Think about reporting driver who splashes pedestrians?

[FurierTransform]

I saw a car splash a family walking with two toddlers this morning - 2 parents, 2 kids near a giant puddle in road.
It was obvious what was going to happen, one of the parents pulled the kids away from the kerb as far as possible & actually stepped to the curb & held their hand up in a 'stop' type signal but driver ploughed on regardless.

I asked them if they were ok as the kids were crying & covered in road grit, & the parents were washing the kids eyes out with a flask of water, but they said it was fine & I went on my way.

I did get the registration of the car. I vaguely remember reading that this isn't technically legal to splash pedestrians but now after the fact it occurs me how serious this could have been, & could easily cause eye infections in infants etc if they do it again
So i'm thinking as I have the registration & witnessed it, is it worth reporting it?

i've honestly no idea how I would go about doing that having never contacted the police outside of an emergency, or if it would be considered a waste of time/police resources, but views welcome!

YANBU = yes report it

Honestly it's a reportable offence if it's deliberately done - did they swerve into the puddle? Did they speed up to hit the puddle?

Depending on the road you can't just stop suddenly or slow to a stop for puddles, that's really dangerous.

Report it. Surprisingly, despite being a relatively minor offence, this does tend to get dealt with by police, either with words of advice or with a driving without care fixed penalty.

I really hope for everyone else on the road, you don't drive.

If you do get yourself the highways code app, read it all.

Love from all the other road users.

Yes I 100% would for the reasons others have said

Sometimes you can’t just stop! Thats very silly. The driver should have slowed down to a speed where it wouldn’t have splashed.

What utter nonsense!! We have a BMW and can assure you we are very considerate drivers.

You can't stop but you can slow down and avoid splashing people so dramatically. It's a horrible thing to do and regardless of 'too many hazards to look out for, poor driver' sentiments up thread, it's no good if your car starts aquaplaning or you flood the engine if looking it for others is too much.

Can't believe the number of people saying that it is only an offence if done deliberately. Would you say the same for a driver that ran someone over?

It's driving without due care and attention. As a driver you should see the puddle and the pedestrians and take steps not to splash them by avoiding the puddle, slowing down, or stopping completely if safe to do so.

What condescending bullshit!

As a driver, you shouldnt be driving through puddles at speed as you don't know what's under the puddle. You can burst a tyre on a pothole.

Plus the parent waving their arms about to signal to a driver should be warning enough to slow down.

Disagree, I'm always looking for hazards and never splash pedestrians. Unfortunately there's probably no point reporting as I don't think you can do anything about arseholes

Please report, nothing may happen but I'd assume the a.......... who did that will do it to others.
Happened once to me and a lorry driver purposely sped up and completely soaked me through with filthy muddy water, I didn't take note of the reg and kick myself all the time that I hadn't. When I see these particular lorries driving I have the rage each time.

Absolutely report.
It happened to me once. A big van deliberately chose not to slow down when they had a chance, I was on a narrow pavement and got soaking wet. It wasn't pleasant.

It's kind of worrying that a PP suggested puddles weren't something drivers needed to be aware of. Anything on the road surface should flag your attention and cause a brief risk analysis. Every single risk analysis should take into account any pedestrians nearby. This is basics. It's frightening that there are drivers who don't know it.

This is completely wrong. If you are driving near pedestrians you should not be going at a speed that means you can’t slow down or stop. Just because your car can go fast doesn’t mean you have a right to coat people in muddy water. It is called driving without due care and attention. As someone who walks to work every day next to busy roads, I can tell you that the overwhelming majority of drivers manage to slow down and avoid splashing people.

PLEASE report it. I am so sick of drivers doing this and getting away with it. It's disgusting behaviour.

You should not have a licence.

Yanbu. If you know enough details then report.
Drivers are meant to be watch out for large puddles and avoid splashing pedestrians.

Not sure where you live but some police forces definitely log and act on this sort of thing!

Well, the police don’t seem to be able to arrest and charge sexual abusers and rapists, can’t stop or prosecute shoplifters, don’t come out to car break ins or house break ins any more - just give a crime number for insurance, don’t seem to be able to do much about county lines drug dealing and seem to have little affect on rising knife crime, but I’m sure they’ll find the time and resources to come and investigate the splashing of pedestrians by a car in one of the rainiest days we’ve had all year.
No doubt they’ll be all over that, what with the risk of eye infections or whatever… FFS

I'm not that much of a SPAG pedant but an official letter with bare in mind isn't a good look.

Naked policing anyone?

You should report it, people are meant to do their best to avoid splashing pedestrians. I wouldn't necessarily expect to hear anything back though - I had some dick try repeatedly to run me into the central barrier a couple of months ago, all recorded on my dashcam... reported but never heard anything back.

You should be looking ahead so it shouldn't come as a complete surprise....

The driver should have slowed down if he couldn't actually change his road position.

Report it, 99% chance nothing will happen but it's 100% if you don't report it. It doesn't matter that you weren't the victim, the offence has still been committed. The police won't do anything because it is very hard to prove that the person was driving in an unreasonable manner. They could argue they couldn't safely slow down or swerve, that the puddle was bigger than appeared, etc. People really need to start wearing body cameras more so that incidents like this have a chance of being captured.

My advice is to always try to be aware of puddles when you are a pedestrian and only pass them when it is clear a car can't try to splash you. It's not always possible but I remember the annoyance on a white van man's face when I held back from passing a puddle and, despite his best effort, didn't manage to soak me.

Awww what a dick move from the driver!

BUT I know for a fact I once made 2 kids really happy doing this 🙈 I was driving really slow through another puddle and saw 2 kids stood at the one further up clearly signalling that they wanted to be splashed, so I did 🤣 saw them both cheering in the mirror and they were still there when I came back the other way begging other cars to splash them.

Not relevant at all except to maybe say to others that if you see it happen to a kid if they look like they loved it then maybe don't report and splash them yourself, great fun

What an absolute waste of police time!