The Law is an ASS!

Went to see my Step mum for mothers day yesterday and she's still recovering from thinking she just lost her daughter to a couple if idiots in a van on the motorway.

My Step Sister was stationary in traffic when a van plowed into the back of a car 3 Cars back! he was doing about 80 and didn't even break.

Wrote off the 4 cars in front including my step sisters (she had to be cut out of the car) and according to the medics is very lucky to be alive (Suspected broken shoulder/arm and fractured leg still not been able to go see her yet)

The Girl behind her was in a similar state and has several breaks and had to be cut out of her car too.

All cars involved were fairly sturdy, large cars (Sisters was a Merc of some form, her pride and joy in fact), and they think that saved her life.

The Kids in the van walked away without any damage and when my step mum turned up they were sitting around having a laugh.

The crux of it all is the police decided not to press charges because and I quote:

"There were no fatalities"

Now...maybe I'm going mad but when I got done for speeding, there were no fatalities...but I got prosecuted...these guys plow into STATIONARY traffic and write off a line of 4 cars despite clear visability clearly not paying attention, and according to the ambulance crew were amazingly lucky not to kill people, and if it had been raining, he reckons they would of...yet they don't want to press charges...the worlds ******** insane...

I mean they are saying oh that's OK go on your way and better luck next time?
It's not like they were deep in shock and regret for the mess they made!

I... nope, speachless.

I was asking a friend this morning howcome noone has yet taking the law into their own hands with such cases!!!

From a completely objective POV:

What caused the crash? Surely only a decent investigation will determine that (the driver could of hit the brakes, but they failed - or they could of been on their phone etc). At the end of the day, Plod will only undertake a case if they think they can win it, otherwise it's a waste of the tax payers money.

They decided that this case wasn't worth it, for some reason. The driver will of been interviewed, along with all passengers, and I believe a breath test is mandatory in this type of crash. I could be wrong on that.

The insurance company, with the fact they have 4 seperate claims on one policy will try to wriggle as much as they can. They will probably say that they're only liable for the car that the van hit, and that all resulting accidents were a result of driver error, and stationary traffic being too close. I doubt if that will wash, but they'll probably try it anyway.

Tag on to that any & all compensation claims. Don't forget loss of earnings as a result of the crash as well!

The driver will be punished in terms of insurance cost hike. No-one was killed, what about serious injury (anything more than whiplash)? If there's neither (very unlikely in an accident like that), then there's no real reason for the police to prosecute unless they have an idea that something may be afoot.

Yes, that's s***, but that's life unfortunately. If you want the police to take a closer look at it, there's a finite time within which to act. Put a complaint in to the police that the matter hasn't been given the seriousness it bviously deserves.

Failing that, consider civil action.

The law is an ass....I couldn't agree more!!!! I work in a childrens home and the sht that youths get away with these days is unbelieveable. Last week I was in court with one youth who was charged with criminal damage to 3 cars (one of which amounted to £1250) but because the kid is in care he was not fined and there were no costs awarded!!!!! The kid said "so that means I can smash 20 cars and I won't get fined". UNBELIEVEABLE

Hope your sister mends soon (then get the adress of the van driver and beat the cr4p out of him....repeatedly over the next 5 years)

unbelievable response from the police!

well its not like theres a charge to people driving without due care and attention :P Dumbass Police. I understand they have alot of crap to deal with too. But every single time i've phoned them up to report something they're not interested.

My bike was pushed over, £500-600 of damage. (old bike luckily). I got the cctv footage for them, got it cut to the half hour it happened. I then phoned them every day! for 4 weeks (if i hadn't got the video put aside for them it would have been re used - as the police didn't inquire in to it). They didn't pick up the phone at the station for the first week! so i started ringing the local branch 'emergency' number. I never got an answer on that phone once! Eventually i called in to make an official complaint. On the 5th week they turned up to pick up the video, took them over 2 weeks to view it. Eventually they came to see me and it turned out the cctv tapes hadn't been changed for years, and nothing could be seen. So i had to pick up the bill.
In that year at that flat i phoned them once a week-fortnight to report some kids smashing windows of cars and stealing pushbikes. Nothing was done. I later found out it was 2 kids the police were aware of every time but didn't have enough evidence to prosecute them. There was 50 flats facing the street they did all the damage - hundreds of witnesses, and i told them i had video and pictures of it happening. If they'd followed up a single one of my calls the kids would have been prosecuted easily. Hence saving me a £500 bill.

We resorted to the law of the baseball bat.

Originally Posted by Baph

The driver will be punished in terms of insurance cost hike.

all the drivers will. Its a pity Insurance companies don't distinguish very well whos fault it was

have you been involved in an accident in the past 5 years?

oh - sorry for the long derail post before, my mums bf was in the same situation (even was a white van) a month ago. Nothing ever came of that. Even when asked to check the phone records to see if he was talking. He was in a stationary X-trail, the crash forced him in to the next lane and got hit again, and nearly went in to the opposite side of the dual carriageway. Car was complete write off too. He's now so scared he's buying a landcruiser!

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

well its not like theres a charge to people driving without due care and attention :P Dumbass Police. I understand they have alot of crap to deal with too. But every single time i've phoned them up to report something they're not interested.

This, even more than their ludicrous fixation with speeding, is what has erroded my respect for the police. You ring up and (if they answer at all) the underlying attitude is like ringing a garage who have a lot of work on at the moment and don't really want your custom.

psychocanno: That is dreadful. I hope she is okay and that the police do something about it.

Apologies for the mini-derail, but whenever I've called Plod about anything, they've been prompt to answer the phone, and that I know of, prompt at getting someone out.

When my CG spat her oil & tried to throw me off, the only fault I would give is that Plod couldn't find me! (stranded between the slip-road onto the A55 & the A55 itself at Bangor, how the ?!?!?!)

I've called before to report objects on the A55, like huge bits of wood (one of which hit my car windscreen, no damage but thank **** I wasn't on the bike!) no problems. Got out & got it sorted ASAP.

We've had issues with a local drunk, who one night came knocking on the door claiming she'd been raped & could she be taken to a friends house. Jen physically couldn't drive, which left me. Sly placement of dictaphone in the car & drove her there, called the police when I got home (claimed rape & I aint getting any accusations on me!). They managed to find her, then called round to the house to explain that she was drunk & she hadn't been anywhere near the alleged rape site (as they'd proven by CCTV), but that I was right to call them to make sure I stayed in the clear.

Everytime I've needed Plod, they've been spot on (except not finding me in the middle of a busy dual carriageway!)

Anyhow, carry on. I just figured with all the negative police vibes etc...