Riding my bike yesterday when I was overtaken by a white van which slowed down as it came alongside. The driver revved the engine, the passenger leaned out of the window with a portable air horn and blew it into my ear, then sped off.
Reported to West Yorkshire police on 101 as my ear was painful that evening (portable air horns are ~140dB) and gave them the reg number of the van.
They initially seemed quite keen to investigate but then called back to say that the van wasn't registered in their jurisdiction and that the police force responsible (suspect Lancashire police) won't be investigating.
The reason they're not investigating? "The registered keeper and the insurance differ".
My ear still feels woolly this afternoon and though I wasn't particularly bothered by the incident, someone else might be and it seems that they kept the air horn in the van for the sole purpose of trying to annoy cyclists.
Is it possible to "appeal" a decision not to investigate? What more do they need? There's even an independent witness. They wouldn't give me the address of the keeper either.
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Well, your earhole's still not right is it? I wonder if they would have been more inclined to look into it if there was Actual Bodily Harm?
And how would you go on if you wanted to make a personal injury claim? DOes that confer any rights to access the registered keeper's address?
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Have a word in the shell like of your local police and crime commissioner, and tell him if he doesn't pull his finger out and get some action about an assault on you, you will be hitting social media very hard indeed come election time, telling everyone what a good awful job he is doing.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 25 Mar 16 at 16:32
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Technically an assault. Common Assault in all probability..report it again.
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>> Technically an assault. Common Assault in all probability..report it again.
That. And before you ring check out the complaints process so that you can be ready to roll with it if needs be. If you're a member of the CTC would they help? Try seeking advice on CycleChat or a n other cycling forum. If, as seems likely, the perp is making a habit of this does googling etc turn up any other reports.
Nothing to stop you going to DVLA and, claiming the incident as good reason, asking them for keeper details. If it's a works van it's just possible the employer might be interested in the conduct of his staff.
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Have a word in the shell like of your local police and crime commissioner, and tell him if he doesn't pull his finger out and get some action about an assault on you, you will be hitting social media very hard indeed now till election time, telling everyone what a god awful job he is doing. And there won't be any need to continue it as he/she/it won't get re-elected.
:o)
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And let it be known that your job could be effected and you may have to sue for damages. Your insurers lawyers will be investigating the circumstances.
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Ah well....at least someone's given you the horn this week.
Memories !
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What a malevolent dangerous thing to do. Could have caused ear damage and/or a crash.
Young idiots deserve a kicking, or even the legal equivalent.
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The reason no one is interested is because:
1, The van will be a lease/hire/sub contracted vehicle and it'll be a PITA to find out who was driving it.
2, The driver wasn't the miscreant who actually did the deed, it was the passenger. How will anyone find out who that was if the driver fails to assist.
3, Police control rooms will have a long list of things they haven't got to yet and they'll try to deal on a sliding scale of importance.... this matter will be fairly near the bottom of the queue.
4, Ultimately, it will be your word against theirs as to the exact circumstances of what happened and there'll be a virtual nil chance of a prosecution.
So it's going nowhere, sorry, you'll have to take it on the chin, as irritating as that is.
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As much as I hate the principal of it, the more you hear of these sort of things, the more it makes sense to have a camera on your body recording 24/7.
I had a similar incident with the police recently that I posted on here about, despite a 15 min running 999 commentary and full description of the miscreants, the police failed to catch them.
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>> As much as I hate the principal of it, the more you hear of these
>> sort of things, the more it makes sense to have a camera on your body
>> recording 24/7.
What a bizarre thought. Pursuing every personal affront, piece of idiocy and obnoxious behaviour you encounter in your life would surely drive you crazy. Sometimes it's best just to swear quietly to yourself and move on.
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I wouldn't use it for the idiocy but would for a case like this that could have been far more dangerous. Or the one I witnessed could have given photographic evidence.
But agreed, not to highlight someone picking their nose!
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There seems to be a trend build re the abuse of cyclist everywhere.
The article a couple of years ago when a young woman knocked a cyclist over and called it fair game is one example and there are numerous videos of cyclists getting abused on social media.
I wonder how long it will be before it is acceptable to knock a cyclist off and seriously injure or kill them with the police taking the view that it is now acceptable to do so (a bit like them ignoring bank fraud)?
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>> I wonder how long it will be before it is acceptable to knock a cyclist
>> off and seriously injure or kill them with the police taking the view that it
>> is now acceptable to do so (a bit like them ignoring bank fraud)?
>>
Do you really believe that a serious injury or death would be deliberately ignored, filed on the too difficult pile, like a fraud?
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>> Do you really believe that a serious injury or death would be deliberately ignored, filed
>> on the too difficult pile, like a fraud?
You've previously asserted, re Rotherham, that so called Political Correctness led to rape and child prostitution being put in too difficult pile.
No real leap at all for cyclist or pedestrian deaths to be filed as mix of their carelessness and lack of instant evidence equalling too difficult. Indeed that's really been case for years.
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>> No real leap at all for cyclist or pedestrian deaths to be filed as mix
>> of their carelessness and lack of instant evidence equalling too difficult. Indeed that's really been
>> case for years.
Well your victimhood for cyclists has come up trumps this time.
There's ample evidence out there of the enormous amount of time spent on investigating RTA deaths. We've had plenty of discussions on here amount the amount of time roads are closed etc. There's no conspiracy when it comes to cyclist victims... or pedestrians for that matter.
I have posted on here before about the increased resources provided to traffic police re death investigations and how they more closely match homicide investigations, certainly considerably more than they used to.
For homicides this country used to have the best detection rates in the world, probably still does.
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The thin edge of the wedge is already embedded. A blind eye to years of child abuse, the fraud statement, ignoring reported traffic offences, the list becomes longer. When will the senior police officers have the guts to say we are under resoursed, we are not going to respond to, X,Y,and Z. Then the politicians might just take some notice, fear for their jobs, and come up with some cash.
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>>Then the politicians might just take some notice, fear for their jobs, and come up with some cash.
Many of the decision maker senior politicians will have no problem getting the police involved if they ask, for any crime. So therefore, like with a whole load of everyday things, they have no idea how Joe Public is affected.
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Are traveller sites still no-go areas for police?
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>> Are traveller sites still no-go areas for police?
>>
In some respects 'yes'.
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>> Why?
>>
There is a real chance of a big bun fight and/or hoo-hah about picking on them because of racism.
So you have to choose your moments.
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>> >> Why?
>> >>
>> There is a real chance of a big bun fight and/or hoo-hah about picking on
>> them because of racism.
>>
>> So you have to choose your moments.
And there is real issues with identification. Everyone on a temporary site lives off the grid. No identification carried, no driving licenses, no NI numbers, no car insurance, tax or V5s, people hop from van to van claim to be someone else, lots of hoo haa and shouting from "wives" and kids and dogs biting everyone.
You either have to go in with a loads and loads of resource and transport and arrest the whole ruddy lot of them or forget it. And if you do nick them all, everyone in the force will be tied up for days, every cell full, forces of law and order swamped.
You need to nick them off site, in the act, and for something really serious that carries no bail.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 25 Mar 16 at 22:48
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>> And there is real issues with identification. Everyone on a temporary site lives off the
>> grid. No identification carried, no driving licenses, no NI numbers, no car insurance, tax or
>> V5s, people hop from van to van claim to be someone else, lots of hoo
>> haa and shouting from "wives" and kids and dogs biting everyone.
>>
>> You either have to go in with a loads and loads of resource and transport
>> and arrest the whole ruddy lot of them or forget it. And if you do
>> nick them all, everyone in the force will be tied up for days, every cell
>> full, forces of law and order swamped.
>>
>> You need to nick them off site, in the act, and for something really serious
>> that carries no bail.
>>
You are remarkably well informed.
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>> 2, The driver wasn't the miscreant who actually did the deed, it was the passenger.
>> How will anyone find out who that was if the driver fails to assist.
/\
what he said.
The driver has the "right to remain silent" on his side.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 25 Mar 16 at 21:24
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Registration number will reveal the owner.
If Rental Company then a time line will show who was the hirer if pertinent.
Hirer has responsibility for the driver whether You/They like it or not.
Driver has responsibility and/or a duty of care over passengers. (They don't just get on board without him/Her unlocking the doors). He/She will know them. They wont be allowed to pick up hitch hikers as part of the contract surely.
Make enough waves/Cause Shiite and the picture will become much clearer.
Suggestion of VERY negative publicity should ensure some progress.
If not find another way. It's not difficult.
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>> Hirer has responsibility for the driver whether You/They like it or not.
What does that mean?
If it's a 'no insurance' job... you either tell who the driver was the driver or receive 6 points at court for not informing the authorities who it was.
That doesn't apply with an assault investigation.
You don't have to say anything. Unsurprisingly, many don't, particularly those who have regular dealings with the law..
>> Driver has responsibility and/or a duty of care over passengers. (They don't just get on
>> board without him/Her unlocking the doors). He/She will know them. They wont be allowed to
>> pick up hitch hikers as part of the contract surely.
See above.. and.. what relevance is a contract? People that commit crimes, don't give two hoots about rules, contracts, etc.
>> Make enough waves/Cause Shiite and the picture will become much clearer.
Have you been watching The Sweeney or Life on Mars?
>> Suggestion of VERY negative publicity should ensure some progress.
Really? There are people out there who couldn't give a ****.
>> If not find another way. It's not difficult.
... and all for a minor crime?.... whilst there is more serious stuff stacked up with no one to deal?
Last edited by: Westpig on Fri 25 Mar 16 at 22:28
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Our local Chemist shop got the doors kicked in by two drunks fighting.
I was talking to the staff they had CCTV footage.Incident has been reported to the police nobody has been round to have a word.There is a local police station in the village but not manned to take calls.
I don't know what the hell is going on with the police at the moment.Understaffed fed up or can't be bothered with to many calls I don't know.Oh yes we have a police Commisioner everything is fine and under control.
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I think perhaps we are all going to have to get used to the idea that the police are there to deal with major stuff and do not have the resource to investigate every minor incident. It's a bit like the health service. It's there for when you are really ill not for when you have a cold or a minor rash.
People go on about a nanny stat but sometimes I think people want to be nannied. Sometimes you just have to get on with life.
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>> I think perhaps we are all going to have to get used to the idea
>> that the police are there to deal with major stuff and do not have the
>> resource to investigate every minor incident.
You are right... and it has got far worse as time has gone by.
In fairness to the average citizen though, their expectations have been badly mismanaged. I cannot fathom why senior police officers don't make more of an effort to put the message out that they can't deal with everything expected of them. They persist in pretending that they can, when they blatantly can not....
... and it causes difficulties such as this.
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Do as reported around here:
1. If the van's that close, thump it so causes a dent.
2. It's alleged, a cyclist was seriously cut-up by a car. Cyclist noted car registration, saw it parked locally and applied a liberal quantity of dog faecal matter to the driver's side door handle......................................................
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Of course they can't deal with every situation there are not enough officers to cope.Burglaries traffic domestics the list is endless.
Communities have to look after each other neighbourhood watch and the like.Here where I live very few violent crimes.Shed burglaries are populair.
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>>(portable air horns are ~140dB)
Two can play at that game: www.thehornit.com/the-hornit-db140/the-hornit-db140.html
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Isn't this all a bit of over reaction?
Pat
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>> Isn't this all a bit of over reaction?
>>
Yes, apart from the possible ear damage. which should be investigated.
A cousin was made permanently deaf when a friend's dog travelling in a car with him suddenly barked loudly in his ear. It seemed just a joke at the time.
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>>which should be investigated.<<
Exactly, by a Doctor and should have already been done by now.
Pat
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If you can find one Pat.Doctors are becoming like hen's teeth.
Diana needed a emergency appointment the other day couple of hrs wait 5 minutes of the Doctors time.
The Lady Doctor was in a rush.
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How useless can the police get? - Manatee
