Hi all,

Most of you won't be aware I met with an accident in Nov'09. What was worse was police investigation was all botched up. They failed to carry out proper investigation in the first instance. Further when I wrote back to the section in-charge highlighting deficiencies in police investigation, they refused to re-investigate due to lack of independent witness.

I got a private investigation carried out, that has highlighted circumstancial evidences that could have proved that the motorists had indeed struck me and that the applicable road rules were not applied properly.

Based on that I am going to Independent Police Complaints authority to obviously complain about the investigating officer.

As a member of CAN, I am also happy to highlight this is not an isolated case but something that has been experienced by many cyclists. My intention is to stress that police need to improve their practices and investigation policies. Further I want to stress that police should stop treating car-cyclist accident as minor if there was no fatality involved, but as major which means investigations have to be thorough, because even so-called minor incidents can result in major injuries to cyclists, sometimes requiring life-long rehab and physio treatments.

For this I need some samples, more the better. So, if you, or anyone you know, has experienced an improper investigation by the police and has resulted in the motorist going away scot-free, let me know. If you have your Traffic Crash reference number will be great, otherwise the bare minimum I will need is your name as well as date and time as well as location where the incident took place, and if there were any independent witnesses to the incident. Most important will be a brief explanation by yourself as to why you consider it was motorist fault.

To respect your privacy, I will release your details only to PCA.

If you can provide me with these details of your case, am happy to include you in my complaint. If so, please email me directly to sridharekambaram@yahoo.com.au.

Happy pedalling,

Sridhar