Vorpal wrote:The police hardly examine the evidence, unless there is a death, and even then it seems that they may not be as thorough as they once were. ...(My emphasis)
The first bit of that (highlighted in red) is undoubtedly true. The following from the CPS, and earlier versions of it were taken as the cue to stop bothering. "Minor collision" can cover almost anything.
It will not necessarily be appropriate to prosecute every case where a minor collision occurs e.g. where the incident is of a type that involves minimal carelessness which may occur when parking a vehicle or in traffic queues. The extent of any damage does not matter in such cases; it is the extent of the driving error. Prosecutors should ensure that proceedings are not conducted for the sake of settling questions of liability for the benefit of individual drivers or insurance companies.
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/road ... g/#contentWhen it eventually became an (ACPO?) policy to concentrate on fatals and near fatals (KSI) the rationale was that this would allow greater resources to be concentrated on the most serious cases. I've no first-hand knowledge about the bit in blue. Cases are reported where considerable efforts seem to have been made to obtain evidence such as phone records. OTOH, there are have been allegations that some investigations were inadequate. eg the death of Eilidh Cairns. There have been well-documented allegations that serious injuries have been recorded as "slight," presumably to reduce the need for investigations.
I'm bemused as to why the case which prompted this thread was not referred to the CPS. When the evidence has been properly recorded, eg witness statements and vehicle examiners' reports, it's hardly a big deal to assemble it into a file and submit it. Apart from anything else, it's a good way of passing on the onus of making the decision. There seem to have been several "U-turns" in this case, to the extent that when I read the relevant article on the CTC www, somebody seemed to be welcoming the wrong "U-turn."
http://www.ctc.org.uk/news/20150319-met ... mason-caseAs has previously been linked, a Chief Crown Prosecutor was recently officially criticised for insisting on seeing all "fatal" files in their area. A lot seems to depend on whether a decision not to charge somebody amounts to a "charging decision." There's room for clarification.