Hit and Run Offence

[G-Rich]

Hi,

There was a hit and run offence not far from my house that was caught on CCTV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeeaWFtwv6U

I hope the person that was injured is OK, and that the driver is found and brought to task - but what offence have they committed? Attempted murder? The driver clearly mounts the kerb with the intention of harming the man walking down the pavement so it's by no means accidental.

Just wondering!

PS - no I don't own a black Skoda Octavia

[thelawnet1]

You wouldn't get attempted murder for that, there's no evidence that he intends to kill him (as distinct from serious injury). Dangerous driving would be the charge. Plus ABH/GBH as appropriate

[G-Rich]

In the context of the ABH/GBH charge - does the intent to harm someone factor into the charge or punishment - i.e. driving a car into someone has the potential to be fatal, or cause serious injury - and the person driving the car clearly has the intention of causing an injury.

If the person was lucky enough to get away with a few cuts and bruises, would this still be an ABH charge?

[Bigends]

G-Rich said:

In the context of the ABH/GBH charge - does the intent to harm someone factor into the charge or punishment - i.e. driving a car into someone has the potential to be fatal, or cause serious injury - and the person driving the car clearly has the intention of causing an injury.

If the person was lucky enough to get away with a few cuts and bruises, would this still be an ABH charge?

Probably an attempted GBH with intent. If the pedestrian only suffered ABH level injuries, then that was probably more by luck than judgement. The more likely outcome of getting hit by a car would be more serious injuries

[pinchmeimdreamin]

What you can't tell from that video though is that the driver is going the wrong way down a one way street, And has totally gone against the flow of traffic down a bus lane to end up there. I would have thought this would prove intent of some kind.

[Eclassy]

If thats not attemptes murder then I dont know what is. Murder shouldnt be only when you use a knife oe gun.

I cant see how you can deliberately drive a 4000 pound car at a person and not be accussed of trying to kill them.

[grimmac]

Looks more like an 'under the influence' of something rather than a deliberate attempt to mow someone down.

[ging84]

G-Rich said:

Hi,

There was a hit and run offence not far from my house that was caught on CCTV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeeaWFtwv6U

I hope the person that was injured is OK, and that the driver is found and brought to task - but what offence have they committed? Attempted murder? The driver clearly mounts the kerb with the intention of harming the man walking down the pavement so it's by no means accidental.

Just wondering!

PS - no I don't own a black Skoda Octavia

Yours and the court's definition of clearly are likely to be very different
I saw a video of a car which went off course and hit someone, and the driver did not stick around.
Could have been deliberate, driver could have been on the phone, could have been drunk etc.
I saw an episode of columbo or quincy once where a guy deliberately ran someone down then drank from a hip flask to make himself drunk, as the penalty for killing someone while drunk at the wheel at the time was fairly trivial (sort for the vague spoiler, but you've had about 40-50 years to watch it).

Would be quite funny to see someone in court with thier defence being they were texting while driving

[killerferret666]

grimmac said:

Looks more like an 'under the influence' of something rather than a deliberate attempt to mow someone down.

Until you take into account, its up a bus land and down a one way street with no entrance signs. then reverses and drives off.

[CoolC]

Saw this on the local news last night. Seems the chap was "lucky" there was a BT junction box there to take the brunt of the impact.

Hope the scumbag is found.

[ging84]

killerferret666 said:

grimmac said:

Looks more like an 'under the influence' of something rather than a deliberate attempt to mow someone down.

Until you take into account, its up a bus land and down a one way street with no entrance signs. then reverses and drives off.

This would mean the driver saw the guy in the dark from quite far back with a couple of cars with thier headlights on pointing forwards between them, if anything this provides more evidence that the driver was simply drunk and out of control, rather than disprove it.

[G-Rich]

ging84 said:

killerferret666 said:

grimmac said:

Looks more like an 'under the influence' of something rather than a deliberate attempt to mow someone down.

Until you take into account, its up a bus land and down a one way street with no entrance signs. then reverses and drives off.

This would mean the driver saw the guy in the dark from quite far back with a couple of cars with thier headlights on pointing forwards between them, if anything this provides more evidence that the driver was simply drunk and out of control, rather than disprove it.

That area of town is very well lit at night - to drive the wrong way down that street requires you to negotiate 4-6 lanes in a big junction - there's no confusion about where the chap is going, he takes the corner at pace very neatly! Then slows down in order to hit the guy on the pavement. Incidentally, this apparently follows an altercation in the town - the guy knew what he was doing. He does brake before hitting the chap though - how thoughtful.

[ging84]

G-Rich said:

That area of town is very well lit at night - to drive the wrong way down that street requires you to negotiate 4-6 lanes in a big junction - there's no confusion about where the chap is going, he takes the corner at pace very neatly! Then slows down in order to hit the guy on the pavement. Incidentally, this apparently follows an altercation in the town - the guy knew what he was doing. He does brake before hitting the chap though - how thoughtful.

I'm not saying i don't believe it could have been deliberate, just that the footage is hardly conclusive, there is more than enough reasonable doubt even if the driver had a strong motive.

[anonymous-user]

Proving an intent to kill isn't easy, and is very rarely done with vehicles.

[pinchmeimdreamin]

ging84 said:

I'm not saying i don't believe it could have been deliberate, just that the footage is hardly conclusive, there is more than enough reasonable doubt even if the driver had a strong motive.

That's my point the video doesn't show that to get where he was isn't that easy.

I'm also sure proving intent t kill would be nigh on impossible. But IMHO the driver knew exactly what he was doing.

[paintman]

I suspect there is more to this than meets the eye.
An investigation should be looking at what happened prior to the incident pictured.
Depending on the result of that and what is admitted by the driver during interview will affect what charges are brought.

[Red Devil]

La Liga said:

Proving an intent to kill isn't easy, and is very rarely done with vehicles.

Many years ago this came up in conversation with a QC friend of my father's. He said that if you want to murder somebody then a vehicle is the best weapon to use (burden of proof), but not the easiest.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

That doesn't look intentional to me.

If it were intentional, you'd expect a fairly sudden veer towards the pedestrian. Even if the driver knew his target was walking along that road, he wouldn't have known exactly where he was until fairly late on, and would have had to make a distinct turn to make the hit.

I think he has misinterpreted the road layout, and treated the wide pavement as a lane of the road. He turns into it smoothly. Probably drunk.

There also seems to be quite a delay between the hit and the run - even taking into account the pause in the video. If it were deliberate, surely you'd slam it straight into reverse and drive away at speed immediately. Looks like the driver was a bit shocked and confused, and took several seconds to decide to drive away.