't).

The reason I say this is because I was involved in a case about 20 years ago when someone in a van collided with the side of my car while travelling in the opposite way THE WRONG WAY down a one way street. They failed to stop BUT I managed to obtain the VRM from a witness. Obviously I reported the incident to the police and spent over an hour at the police station making a statement. The officer dealing said that first of all they needed to trace the other driver (obviously) and he (the officer) would be looking at the possibility of bringing a case of either careless or dangerous driving depending on witness accounts. At the very least it would amount to driving without due car and attention plus failing to stop.

About a week later I had a phone call from the officer dealing who said that the other driver had been traced and been questioned about the incident following which, I was told he had been charged with failing to stop, driving the wrong way down a one way street (or what ever the equivalent offence for that was then) and careless driving. I was also told that at witness (the one who gave me the VRM) had also gave a statement so all looked good at that point.

Then after about a further 3 weeks I had a phone call from the officer dealing that the CPS had decided NOT to prosecute for careless driving OR failing to stop after reviewing the "evidence". I was categorically told by the officer dealing that it was NOT his/the police decision, it was the CPS. Apparently the driver said he did stop "round the corner as there was no where for him to stop at the scene and he was suffering from shock". So seems like someone was telling me porkies unless the system has changed since then.

However, I did get my car repaired at no expense to myself.

Twenty years ago the police made all charging decisions, now it has been set out nationally what offences the police can decide to charge with. Careless driving does not require authority from the CPS so it's the police who decide. Whether CPS prosecute it is another matter.

Spicy_McHaggis

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

The Police will make a decision whether to prosecute and will generally charge or report for summons any offenders. The FINAL decision on whether the matter goes to court rests with the CPS based on the evidence and what chance they deem a successful prosecution will have.

Some forces now have a CPS lawyer in house who looks at the evidence before any decisions are made

Used to now it's all done through call centres.