CRAZY cyclists travelling the wrong way down a dual carriageway and an alleged hit and run were among 26 incidents in one day in Colchester.
 

Essex Police ran Operation Bluenose to try and improve road safety in the town.
 

Many were praised for their behaviour but officers were shocked at some of the things they saw.
 

A man has been charged with four motoring offences after allegedly hitting a cyclist in High Street, Colchester, on Tuesday before driving off.
 

The cyclist was left shaken and with a damaged bike.
 

A man was charged with careless driving, failing to stop after a road collision, having no insurance and having an invalid driving licence.
 

Op Bluenose was organised by the Essex Police casualty reduction section to try and reduce the number of casualties and encourage the use of lights, helmets and safety clothing.
 

Sgt Graham Freeman, who ran the operation, said: "The overwhelming majority of cyclists in Colchester had lights and the majority had helmets and reflective clothing which is excellent news.
 

"But we did find that in about an hour we stopped a total of 23 cyclists for riding on a footpath which was crowded with pedestrians.
 

“These were all given verbal warnings.
 

“In addition – and to our utter amazement, a further two were stopped for cycling down a dual carriageway the wrong way against the flow of traffic to take a short cut.
 

"Unbelievably they thought it was okay as they were in a cycle lane – which was only 2ft wide.
 

"They genuinely couldn’t understand that they were risking their lives by cycling against the traffic – including a few buses that kept coming out of bus stops in that stretch and coming across the cycle lanes to join the main flow of traffic.
 

“These were also given verbal warnings.”
 

The man charged in connection to the High Street crash has been bailed to appear at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on March 14.