Careless Driving Charge

Hi there,

Looking for some advice as the following has happened to one of my drivers.

A car driver has claimed that he was forced off the road by my driver.

My driver (who is as straight as a dye) tells me he came up behind a crop sprayer (approx 25 miles/hr) and couldn’t over take. Traffic behind him consists of a couple of cars and a truck. When it was safe to overtake my driver checked his mirrior, signaled and pulled out to over take as there was nothing coming up alongside from behind. My driver was unware of any vehicle being there or of any contact and over took the crop sprayer and carried on with his trip.

A few days latter we learn that a car driver claims that he was forced off the road by my driver as he was trying to over take the truck and crop sprayer and that my driver pulled out forcing him off the road.

Looking at the trailer there is not any conclusive evidence of contact behind the last axel where said contact was made.

The cops have now charged my driver with Careless Driving.

This all seems very unfair, my driver wasnt even aware of any incident.

Apparently the car driver has witnesses but we don’t know if they are the folk in his car or independent witnesses.

What is the best thing for my driver to do as he doesn’t want a CD on his license?

Will this automatically go to court or does the prosecution service validate any evidence before deciding to go to court?

Any advice gratefully received.
Cheers

No offence intended to any members here, but to the op I would suggest taking proper legal advice from a firm of solicitors specialising in this sort of stuff. Whilst the answers you receive here will in the main be made with good intentions they will vary from “take a contract out on the car driver, bet the ■■■■ was East European”, to “google earth may have had a satellite overhead, can you not ask them for the footage?”

So in my humble opinion ask the people who this for them is their bread and butter.

Check your insurance, you may have legal cover to deal with an incident such as this.

Not sure if it’s helpful but a friend of mine once received a Notice of Intended Prosecution for forcing a car off of the road on the M25. Shipping records, MAUT tickets and parking receipts all proved beyond any doubt whatsoever that he was in Germany on the day in question.

the maoster:
No offence intended to any members here, but to the op I would suggest taking proper legal advice from a firm of solicitors specialising in this sort of stuff. Whilst the answers you receive here will in the main be made with good intentions they will vary from “take a contract out on the car driver, bet the [zb] was East European”, to “google earth may have had a satellite overhead, can you not ask them for the footage?”

So in my humble opinion ask the people who this for them is their bread and butter.

I’d say you are right but it is good to see a Man prepared to stand by one of his drivers for a change instead of automatically believing the complainant.

A owner driver who I know very well had some problems with a car driver on a normal road (40 mph for the lorry ) ,any way when the police came to see him they looked at his speeds on his tacho card for the said offence and although he was not speeding at the exact supposed incident time they presumed him guilty due to the speed s being over 40 before and after.

I had a similar thing some years ago where one driver claimed I pulled out on him on the M1 and another driver was his witness

When it got to court it transpired that one driver gave the number plate to the other driver at the next services and the one who got the number plate had it wrong

The magistrate did not even bother to check my tacho records which proved I had finished driving that day before the time of the incident

I got - no case to answer

If only one person in your incident got the registration etc and then passed it to others …

Surely if the car driver intended to overtake both the truck and the farm machinery (plus any other cars in between, if any) he was overtaking a line of traffic and care should be taken by him.
I would also try to find out exactly who these witnesses are and how they came to witness the “event”.
For the police to issue charges without even contacting the truck driver seems inconsistent with what I’ve found previously.
Also the charge is excessive in my opinion - a drive without due care would seem more appropriate to me.
Too many “why’s” here.

Have the police interviewed your driver?

Once he has been charged the case will be handed over to the CPS who will decide whether there
is enough evidence to stand a “realistic” chance of obtaining a conviction.

The only thing the driver can do is wait and see what happens. Depending on the police force, he may get offered a course accepting a course offer is an admission of guilt if he accepts he won’t have to go to court or have anything on his licence.
3 to 6 points are mandatory for this offence if convicted.

As above good legal advice should be obtained.

why have the police not charged your driver with leaving the scene of an accident :question: it all doesn’t make sense. as said get legal advice

Have your insurance company notified you of a claim ?. Did the so called victim report the incident to. his insurers as soon as it happened ?. If such an incident occurred why did the alleged victim not try and catch up with the driver or is he claiming that his car was undriveable ?

The Police should be on the case regarding failing to stop at the scene of an accident and reporting an accident.
I am deeply suspicious here, as these offences need to be addressed.
I was accused of such a few years back and eventually the case was dropped through lack of evidence…I always was aggressive towards the Police and now as Vice-Chair of my Parish council and having three run -ins with the Police this year I remain the same, the Police are useless and rely upon admission of guilt, they do not have the financial resources to investigate any longer :imp:
People can not be trusted, always expect the public to be lying, as they usually are for some easy money :imp:

green456:
why have the police not charged your driver with leaving the scene of an accident :question: it all doesn’t make sense. as said get legal advice

The police might have decided to let the ‘leaving the scene of an accident’ charge slide due to a low chance of a securing conviction (especially if the car has very little damage) as they have to prove that the driver was aware an accident had taken place.
Hence why they are only pursuing careless driving.

N.I Express:
If such an incident occurred why did the alleged victim not try and catch up with the driver or is he claiming that his car was undriveable ?

Even if he did would you stop for a car flashing you, trying to pull you over? I wouldn’t.

Did an accident take place? Maybe the car driver rang it in once home. If the police attended an actual accident you’d probably have had a visit. All this is amateur opinion. Only way is to get a legal professional on it who specialises in traffic offences. A good lawyer will unpick any questionable ‘facts’ or ‘witnesses’ put forward by a hopeful cps.

Get a lawyer, this sounds very much like an insurance scam to me.

flippermaj:
Hi there,

Looking for some advice as the following has happened to one of my drivers.

A car driver has claimed that he was forced off the road by my driver.

My driver (who is as straight as a dye) tells me he came up behind a crop sprayer (approx 25 miles/hr) and couldn’t over take. Traffic behind him consists of a couple of cars and a truck. When it was safe to overtake my driver checked his mirrior, signaled and pulled out to over take as there was nothing coming up alongside from behind. My driver was unware of any vehicle being there or of any contact and over took the crop sprayer and carried on with his trip.

A few days latter we learn that a car driver claims that he was forced off the road by my driver as he was trying to over take the truck and crop sprayer and that my driver pulled out forcing him off the road.

Looking at the trailer there is not any conclusive evidence of contact behind the last axel where said contact was made.

The cops have now charged my driver with Careless Driving.

This all seems very unfair, my driver wasnt even aware of any incident.

Apparently the car driver has witnesses but we don’t know if they are the folk in his car or independent witnesses.

What is the best thing for my driver to do as he doesn’t want a CD on his license?

Will this automatically go to court or does the prosecution service validate any evidence before deciding to go to court?

Any advice gratefully received.
Cheers

I had the same happen to me in 97, I was supposed to have shoved a car into the central reservation Armco barrier on the A14 at rothwell.

contacted by the police after the company I worked for passed my details over to them.
charged with careless driving failing to stop/report an accident.

pleaded not guilty at kettering magistrates.
the failing to stop/report was dropped, the clerk of the court accepted that I would have stopped had I known there was an accident.

the magistrates found me guilty and gave me 6 points on my licence and a $170 fine.
that stayed on my licence for what seemed for ever.

good luck and to be honest I don’t know anybody who has received a not guilty in a magistrates court for any offence they are on trial for.

I would in hindsight do one or more of the following.
if you have the money employ the services of an accident investigator, and ask the cops for a paint sample to compare with any paint on the unit or trailer.
also ask the cops what colour the car driver said your lorry is.
your driver will get all statements relating to the case its well worth reading them carefully the devil is most definitely in the detail.

It’s shocking it has come to this - and this could so easily happen to any one of us drivers.

Hopefully you will have access to a legal team, this does sound like a crash for cash job to me.

ROG:
I had a similar thing some years ago where one driver claimed I pulled out on him on the M1 and another driver was his witness

When it got to court it transpired that one driver gave the number plate to the other driver at the next services and the one who got the number plate had it wrong

The magistrate did not even bother to check my tacho records which proved I had finished driving that day before the time of the incident

I got - no case to answer

If only one person in your incident got the registration etc and then passed it to others …

Yes, I agree with this. It’s dishonest for the “victim” to pass a registration THEY have taken onto so-called bystanders, who most likely only saw an “aftermath” of an “accident” that didn’t actually involve any contact with a passing truck at all. I once passed a just-crashed car at a set of crossroads in london, which I had nothing to do with, so drove on. I later got questioned by the police for apparently “running this woman off the road”.
I was aware that the original crashed driver was the only person who could possibly taken down my registration from where I was stationary at the lights, and then just pulled away when the lights went green, passing the accident scene (on the left of the crossroad) and just thinking it was a bit odd why this woman was staring at ME as I went by… Perhaps she wanted me to stop, and act as a witness on her behalf? - She obviously wasn’t hurt, and I felt there was no obligation for me to stop in any case. Besides, I hadn’t actually seen this person crash, her being already out and about from the car that had gone sideways into the kerb by the looks of it, wrapping nearside wheels underneath, so not driveable!

I suggested to the police that “witnesses are in cahoots” having been pressed into giving statements by “nurse in distress”, and on comparing statements from no less than SIX of them, they couldn’t agree on multiple “minor” points, like if I was black or white, what kind of truck I was driving, if I stopped or not, or indeed as one “suggested”, that I’d apparently got out and waved my fist in said so-called “victims” face. Since the police were looking at “leaving the scene of an accident” as the main charge against me, the whole lot got dropped - because the witness statements were so obviously full of crap! - EXCEPT they strangely “all agreed on the registration taken” - which I suggested was passed around by said ‘victim’. My vehicle was examined for fresh impact damage or recent repairs, and on nothing being found, my statement that “I had no accident and no impact with said ‘victim’'” was accepted by the police, and no further action would be taken.

The “victim” turned out to be a nurse late for work, speeding along through town, and just got unlucky, involving no other vehicle, whilst playing the amber gambler game. “Trying it on” with the registration of someone stationary in pole position at the crossroad lights as I was - has to be pretty dumb doesn’t it?
Perhaps they thought my employer would always give the member of the public any “benefit of the doubt” over their own driver. Even the most skinflint employer is not going to be doing THAT - surely? :open_mouth:

Talk to the police & explain, they’ll probly ignore you & to be fair there’s no guarantee that your driver isn’t fibbing. I appreciate you know him but…