Has anyone had a careless/dangerous driving charge?

[Throwaway9876]

I want to preface this with the fact I’m not looking for sympathy (or a berating) and obviously the most important thing here is that no one was hurt. I understand that this could have been disastrous and feel sick to my stomach about that too, but this is purely about the practical next steps.

I was driving earlier today and made a terrible mistake (didn’t see a cyclist). I’m fairly certain they had a camera, so might well report this to police

I wasn’t speeding/using my phone/drunk, I just didn’t see a cyclist and I pulled out right in front of them. They had to brake to avoid a collision.

This is the first time in 20 years I’ve (known) I’ve done something downright terrible that could have caused a very nasty accident so I’m very shook up and will not be driving again in the short term and until I’m satisfied I’m driving as carefully and safely as I should be.

If I am reported, I can’t see how it wouldn’t be viewed very dimly and I could see myself getting a charge for careless/dangerous driving.

Has anyone here faced charges for careless or dangerous driving? Can you tell me the timeline and a bit more about your case?

I think the next thing I’ll be waiting to receive (and hoping not to receive) is a NIP, which should be received within 14 days.

I’ve got severe anxiety over unknowns, so this whole situation is affecting me massively. I might genuinely need to take time off work due to the level of anxiety about what might happen next. Again, I appreciate entirely that this was of my own doing due to my mistake and I’m not at all trying to minimise how I could have hit a cyclist or how they must feel - but there is certainty that they are ok so it is much more a guilt/sick feeling on that “known”.

To repeat my first paragraph - I’m not looking for sympathy or to be berated here, I just want to know of the experience of others who might have had similar.

Are you in London? Even there - sadly (as a cyclist and mother of cyclists) it’s vanishingly unlikely that you’ll be prosecuted. Just take a deep breath and vow to look more carefully in future. I’ve made errors driving too - we all just need to be so careful, all the time

I’m not London.

I know the impact my driving could have had and assuming I’m able to keep driving I’ll probably look at some refresher lessons. It’s a long time since I learnt and it’s really scary that I genuinely didn’t see a cyclist, so I feel like the militant “you should be checking XYZ/doing ABC” approach will pick up some things I’m not doing as properly as I should be. I’m absolutely willing to do this and I’m only sorry it took this event to make me realise bad habits might have crept in or that I’m not doing things as thoroughly as necessary.

I know cyclists are in a very vulnerable position on the road, and as a car driver I have a huge responsibility to keep them safe (obviously applicable to cars and pedestrians too).

Thank you for your response, and stay safe.

Do not be too hard on yourself. We all make mistakes and you did not purposefully try to run them down.

For future reference, learn from your mistake and always double check. Don't stop driving and definitely do not beat yourself up anymore about it. It will not help although your anxiety should act as a deterrent to stop doing dangerous things whilst driving

It's highly unlikely - if the cyclist has a camera and sent the video in - that you'll hear anything. But if you do it would be a due care and attention charge and if you've a clean licence you will probably be offered a driver awareness course. A dangerous driving charge requires a very high degree of recklessness, cutting up a cyclist isn't that.

I feel like you will be a safer driver now because you will have learned from your mistake and will ensure you double check in future.

I am not familiar with UK driving laws but I would think it is extremely unlikely to be charged for a near-miss.

I wrote off my own car and someone else’s £100,000 car, damaged council property and held traffic up on the busiest road in our city during Friday rush hour traffic and “only” got a careless driving charge (and £100 fine). You’ll be fine chances of getting a conviction for what you’ve done is practically zero

This is exactly what I was going to say.

Just wanted to add - dependent on who the keeper of the vehicle is it might be longer than the 14 days i.e if a lease as it's only the lease who have to be served within 14 days for them to nominate you.

I would imagine 3 points £100 fine or a drivers awareness course.

As a cyclist (who wears a reflective jacket always) I literally would have shouted "oi! Look where you're going!" & thought no more of it

If every driver who pulled out in front of a cyclist without looking well enough was prosecuted, the courts would be over run, for sure..

Definitely good to reflect & think about maybe an advanced driving lesson though :)

AS PP have said, very unlikely you would get anything, if by slim chance it did for incidents like this it would be driver awareness course most likely as you have a clean licence and haven't hit anyone or anything. If you haven't already it might be a good idea to refresh yourself with the Highway Code as it has been updated quite a bit recently mainly regarding cyclists and pedestrians.

Did you stop and talk to the cyclist afterwards?

I wanted to send footage to the police of someone who deliberately stopped at 70 mph on a motorway in front of me. (I assume I was too close and it was to 'teach me a lesson').

Police tried very hard to dissuade me, telling me I'd have to go to court as a witness, and generally not wanting to look at it.

I'd be more worried it will end up on Twitter!

Cyclist has probably gone home mentioned to family about the idiot on the road and then thought no more if it.

Whatever you do, don't stop driving it will completely knock your confidence.

You have my sympathy. I did something a few weeks ago that brought me out in a cold sweat for a few days every time I thought about it and wondered if I'd see a video on social media. (I must have misjudged the speed of a cyclist when I pulled out of a tricky rural junction on a bend - they must have been going a heck of a pace uphill and ended up right behind me gesticulating.) Like others have said though, it's highly unlikely anything will happen legally.

Thank you all.

As quite a few of you have mentioned, I’ll definitely be brushing up my driving skills and this has been a huge wake up call that I might have become complacent and should do something about it.

I think part of the reason I’m concerned is that I do know of people who got points for “close passing” a cyclist when overtaking, and this feels more severe than that to me. Our police area seems to encourage clips to be uploaded online and does seem to act on them.

I do hope that you’re all correct about the potential severity of the offence (whilst also still being very aware of how dangerous this was), I genuinely have thoughts of ending up in court and losing my licence, so hopefully it would be a fixed charge if it comes to that.

I’m the registered keeper, so it will be 14 days I’ll be waiting for a NIP, given we’re not even realistically as the point in that period it could arrive it will be a long wait and plenty of opportunity to dwell.

Regrettably, it took me quite a few seconds to really process and find a safe spot to pull in to at which point the cyclist never appeared and must have went down one of the various turn offs.

Thank you all for being reasonable here and not just jumping on the “you’re terrible and shouldn’t be driving” train. I already know I made a terrible mistake and will do my absolute best to learn from it.

I’m a cyclist and probably would have thought fuckwit and moved on with my life. Especially if you looked horrified.

unfortunately it happens all of the time to cyclists and we’d be permanently on to the police if we reported everything.

The only ones I consider reporting are the nutters who see me and still drive too close or cut me up, or get aggressive as if it’s my fault for getting too close to their car. And the idiot lads in their fiesta who think it’s funny to lean out their windows and shout out comments about my arse, or the white van drivers who think it’s funny to drive behind me and sound their horn from 2 metres away to watch me jump.

genuinely didn’t see me? Not so bothered 😂

You are probably just one of the many idiots that the cyclist encountered that day, going by what DH says when he is cycling in town, if they all went to court it would be permanently full