Two Met officers charged after pregnant woman and unborn baby killed in police crash<\/a><\/p>\n ![\"Instead](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/806855.webp\")
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Instead of coming to my aid, the driver immediately sped away, leaving behind huge chunks of their car\u2019s outer shell which were ripped off in the crash.<\/p>\n
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\nLBC<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Police says arrests are dependent on several factors, such as the severity of any injuries. The force clarified that suspects may still be subject to prosecution, even in the absence of an arrest, and that a number of investigations remain open.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmongst the hundred or so incidents, I’m sure that there’ll have been some quite serious ones. So the fact that they’ve never led to any [arrests] is still quite alarming,\u201d Cycling UK\u2019s Duncan Dollimore tells me. \u201cThe threat of enforcement is something that has a massive impact on people\u2019s behaviour. And at the minute it feels as though that fear of being caught is disappearing on our roads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Bogdanowicz from the London Cycling Campaign agrees: \u201cif people think they can get away with it, they try and get away with it. It\u2019s absolutely unacceptable and shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/806737.webp\")
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The scene of the incident.<\/p>\n
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\nLBC<\/p>\n
So what can be done about this largely unpunished crime?<\/p>\n
Mr Bogdanowicz says \u201cone of the reasons behind hit-and-runs is the existence of unregistered or uninsured vehicles or drivers. The police can take action to reduce this by using the cameras that they have up on the roads and taking those vehicles off the roads. I think they should be able to do it even with the resources they have, by making better use of existing technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Police maintains its \u201cdedicated team of officers\u201d are \u201cworking hard to reduce collisions and ensure the safety of all road users\u201d by cracking down on \u201coffences that cause the greatest harm,\u201d including uninsured or unlicensed vehicles and drivers.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London says City Hall is \u201cbacking the Met police with a record \u00a31.26 billion funding to provide more visible policing in hotspot areas, as well as data and intelligence-led policing to continue building a safer London for everyone.\u201d Transport for London is also accelerating investment to expand the safety camera network, according to Sadiq Khan\u2019s spokesperson.<\/p>\n
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“In hospital, a nurse told me anecdotally that I was one of several casualties of this crime she\u2019d seen that day alone”.<\/p>\n
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\nLBC<\/p>\n
However, the Motor Insurer’s Bureau estimates that up to 6% of vehicles currently on UK roads are being driven uninsured.<\/p>\n
Rory McCarron, a lawyer for Leigh Day, explains that \u201cit is an offence within itself not to drive without car insurance, so if someone is involved in a collision, they might think: \u2018I need to get away from this and abscond because I\u2019m already committing an offence here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr McCarron represents cyclists critically injured or killed on our roads, providing training to police and giving evidence to Parliament. \u201cOther than acting for people who have been involved in hit-and-runs, I\u2019ve also unfortunately been knocked off my bike deliberately. The chap mounted the pavement to get away and simply drove off,\u201d he recounted to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally, most of the time the motorists will have known they\u2019ve been involved in the collision,\u201d he says. \u201cIt’s not something that\u2019s inconspicuous. Leaving someone seriously injured on the road with no regard to their safety is probably one of the most callous things you can do. It shouldn\u2019t be in our human nature to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The driver who hit Mr McCarron was never identified or found.<\/p>\n
The government is considering creating a more serious offence with higher penalties for those who fail to stop after injuring or killing someone. But they first have to be caught.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople talk about how motorists can be held accountable because they\u2019ve got a vehicle registration number,\u201d Leigh Day\u2019s Mr McCarron says. \u201cA lot of the time that doesn\u2019t mean anything because unless you actually capture that vehicle registration number, you\u2019re really in the hands of CCTV or surveillance. And quite a lot of the time that\u2019s not available, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t walk down the street without a camera looking at you. But it takes a lot of manpower to actually obtain that footage and go and get it retrospectively,\u201d Mr McCarron adds. \u201cBecause of the volume of collisions in London, the police might not get that footage which is required to secure a prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
He suggests enforcement is also hard due to funding pressures and because the Met\u2019s Serious Collision Investigation Unit cannot attend all incidents in real time. \u201cUnless you actually die on the road there and then, they won’t come,\u201d he claims. \u201cSo you\u2019ve got people who are losing legs or suffering brain injuries and they don’t get the investigation that’s desperately required. The overall feeling is that victims are being let down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite me providing the time, location, car make and model, my case was shut a month after I was hit in February 2026, with police citing lack of available evidence.<\/p>\n
With thanks to my LBC colleague Tom Watts who came to my assistance and rushed me to A&E.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Figures obtained exclusively by LBC show 100+ drivers in the capital are yet to be prosecuted for fleeing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-535605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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