Reporting dangerous driving

shaun_from_Africa

Does anyone on here have any experience of reporting another driver for what they consider to be dangerous driving and submitting dashcam footage as evidence?
I was wondering if the police will actually follow it up or if it simply gets filed and forgotten.
I was driving along a fairly busy straight road (50mph limit) with oncoming cars and a **** in a Transit van behind me decided to overtake despite there being a vehicle travelling towards us so presumably a closing speed of somewhere close to 100mph.

Yes, he managed to overtake without causing a collision but only because I had to slow down and the oncoming vehicle also slowed and had to pull over to the left to avoid a head on smash.

AdrianC

Years back, I had an incident with somebody who pulled out to overtake on a dual carriageway, just as I was about to overtake them, then took great exception to me overtaking them - to the point of them deliberately pushing me into the verge while the passenger filmed me on a phone. Fortunately, they had a very memorable two-letter-two-digit vanity plate. I reported it to the non-emergency police number (pre-101), and had a call back from a traffic sergeant. He made it clear that, without any evidence, there was no chances of pressing charges, but he found my description compelling enough to be worth a visit to their address and a brief reading of the riot act, should he have time.

Whether that ever happened or not, I have no idea.

But that was without any dashcam evidence. Most forces now have ways to submit dashcam footage directly to them.

TonyMMM

Yes they can (might) take action - if they do, the driver could be offered an education course, a fixed penalty or taken to court depending on the severity of the apparent offence.

If it does result in a trial, you may be required to attend court and give evidence 

Mojisola

It's worth sending the dashcam footage - your local police may have a system like this -

www.westmercia.police.uk/operationsnap

sheramber

Yes, the driver was  medically  unfit to drive and agreed to surrender his licence when spoken to by the police.

Car_54

TonyMMM said:

Yes they can (might) take action - if they do, the driver could be offered an education course, a fixed penalty or taken to court depending on the severity of the apparent offence.

AFAIK fixed penaties and courses for careless driving are only offered in cases where the police observed the (alleged) offence.

shaun_from_Africa

I've submitted the video to my local police online portal.
Normally, I don't get too concerned about other drivers but this incident had the potential to cause a major (and possibly fatal) accident, something that may well have happened if both myself and the driver of the oncoming car hadn't slowed down and taken avoiding action.

AdrianC

Car_54 said:

AFAIK fixed penaties and courses for careless driving are only offered in cases where the police observed the (alleged) offence.

...in the absence of other evidence, such as video from a dashcam.

Prosecution may still be difficult, if the driver isn't clearly visible, of course.

shaun_from_Africa said:

...something that may well have happened if both myself and the driver of the oncoming car hadn't slowed down and taken avoiding action.

Well, good for you both for following HC147.

Car_54

AdrianC said:

 

Prosecution may still be difficult, if the driver isn't clearly visible, of course.

Why?  The normal procedure would be to serve a NIP and section 172 notice on the registered keeper, requiring him to identify the driver. Provided of couse the 14-day limit can be met.

shaun_from_Africa

This is the incident in question:

I know that there appears to be a reasonable distance between the van and the oncoming car but once the van was back in the correct lane, it was only a fraction of a second before it passed the car. (which had almost stopped) and I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't slowed, the van would have clipped my offside wing as they pulled in so sharply.

eamon

Depending on where you are in the UK there be an existing reporting mechanism that you can use for example in Bradford we have

https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/news-appeals/can-you-help-operation-steerside

Though to be fair it is directed towards stopping those errant vehicle users that think they are driving on a race track.