Ooops!

[Roughquest]

Had a bump in my car today, went into the back of someone at a round about, person in front decided to slam his anchors on to let a police car out that has its flashy lights on. No one hurt, just bumper scuff on both cars, but why oh why did the police join us moments later to take statements, details, etc and breathalyse us, then another cop car pulled up to take more details, and I have been told it may lead to a prosecution, (my breath test was negative BTW) why oh why has all this happened and will I get prosecuted? I am so worried now.

[fountain]

The reason the police were so interested is that, according to the law, they were one of the causes of the accident. If the police car hadn't come along there would have been no crash. My guess is they were going by the book to protect themselves. If they hadn't come back then the driver of the police car could have got in big trouble for failing to stop at an accident.
I'd be surprised if you got done for without due care for bumping the person in front. It would be very harsh.

[jake-the-peg]

This has got to be the most common type of accident there is.

I'd agree with fountain this is most likely for the record.

The only thing I find odd is that if the police car had it's blue light on it was presumably responding to an emergency. Yet they had time to stop and breathalise you?

Can't have been much of an emergency - and if they were using their lights just to avoid getting caught up in traffic they won't want to make a big deal about it

[Yorkie580]

It would be treated as a "vicinity only police collision" - basically the presence of the police vehicle may have contributed to the collision.

The first police vehicle would have come back because it had to under police regs, but none of the occupants could report the accident - it must be done by somebody not present at the time.

Anybody involved in a road collision should be breathalysed to show whether drink was a factor - the fact that it was a negative test is good.

Finally - you were probably told something along the lines of "you'll be reported for the question to be considered of prosecuting you for the offence of ????." This is a legality whereby you have to be warned at the time of the possibility that you will be prosecuted (it can be done within 14 days but it's a lot easier to do it at the time) or you can't actually be prosecuted for certain offences. It doesn't necessarily mean that you will be prosecuted.

Hope this helps.

[joko]

trouble is you are supposed to drive at such a distance behind the car so that you can stop suddenly and safely should the need arise.

you were not driving at the correct distance for your speed or you would have been able to stop suddenly and safely - thats the point of stopping distances.

any car should be able to do an emergency stop without being rear ended.

[Grunty]

The notice of intended prosecution mentioned by Yorkie is not required in the case of a road accident, unless the driver may not be aware that the accident had happened. It is often sent anyway though. As fountain says, the police car had to stop. The definition of a road accident includes "owing to the presence of a motor vehicle on a road" (no mention of a collision). They will have arranged for other officers to respond to the emergency.

[lady_p_gold]

The police are only supposed to use their 'blues and twos' if they are on an emergency call and have been given it as a priority by their despatcher. Perhaps they were doing it when they shouldn't have been and are worried by that. Whatever, you have only gone in the back of someone at the end of the day, can't see you ending up in The Tower. Might be worth enquiring if they were on an emergency call however ....

[Yorkie580]

lady_p_gold... that's not entirely true - the decision to use the audible and visual warning systems, and the exemptions from the law, is the decison of, and must be justified by, the driver, regardless of the grading of the call.

An example of a non-emergency call would be trying to pull over a vehicle - not something that the control room would allocate, or an urgent assistance which wouldn't be an emergency call but (in the Met at least) would be graded as "Police Generated". Police Generated would also be used for a non-priority statement.

Every accident where a police car was involved has to be fully investigated, even if it wouldn't even be reported if it had simply been two cars driven by members of the public.

Also most police cars now have data recorders in them which are downloaded and will be checked by the investigators - they will see the speed and way (including lights etc) that the vehicle was being driven.