United Kingdom

A motorcyclist handed five points for driving too close to cyclists, which caused a dispute with the participants in the campaign

Police received five points from their driver’s license for driving “too close” to cyclists, sparking a dispute with campaign participants.

A police team in the north-west district of Sheffield posted a video of the incident online, showing a Peugeot driver apparently crossing white road signs while cyclists – who were riding in one file – overtook a parked car.

Commenting on the video, the police team said: “The driver of this vehicle has decided to cross a group of cyclists at excessive speed and too close.

“If anyone thinks this is an acceptable way to drive, let this be your warning.”

In addition to being given five points on his license, the driver was fined £ 417, sparking outrage from car campaign groups who claimed the driver had done nothing wrong.

An “idiotic” decision

The Alliance of British Drivers said the decision was “idiotic”, “which undermines the credibility of the courts and the police”.

“We all know that there are fanatics who want drivers to stop and bow to every cyclist. “If the police foolishly choose to side with them, it will damage public relations,” the group added.

However, the Sheffield police team did not bow to online criticism and responded in defense of its decision: “The driver not only threatened a cyclist, he was also too close to those who followed.

“He would see a group of bikes in a row and chose to accelerate to a speed that increased the danger to all of them and turn over the white lines toward them.

“If he had simply driven to conditions at a less dangerous speed and remained on his own side of the road, he would not have been prosecuted.

Dangerous driving

“If people choose to endanger vulnerable road users by driving poorly, they must remember that any pedestrian, rider, cyclist or vehicle can record.

In a Twitter post, the police team added that they expected some “things” about the video’s online responses, but that it was important for people to “know what the police and courts think about this type of driving, which the result shows.”

The accident happened in August 2021, before an update to the Road Code was introduced in January, which now advises drivers to “leave at least 1.5 meters when overtaking cyclists at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, and give them more space when overtaking at higher speeds. ”

Drivers are also urged to “wait behind them (cyclists) and not overtake if it is not safe or impossible to comply with these permits”.

Previous guidelines simply told drivers to “give motorcyclists, cyclists and riders at least as much space as you could overtake when overtaking a car”.

In the updated version of the Road Code, a risk-based “hierarchy of road users” was introduced.

Vulnerable road users

The pyramid is based on the idea that those who can cause the most damage have the greatest responsibility not to injure other, more vulnerable road users.

Many cyclists expressed support for the police’s actions. Ian Kerry said: “Appropriate sentence. If the driver had slowed down and let the cyclists pass, there would have been no problem.

“The delay to the driver would be a few seconds.”

A warning message was issued to the driver of the car after the police were informed about the violation.

“If he is seen driving carelessly and anti-socially in the year since he was released, his vehicle will be confiscated,” the police team added.