A cyclist who sent a video of a driver on a mobile phone to the police, only for the police to prosecute him for stopping the traffic, has been told the case against him will be dropped.
BristolLive reported how Tom Bosanquet had a helmet camera filming as he cycled up Stokes Croft in Bristol and paused for a few seconds to tell a driver waiting at the junction with City Road to get off his phone. A van driver behind had to stop for a few seconds and sounded his horn, before driving past him and through a red light.
Mr Bosanquet sent the footage to Avon and Somerset police, but Avon and Somerset police prosecuted him too for ‘inconsiderate cycling’ for delaying the van driver. The case prompted outrage among cyclists and road safety campaigners, and the 43-year-old from Bedminster's defence was funded by Cycling UK’s Cyclists’ Defence Fund.
He was due to go on trial on Friday (October 7) but the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case, saying it is not in the public interest to prosecute him. The video filmed by Mr Bosanquet’s helmet camera was shot on March 4, 2021 and showed him cycling from the Bearpit up Stokes Croft.
As he approached the right turn junction onto City Road he noticed a driver waiting to turn right at the lights was on his phone. Mr Bosanquet stopped his bike in the left hand lane, and signalled to a van driver behind him to wait a second while he told the other driver to stop using his phone.
“Why have you got a phone in your hand?” he asked the driver. “Put your phone away when you’re driving.” The driver of a white van behind Mr Bosanquet was delayed for just under ten seconds, but after four seconds sounded his horn as the cyclist stopped by the car. At the next set of lights, the driver of the van went through a red light. It was for that nine-second delay that police - after receiving the video from Mr Bosanquet reporting the motoring offences filmed - decided to prosecute him too.
“This case has been a long, drawn-out and stressful process, and as the first run-in I’ve ever had with the law, I’ve felt shaken by it,” he said. “The attempted prosecution was heavy-handed and inappropriate, something borne out by the case now being dropped. I am relieved now to move on from this episode, wiser but undaunted in my desire for the ongoing safety of all vulnerable road users."
Cycling UK backed Mr Bosanquet and raised money from donations to contribute to its Defence Fund. Chief Executive Sarah Mitchell said the case should never have started in the first place.
“It’s somewhat ironic that Mr Bosanquet was prosecuted in the incident when he was using a helmet camera to catch footage with the intention of supporting the police to collect evidence of bad behaviour on our roads,” she said.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police said people who submit video footage as evidence of motoring offences are warned they could be prosecuted too if the video shows them breaking the law. He said: "Before submitting footage, we do make clear that ‘if it is identified that the person submitting the footage has also committed an alleged offence, they may also be prosecuted’. "
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