Essex Police to go undercover as cyclists to catch rogue drivers

More than that, there is the element of danger as a bike will never win a fight with a car.

Now police are to go undercover to record incidents of bad driving and bring the perpetrators to justice. It is hope it will make drivers think twice and make the roads a safer place for cyclists to be.

FOR the two million people who cycle every day, close passes are an almost daily occurrence.

The passes can be extremely intimidating and account for around a third of all threatening incidents between drivers and cyclists.

To protect cyclists, Essex Police are adopting a new scheme to stop close passes from happening anymore.

The force are joining more than a dozen of other forces to introduce the Close Pass scheme in the county where undercover cyclists will help catch irresponsible car drivers.

The new initiative will see plain clothed officers cycling the streets with cameras attached to their bikes, filming in case drivers come too close to them on the road.

Drivers who are deemed to be too close will be pulled over and advised on their actions while driving, and the most serious offenders will be prosecuted.

Adam Pipe, casualty reduction manager for Essex Police, announced the move earlier this month.

He said: “2018 will see the introduction of a Close Pass Scheme to help protect cyclists and identify drivers putting cyclists in danger.

“Information, intelligence and footage is critical to identify people flouting the rules of the road and ensuring we can bring them to justice – this work will continue.”

Will Bramhill, a spokesman for the Colchester Cycling Campaign said the group were full supportive of the scheme and wished it had been introduced in Essex sooner.

He said: “We fully support it, and in truth this is probably one of the last counties to adopt it.

“It was started in the West Midlands and is such a refreshing attitude.

“It is a way of reducing road danger.

“I have colleagues who ride much more often than me who say not a single long ride – around three or four hours – goes by without some sort of close pass.

“Most drivers will be sensible and leave you plenty of room but it is the odd one who drives too fast and too close which really shakes you up.

“There is an argument which says cyclists are always in the middle of the road but there is a reason for that.

“It is called “taking the lane” which is a government approved policy – if you are hugging the kerb you are just encouraging somebody to pass you more closely.”

Mr Bramhill said drivers were more careful around cyclists in other European countries like Denmark, Holland, Germany and France for two different reasons.

He said: “They have a lot more people cycling and a lot of those cyclists will also drive.

“For example, I’m probably a lot more aware of cyclists and what they are likely to do and how they will react when I am in the care than somebody who doesn’t cycle.

“There is also something called the strict or personal liability.

“In terms of insurance a driver is always responsible for a cyclist or pedestrian’s safety unless it can be proved otherwise.”

At the beginning of this year, Essex Police announced the number of road deaths in the county had dropped from 64 to 46 between 2016 and 2017.

Similar initiatives to the close pass scheme have been rolled out in Essex including the Extra Eyes scheme from the Safer Essex Roads Partnership (SERP), which the police have credited with helping lower that number of casualties on the roads.

The new initiative gave an easy way for all road users, including cyclists to upload dashcam footage showing dangerous or illegal behaviour on the road.

A spokesman for SERP said: “The increasing availability of mass market ‘on the go’ cameras means more irresponsible, dangerous and illegal road behaviour is being recorded in video form than ever before. Through ‘Extra Eyes’, this footage can be sent to us for review by a roads policing investigator from Essex Police’s Casualty Reduction Section.”