4 September, 2002: Police! Stop!

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A letter I sent to the Cambridgeshire Police this morning:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to bring to your attention the behaviour of a motorist during an incident at around 10:40AM this morning (Wednesday 4th September).
I was on foot, crossing the Zebra crossing at the corner of Chesterton Road and Victoria Avenue in Cambridge. I was crossing from east to west, walking towards town. As I was on the crossing, a motorist turning south onto Victoria Avenue from the roundabout drove on to the crossing and stopped his vehicle. I noticed as I was crossing in front of him that he was gesticulating at me, and when I turned to face his car, he opened his window and complained that I was impeding his progress. I cannot remember the exact form of words he used.
I pointed out that it was a pedestrian crossing and that he was obliged to stop his car when a pedestrian was using it. At this point I was standing on the crossing in front of his car. He then started his car and drove into me. The car was moving slowly and I was unhurt, though very surprised. At this point I shouted at him to stop, which he did after pushing me about a yard along the road.
When he had stopped the car he got out and shouted at me. I took out my mobile phone and indicated that I was going to phone the police to report his behaviour, at which he got back into his car and drove off, swearing at me from his car window as he did so. Unfortunately my phone was not working and I was unable to report the incident at the time.
The car was a large, dark-coloured saloon or estate car (unfortunately by the time I was able to see the whole vehicle, when the motorist was driving off, I was too shaken to note a full description), with the registration number KY51VHA. The motorist was a heavily built white male with greying hair; he was probably a little over six feet tall, and wore dark trousers and a lighter collarless shirt. There was a passenger in the car who did not do anything during the incident but would have seen it take place through the windscreen of the car; she was a white female with short fair hair wearing (I think) dark blue clothing.
I do not know whether the Police will be able to take any action in this case but I hope that by reporting it I am assisting you in the task of improving road safety in Cambridgeshire.
Yours faithfully,
(signed) Chris Lightfoot

-- now I feel suitably public-spirited, if still somewhat shaken.


Copyright (c) 2002 Chris Lightfoot; available under a Creative Commons License.