A very near miss

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Fri 13 Jul 2007 21:53
A very near miss - daveyjp
Waiting at a red light at the top of a slip road tonight. Two lanes, only option is to turn left. I'm in the inside lane and have a new 207 on the outside who is riding the clutch, creeping forward and roling back on the incline.

As you wait you can see the other set of lights, so I watch them and prepare for my set to change, as does Mr Pug. He sees the other set go green-amber-red. The lights are set so as soon as the other set are red our set start their change sequence with no gap between one set going red and our set starting

As soon as the other set has hit red and our sequence has just started the Pug driver moves off a bit sharpish whilst red amber is still showing on our set. Knowing this set of lights (after nearly being hit by a moped who flew through on red) I now always check before moving off and on this occasion I see a white Mitsubishi FTO coming quickly from the right and he isn't stopping. The white car goes straight through the red, by this point I was preparing for the bang and the consequences of the Pug possibly being pushed into my 2 week old motor. Incredibly they missed and the Pug then chased the FTO round a roundabout and away from me!

Thinking this through I would have made an interesting witness statement. Both cars went through a set of lights which wasn't showing green so potentially both at equal fault.
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Fri 13 Jul 2007 22:16
A very near miss - spencertheartist
wasn't M6 J23 by any chance?
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Fri 13 Jul 2007 22:20
A very near miss - henry k
>>Thinking this through I would have made an interesting witness statement.
>>
Maybe not.
I was prime witness to a bike gunning it from the lights into the side of a van that had just run a red.
Bike was in a right turn lane but went straight forward and I am convinced he did not look right because I ( who was at his left shoulder) saw the van and stayed put.

After hours of statements etc and a half day at court I was then sent home as not wanted at the case.
IMO they were only interested in doing the van driver.
Guess who is not very interested in being a witness again.
I just loss a lot of my time but no salary. If you are self employed etc there must be even more disincentive to be a witness.
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Fri 13 Jul 2007 23:11
A very near miss - GroovyMucker
Henry K

IIUC, you didn't hear the outcome of the case.

Often the Defendant will take things all the way to trial in the hope/expectation that the independent witness won't bother to turn up. You did: perhaps he then folded.

You weren't expecting to be paid, I'm sure: the reason you gave a statement was that you wanted justice to be done. If that meant you evidence wasn't required - well, that's how it often goes. Justice (?) was still done.

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Sat 14 Jul 2007 00:24
A very near miss - Stuartli
>>You weren't expecting to be paid, I'm sure>>

Not paid, I'm sure. Merely recompense for loss of earnings.

So justice wasn't done.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Sat 14 Jul 2007 00:25
A very near miss - henry k
>>You weren't expecting to be paid, I'm sure: the reason you gave a statement was that you wanted justice to be done.
>>
I was not interested in any payment.
I actually gave the same statement three times which took a few hours.

>>If that meant your evidence wasn't required - well, that's how it often goes. Justice (?) was still done.
>>
My evidence "did not support the police case so you can go and claim your expenses! "
I am not sure justice was done. I was not supporting either side but I guess my evidence showed that biker did not obey the highway code and that was inconvenient to the case.

As an independant witness my evidence was both for and against the defendant.
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