It Could Be You Traffic Cops

The pedestrian has received possibly fatal injuries and there are persons trapped in the car.

In Britain, one in 400 people die on the roads.

Those are odds more than 30,000 times greater

than winning the Lottery jackpot.

I just saw something. It scared me, so I swerved and I spun round.

And new drivers are by far the most at risk.

-He hasn't passed his test, yeah?

-Yeah, I know that.

So he hasn't shown that he's safe to drive with.

He doesn't know what he's looking for.

Beating the odds is sometimes a matter of Lady Luck.

Quite how she was able to survive from that, I will never know.

If she was in a position to,

she should have done the Lottery that night.

There were nearly 3,000 accidents on the roads

in Hertfordshire last year.

Surprisingly, a quarter of them, like the one PCs Nathan Cattley and

Chris Payne are just hearing about, involved a vehicle on its own.

Whiskey four, sorry, we've been on a stop.

Just been advised of a 'likely to' in your ground. Could you give us details, please?

A 'likely to' is a 'likely to prove fatal',

the worst possible kind of accident.

RADIO CHATTER

HE SWITCHES THE SIREN ON

The crash is on a country lane over 20 miles away.

Not ideal, when someone needs help fast.

When it's a serious injury we, as traffic officers, will attend.

'And, at that point, we were the only

'Roads Policing Unit available to go.

'We're talking a 20-minute emergency run in the early afternoon traffic'.

We're going to be the ones that have to investigate this

and pick up the pieces after this.

We can't do that if it's taken us 20-25 minutes to get to the thing.

By the time we get there, everything's gone.

The female driver has been extricated

by paramedics already at the scene and is awaiting an air ambulance.

Whiskey four arrival.

'Upon arrival, there was'

a number of other emergency services already in attendance

'and the air ambulance had already landed at that point.'

The car has left the road and is wrapped around a tree.

The damage that did to her vehicle was unbelievable.

The tree had peeled back the roof.

It had peeled it back like a tin opener

and the largest branch of the tree was exactly where her head would have been.

The ambulance service were very worried for her.

Now they're here, the experienced Traffic Cops will take command.

'She was clearly in a lot of pain.

'She's had her arm trapped under the car'

as it had gone into the ditch, so there was blood loss, bone damage

and a head injury. And although it's horrible to hear somebody

moaning in that pain, it's also a good sign. If they're moaning

that means they are at least conscious and breathing.

How long she'd been there, I don't know.

Why the car careered off the road is a complete mystery.

Nobody had actually seen the crash happen.

There were a couple of people who had stopped, obviously,

shortly afterwards, but the car was already in the ditch.

I was just driving past, see the car there

and I honestly thought it was kids at night.

Car gone down there, they'd done a runner, that's it.

I don't know why, instinct,

I got 500 yards, or maybe more, up the road,

I just don't know why, turned round, come back, stopped there,

heard the music and I heard moaning and groaning.

If nobody had stopped, she would not still be alive.

She was fairly young.

She'd only been driving for, I think it was about three weeks.

How she survived, I still don't know.

She was displaying signs of a very serious head injury.

It's quite amazing what the body can endure.

I had serious, serious concerns for her.

The car is a Vauxhall Corsa and it's almost completely unrecognisable.

Traffic Sergeant Karl McDermott has arrived to lead

the investigation into what happened to it.

I have to be honest and say that I didn't expect her to survive

and that's why we treated

that scene as if it were a fatal collision.

We're treating it as a 'likely to prove'.

Documents in the car have identified the girl

as an 18-year-old teenager, Kelsey South.

Kelsey Siobhan South.

Unfortunately, as hard as it may sound,

you are desensitised to a lot of things that you see

and that's purely because if you're not, you'll go mad.

The injured girl is going to be airlifted to a specialist

trauma centre at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington.

When the first paramedics arrived on the scene from Chesholm and found

the woman severely trapped against a tree stump, they managed to actually

crawl in the boot of the car to treat and stabilise her,

while waiting for the fire service

and the air ambulance team to get to the scene.

She was trapped by nature edges and she was also trapped by

steering wheel and the compaction of the vehicle on that area,

and lots of sharps, as well, which we need to contend with.

If she pulls through, a lot of it will be down to

the team effort of all the emergency services.

Well, you can imagine,

if she was sitting driving, her head would have been about...here.

With no witnesses to the crash, PC Bob Wagstaff, a specialist accident

investigator has been called in to help determine the cause.

Weather today is playing havoc.

We've obviously got light, light conditions, dry conditions.

Subsequently, we've got heavy showers, so at the moment,

we've got information that, at the time of the crash, the road surface was wet.

Vehicle's come through an undulated road system, it's on a bend,

it looks like the driver's gone up onto the grass verge.

In order to come off the verge,

she's put some right-hand steering on

and consequently, she's then come off back onto the tarmac,

or back onto the road surface, and consequently,

she's got steering again and gone across the road onto the off side.

From the evidence, Bob will be able to say what took place,

but not why it happened.

The possibility is that something distracted the driver.

'Well, there was a phone call.'

Now, whether that happened immediately at the time

of the crash, whether she was on the phone, or whether it just rang

and she looked down at it... All it takes is that momentary lapse

to lose sight of the road and you've lost control of the car.

Mercifully, the news from the hospital is that Kelsey

is going to survive.

She should have done the Lottery that night,

because someone was looking down on her that day.

40 miles away, near Bedford, traffic cops Chris Naughton

and Tanveer Hussain,

are dreaming it could be them who'll win the Lottery.

-Did you win the Lottery?

-No, mate.

-If I won the Lottery, d'you think I'll still be at work?

-I don't know.

If I won the Lottery, that would be it.

-You and I would be millionaires and we would be...

-Gone.

-..Gone.

And I'd be driving the best cars.

Today, they hope to have luck on their side. And to increase

the odds of hitting the jackpot, they're in an unmarked police car.

It's a good tool.

It's not about sneaking up on drivers all the time,

it's just about being in an area.

There are certain jobs that we could go to and arrive there discreetly.

Someone driving without much discretion

has caught Tan's attention.

One minute. Go left, go left, go left, go left, go left.

I'm not getting any vibes on that. Very sure it's gone left over there.

It's a little red, old Polo. It's gone left into that bit there.

'An L Reg old Polo driving along'

with about four or five people in it,

so I thought, "That will be worth a look".

And they all looked fairly young.

Tan's Blackberry is hooked up to the Police National Computer.

Here it is, just disappearing in the distance.

-And it's telling him the car's not legal.

-Lima 392 JBM.

-Right it has no...

-A young boy.

-..insurance.

'And we could tell straight away from the driving style,

'that the driver didn't have any experience.'

And he's no idea a police car's right behind him.

TYRES SCREECH

-But even so...

-We will have that one!

HE SWITCHES THE SIREN ON

I've seen some pretty stupid things, but that was

indecisive. So he tried to brake and accelerate at the same time,

but the brakes didn't all work.

Three locked up and one wheel carried on,

which caused the car to swerve.

That was just inexperience shouting out towards us.

Unlike its novice driver, the car is decidedly past its prime.

It's one of the worst I've ever come across. It was a shocker.

'It wasn't roadworthy, you could tell is wasn't roadworthy.'

'The wheels looked decidedly on their last legs.'

Hello mate, how are you?

Come and have a look at your car. It's in a right old state, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-What happened at the traffic lights?

I think you tried to stop, but just didn't quite work, did it?

-Yeah, I just got caught a bit.

-Is it your vehicle?

-Yeah, it is.

-Registered in your name?

-Not yet. I've recently bought it.

-How long is recent?

-About a week ago.

-In the process of going through.

-OK. Be honest with me.

-Do you have insurance?

-No, I don't.

-OK. Pop yourself in the back.

I'll quickly get some details from you and we'll go from there.

The other side, please. No insurance.

The outside of the car was bare trim rust,

probably the rust holding it together.

The windscreen wipers didn't look really effective

and then, when I opened the door, it just...it stank!

It was fully of rubbish and dirt and old food.

Just detritus from everyday life.

It needs a good Hoover.

-Do you have any identification on you?

-No, I don't.

-Nothing at all?

What have you got, mate?

-You're not disqualified are you?

-No.

-OK, never been disqualified?

-I've got...

-OK, mate. No worries.

-Just pop yourself...

-The lad is only 17.

What type of licence do you have? You don't have a licence, as well?

-So no licence, no insurance. You've absolutely nothing.

-No.

I was only moving the car, cos it couldn't stay where it was.

What's the score with the three girls in the back?

What happens if you have an accident?

Well, it was just a bit stupid, really.

I was with them and I had to move it, cos it can't - where it

was at the minute it - I didn't want it getting reported

as being dumped, cos it was in... do you know Cage?

-Yeah, I know where you are.

-That little car park.

-OK, fair enough.

And I didn't want it getting dumped or getting burnt out,

-so I know it's not excuse, but...

-No, it's not,

it's not good at all, mate, if I'm being honest.

-So you've never taken your test at all?

-No.

'I'm cross at the fact that he's put his friends in that situation.

'God forbid should something happen'.

He's involved in an accident and it transpires he's 17 years old,

he hasn't even past his test.

-He has no insurance.

-The illegal car is going to be seized.

He's got no licence and no insurance.

Does any of you know that he didn't have a licence?

GIRL: I didn't.

-I did.

-If he hasn't got a licence, he hasn't past his test, yeah?

-Yeah, I know that.

-So he hasn't shown that he's safe to drive with

and he doesn't know what he's looking for.

So you four are just putting your lives in your hands.

That thing at the lights, that was a crossroad.

That's a blind hill. If somebody chanced it

and they thought they were coming over the top of that hill

and he did that stupid manoeuvre, I'd be calling your mums.

It's not worth it. Always check the driver's got a licence.

Not nice going to somebody's mum and dad saying,

"Sorry, your daughter or your son's dead."

What is going to happen, girls, Luke, we're taking the car, OK?

Cos he hasn't got a licence and he hasn't got insurance.

This is now my car and his name's now Carlos, right.

It's not funny.

Don't get in a car with somebody who hasn't got a licence.

They didn't fully understand the consequences

of what could happen, which is a shame,

because it only takes one accident of them to see the horrific

injuries that we see and that will put a stop to it straight away.

Come on then, on your dancers, bye, bye.

When it comes to lessons, Carlos is in a class of his own.

My dad's a driving instructor.

But...

TAN: 'That's... I couldn't believe how stupid he was.

'He gets driving lessons for free'.

Beggars belief.

You're given a golden ticket and you just dash it away.

I was slightly gobsmacked by that.

I just met these, literally, 15 minutes before

and jumped in the car.

With the cost of insurance over £4,000 for 17-20 year-old males,

it's hardly surprising so many drive around illegally.

I think he's quite proud of the fact he hasn't got a licence.

Insurance - every year it's going up,

so can these young drivers afford it?

Some of them can, some of them can't and the ones who can't decide -

"What's the point, I'll just drive with no insurance and no licence.

"And if I get caught, I get caught."

You know, they'll go to court or they'll be summonsed to court

and they might get a fine of 150 quid with three points

and they'll be back out doing it again.

Tackling bad crashes and dealing with their consequences,

is one of the biggest parts of a traffic cop's job.

And it's never long before they're called to another one.

We're attending a report of a collision at a road in Hemel Hempstead.

Reports are it's a single vehicle has hit a pedestrian.

Allegedly, the pedestrian has received possibly fatal injuries

and there are persons trapped in the car.

All the emergency services have been called to the scene.

Go to the near side.

And once again, Nathan and Karl will take centre stage.

But this time, along with some schoolkids who are playing dead,

they're making a drama out of a crisis.

-One casualty knocked down on the floor.

-OK. Can you hear me?

'We went along to that reconstruction

'to act what we do on a daily basis'.

We're gonna need ambo and fire brigades to the scene.

Got possibly one fatality.

A bit of a shock tactic, really,

and it's almost got to the point

where that's the only way to get through to people,

is to show them what's going to happen.

SIREN BLARES

The hard-hitting re-enactment is specifically aimed at new drivers.

-When was your last drink?

-A few hours ago.

-A few hours ago, OK.

-How old are you?

-17.

-It's all about getting across a very real message.

-It Could Be You.

-Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Stop.

-Well done.

-It takes a few seconds for that device to...

OK, the device has indicated to me that you are over the legal limit,

so at this stage, you're under arrest.

All the characters were being played by students from the school.

The pedestrian had died and there were some

injuries inside the car and the driver um, had been drinking.

OK, come this way.

Obviously, we all want our kids to be safe and it's us all

doing that little bit to, hopefully, get that message through -

be safe on the road.

Some people respond to being spoken to, but many need to see it

before they'll believe what's going on.

And you get the sights, the sounds, the smells of a collision scene.

APPLAUSE

We all know that people have this thing, "It'll never happen to me."

Um, and I think certainly young drivers have that attitude.

I didn't realise how many people they need, like all the

procedures they had to go through and there really is so much to think

about and, yeah, I hadn't really thought of it in that way before.

It's like, if this was real, it would be really scary.

And once they CAN relate to it, once they can think, "That could be me there.

"I could be that dead person or that person being arrested",

that's when it has the desired effect.

17 and 18 year olds, especially males, are statistically far more

likely to be involved in serious accidents than any other drivers.

But it's not just ones involving young men that the

traffic cops go to these days.

We've certainly seen recently that we've had a fair few collisions

involving young female drivers.

We certainly see a higher percentage with young male drivers,

but it does seem to be that there seems to be more

and more involving young female drivers.

Only a matter of minutes after their school visit,

Karl and Nathan are being called to a crash involving a young girl.

-There he is.

-Oh, he hasn't even hit the barrier.

-No.

It's another single vehicle accident.

We were driving back, northbound on the A1.

Zero six arrived.

A vehicle has spun out of control from lane two,

across to the hard shoulder, back across the carriageway again...

We're gonna need a recovery from that.

..hit a central reservation and then comes to a rest,

involving a driver who'd been driving for seven months.

She's claiming something ran out in front of her.

I have no idea what it was.

I was looking at the road and I just saw something.

It scared me, so I swerved and I spun round and then

the back of my car hit the rails there and then I just stopped.

Losing control of her car at 70 miles an hour

on a motorway as a young driver,

that must have been one hell of a frightening experience for her.

We have to report the damage to the barrier there, um,

cos that has to go off to the Highways Agency and they then

will have to repair that, so we have to do a collision book.

My colleague at the moment is going to take some details from you.

-One of the standard things we have to do is breathalyse you.

-Yeah.

It's procedure.

-It's procedure, it's routine, after any accident we breath test.

-Yep.

-How old are you?

-18.

-Is this your first accident?

-Yeah, it is, yeah.

Seal your lips around the tube and blow steadily through it

in one long continuous breath, until I tell you to stop.

Keep blowing. That's it, fine thank you.

That analyses the sample that you've given. Nice zero. OK.

Take hold of the end of the tube for me please, nice and tightly.

-No offence, but we don't keep them...

-All right.

..after you've had your mouth around it. That's your souvenir.

It looks as though the car's drifted into the central reservation,

which would tend to suggest some kind of distraction.

And I was just completely looking at the road and, all of a sudden,

out the corner of my eye, just saw something and my instinct -

I hate running things over, I've ran over a bunny rabbit -

and I literally just swerved and I don't even remember what happened,

I was spinning and I just saw something in the corner of my eye.

To see a bunny rabbit running across the motorway

when you're doing 70 miles an hour is quite an achievement

and then, to then do something about it... Erm...I don't know.

She seemed like she did like fluffy bunnies.

The girl's learning about road safety, the hard way.

I won't swerve for bunny rabbits any more. They're little.

I'd rather survive than a bunny rabbit!

A couple of men pulled over and got my car out of the road

and then someone else came over.

Do you mind if I speak to my dad, quickly?

She was quite happily talking to us about what had happened,

then Dad turned up.

That's what puts the emotional aspect into the crash, then.

It's gone from being, "Oh, your car's damaged", to, you know,

the emotional effects of what's happened.

I don't think you'll ever see this car again, mate. Be my guess.

I shouldn't think so.

Well, you can get - it's going to our recovery agent.

-No, I mean in terms of like...

-Yeah, so you can go there

and get anything, yeah, rather than having to empty the whole car.

I know what girls are like. Fill the car up with rubbish.

Despite the damage, dad's a happy bunny.

I'm just relieved she's OK.

I mean, I've got three daughters, they've all had accidents before.

The cars are always repaired. Just nice to see her safe and OK.

I hope it wasn't him that was teaching them to drive!

The accident's being put down to very unlucky timing.

'If what that young girl says is true and it was a rabbit that

'ran across in front of her,'

five seconds earlier and nothing would have happened,

five seconds later and nothing would have happened.

But just being in that place at that time has led to that crash.

Thank you. Bye.

She may not have thought so, losing her car,

but perhaps the luck of the rabbit's foot was with her after all.

She's actually bloody lucky she didn't go straight up and hit that.

That would have been game over, wouldn't it?

You can see from the shape of the skid mark that the car's

going sideways down here.

The cops aren't entirely convinced about the rabbit story.

And you can see it's not a violent swerve over, as would have

been suggested by the young lady's account.

The marks here suggest that she's gradually come over the rumble strip

and then they abruptly end and that fits in with where the

tyre marks then swerve back off towards the hard shoulder.

So that doesn't quite fit in with the swerving to the near side

to avoid something.

It's driver error, but the cops won't be pursuing any charges.

There is no punishment. No-one else is involved.

Had there been other vehicles involved,

had someone else been hurt,

then we may be looking at an offence, possibly a "due care".

We might start looking at phone records.

But in this case, if there's only her involved, there's not much else

that we either can, or maybe would want, to do.

And we just hope that she does learn a lesson from that

and becomes a safer driver.

Motorways are Britain's safest roads, by far,

but when accidents happen on them, the outcome and the chaos

they cause is usually much worse than on any other kind of road.

Yeah, copy that. Do we know if they're trapped and injured or just physically trapped or..?

Keith Nicholson and his partner Andy Scales

have just got news about one on the M1.

SIREN BLARES

A person's trapped and possibly injured.

But that's not all.

A haul of guns has been discovered in his vehicle.

We're thinking, the most important thing is,

is it going to be a threat to us?

Are we going to have to shut the whole motorway,

get everyone out of the way, call the Armed Response guys in?

Is it going to be a massive siege, have they been damaged?

Are they likely to explode, is there a fire,

are they likely to go off in our faces?

All sorts of things go through your mind.

First, though, is the problem of getting to the scene.

There are miles of clogged-up contraflow to get through.

Foxtrot units,

we've found an access to a works lane,

a couple of hundred yards after 13 on the southbound.

News of casualties is still sketchy.

Well, we don't know that there's no-one dying,

cos at the minute we've only got a couple of HATOs on scene.

Can you imagine a fire engine trying to get through,

which is possible will have to happen in a few minutes?

If the person's trapped, they're going to have to be cut out.

The HATOs that are already here are the Civilian Highways Patrol.

They're trying to deal with a multi-vehicle pile-up.

There were four vehicles involved. A nose-to-tail shunt.

-Yeah, but the people there, can we get them over here?

-Go over there.

And I was initially fairly keen to get these people

to safety as quickly as possible.

There's some concern for the driver of the people carrier,

who's got a sore back and neck.

Hello, there. How we doing?

But Keith's more worried about what he's carrying.

I went and spoke to the driver straight away.

-What have you got in the back?

-It's crime scene equipment.

There's a red ammunition box. It's got three replica firearms in it.

And somewhere in the back there, in a bag, is a replica shotgun.

I teach crime scene management examination.

He was Scenes of Crime Instructor

and so all the firearms

were all imitations.

-Yeah. Any ammo or anything?

-Only replica ammunition and firearms.

He said there's a replica shotgun in there, as well.

The weapons are legal, but now there's another problem.

The fire brigade had stopped on the opposing carriageway

to assess the situation.

The firemen now want to stop that side, to quickly get him out here,

but that's never going to work, cos that's a live motorway.

So they've got to come this side and park there.

If this is going go somewhere, I don't want that obviously left in there.

The guns in the car aren't functional,

but Armed Response cops are coming anyway, just to make sure.

There's nothing that will injure you.

Apparently, it's all duds, it's all imitation firearms.

There's no ammo, no nothing.

'The fact that they weren't being waved round by anyone

'was quite nice. It was a normal crash.

'It just happened to have some obscure objects in it'.

Yeah, he does crime scene management,

so all his stuff is imitation, from the point of view of...

Can we get him to sort his own scene out, then?

The driver's not badly hurt, but he's trapped in the wreckage.

We've got firemen in there trying to hold his C spine and what have you.

As far as access goes, to getting in there, he's wedged

-real tight against the...

-He was shunted by the lorry, yeah?

Yeah, into the back of the BMW.

'The car was well wedged against the central crash barrier'.

More firemen are arriving... on the right side, this time.

I'm just going to take a few pictures,

just in case it turns... The gentleman seems OK,

but he's just complaining about back pain and neck, so...

It's looking like another roof-off job, to get the man out.

Normally, if there were no occupants in it,

we'd just get a tow truck and drag it.

If someone's got a broken spine, being in a car that's being dragged isn't a particularly delicate

arrangement and we want to preserve his chance of recovery,

to cut him out by other means, and there's where the fire brigade

come in, with their specialist kit and training.

What car are you from? OK.

And you're the truck driver, I'm taking it. Right, OK.

The drivers of the three other vehicles involved are all unhurt.

Now the cavalry's arrived, I can concentrate on talking to you a little bit.

It wasn't a little stray bunny to blame this time,

but a little red car, that has vanished.

So I was driving on this road and there was a car

in front of me, which was red, and it kept slowing down and speeding up

and then I, like, noticed, so I slammed my brakes down, but I didn't

have enough time to put the hazard lights on, so obviously the car

behind me had to brake, too, but obviously went into the back of me.

The same with the car behind and the car behind that.

She was the one who was trying to avoid the mysterious little red car.

Managed to avoid that and then got hit from behind.

Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. That's it, magic.

Well, you did it better than the other guy.

There you go. Zero, zero, zero. OK.

-That's your souvenir, cos it's got your dribble on it.

-Dad, Dad,

I'm just with a policeman, giving him my details.

She was a student returning home from university

and she had all her worldly possessions in the car.

All of a sudden, she jumped on the brakes, so I jumped on the brakes

and just about stopped and suddenly got a thump from behind and had

a look behind and saw a great big truck

and the poor man behind.

So you know, I pulled over, stopped. It was quite serious.

You know, it's a relatively small thump.

I couldn't have been that quick, cos the airbag on my car didn't go off.

I believe that I'd stopped before anything had happened

and then, suddenly, somebody... You can't stop these trucks

doing 40-50 miles an hour in a hurry.

Had the 26-ton lorry been going any faster, the consequences

could have been disastrous.

I, like, stopped in a very, very fast time. Wasn't quite enough.

I don't know. I don't know why she just stopped.

There was nothing there.

Some people might say that it's the red car's fault,

because he's been driving erratically and weaving lanes.

Some people may say it's the blue car's fault, because she's the one

that's come to an abrupt halt and has had the first impact.

Now, I would say that it's the people behind should be leaving

enough room to stop.

It's, kind of one, of those, 'whose fault is it?'

We'll leave it to someone else to argue in court.

It's six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Shutting the carriageway is a very costly business

and not something the cops take lightly.

At the end of the day, if you're talking about somebody's life

and if you don't deal with a back injury in the right way,

then they could be paralysed for the rest of their lives.

The fire brigade aren't getting a chance to practice their cutting skills.

The driver's finally been freed, without the need to take his roof off.

The only way that that they could get him out

was to go in through the boot.

They had to empty everything out, take all the seats out.

I think it was a seven-seater,

so they had a fair distance to get through.

In the process, they've had to move a small arsenal of very

realistic-looking weapons.

That's some of the stuff that was in the back of the...

It's an imitation, it is plastic,

but still looks pretty realistic.

The accident is going to be left to the insurance companies to resolve.

We never traced the car in front. This mystery little red car.

As far as the driver of that was concerned,

may not even have been aware that there was a crash behind them.

Certainly, there was no impact with it, so it's quite likely that they

didn't even know of the chaos that they caused in their wake.

Chris and Tan, in the unmarked car, are still scouring Bedfordshire for bad drivers.

Prevention is always better than cure when it comes to accidents.

-The driver ahead's in a bit of a hurry.

-Sure it's 30-odd here.

-It is.

All the cars in front seem to be going over the speed limit,

but the Ford Focus is tailgating, as well.

He was just really aggressive.

He was driving about 40 to 50 down a 30-mile an hour road.

He was looking for overtakes that weren't there.

Chris and Tan are going to pull the driver over and have a word.

THEY PUT THE SIREN ON

After the lights, after the lights. After the lights, turn left.

No, keep going, keep going.

You all right? Do us a favour.

Follow us. Might be easier. Just want to have a quick word with you.

'We were actually on our way to something else.

'We were looking at a couple of disqualified drivers,'

having had some intelligence, so, on that occasion, a stern

word of advice, just a ticking off, was suffice.

-The man's been playing cricket.

-What's up with your driving?

-Yeah.

I don't know. To be honest, it's a bit related to my performance.

We won and stuff and I just - and this gonna sound ridiculous,

but I'm an opening batsman and had a really scratchy innings.

I ended up 30 not out. We were only chasing a hundred.

I was pissed off with myself

and I think probably just a bit frustrated, if the truth be known.

OK. Don't bring it on the road.

-Keep it on the pitch...

-Yeah.

-..because let me tell you,

you're driving down the 603, OK, there's six cars in front of you,

all going along at most probably the speed limit

that they should be going. You're trying to get too close,

it means you're braking every five seconds,

because you're driving too close to the car in front.

Your speed is a lot higher than theirs, that's why you're braking.

Coming along here, it's 30 miles an hour, you're doing 50.

48 along here, up to 50 along here and then you're braking

because they're doing 30 in front of you.

Regardless of whether you're in a shit mood or not, you can't

-bring it out on the road.

-There's no excuse, you're right.

No, it's not, because your position on the road is almost like

you're looking to overtake five cars and the overtake is not on,

especially along the 603.

Do me a favour, take a couple of minutes out. Just relax.

Yeah, I'm gonna go to Tesco, I'm going to buy a few groceries.

And then get yourself home, yeah.

It's not the end of the world, trust me. Honestly, it's not.

-I'd rather you get home in one piece.

-I'm sorry, yeah.

Slow down, keep your distance from the car in front

and keep an eye on the speed limit.

If it says 30, it is 30 for a reason, OK? Not 40, not 50. Please.

Tan's being a good sport, letting him off with a warning.

'No, the excuse was not acceptable, far from it'.

Clearly, I think he needs to open his eyes a bit

and go out in the real world.

For a moment, he was on a sticky wicket.

He scored 30 not out, he opened the batting,

they were chasing 100 runs and he was just upset with himself

at the fact that he only scored 30 runs.

And that's why. I said. "Well, don't bring that on the road.

"Keep that on the pitch or back at the cricket club."

'You know if he's concerned'

and upset about scoring 30 runs,

then maybe he shouldn't open the batting.

30 runs isn't bad, in the grand scheme of things.

I was thinking, expected a bit more.

Opened the batting and made 30 not out and we were chasing a hundred.

Well, I'm really sorry, mate.

Well, yeah, he's still got flippin' nine men to go.

Back on the A1, Karl and Nathan have got a difficult decision to make.

Is it, or is it not, time to take tea?

-As we're here and it's that sort of time.

-Are you thinking junction ten?

Well, I'm thinking,

I'm thinking of going slightly north of junction 10, yes.

Maybe to an establishment where it's renowned for providing

-filthy good coffee?

-British Petroleum, Kingsford.

Do you know what, mate?

-I'm going to turn my rear ends off first.

-Shall we do that?

And then I'm gonna say, "I like you."

-I like your thinking, do you know that? I do.

-Not a lot.

-Not a lot.

-I love the way your foul little mind works.

-I shall call you "Mini Me"!

But, all of a sudden, there's a googly in the works.

Look at that, just straight out at 40 miles an hour.

It's another driver with a speed problem,

but if this one's a cricketer, he must be the slow bowler in the team.

He was only doing around 35 to 40 miles an hour.

He's either distracted - we're doing 30 mile an hour.

'When you see someone driving that slowly on a fairly quiet motorway

'it's going through your mind, "Oh, we've got a drink driver here."

He just - he didn't speed up, um, and whilst, you know,

we go on that speed kills,

unfortunately, sometimes driving too slowly can cause collisions.

The driver's going to be pulled over to see just what his game is.

Are you Kenneth? All right. Just step over here for me for a second.

The reason we've stopped you is just cos of your lack of speed.

I know it might sound like a strange thing.

You're doing 30 to 40 miles an hour coming up the slip road

and then joining a motorway at 40 miles an hour.

Well, I very seldom drive on motorways. I haven't been drinking.

All right. Have you got your driving licence with you?

-No, but I've got ID. Want some ID?

-Please.

It's not just the young and speedy

that are drawn to the attention of the cops.

Kenneth is 69...not out.

This is the first time in 69 years that I've ever been

stopped by the police!

-This is an experience!

-Note this one down.

-Right, what's your date of birth?

-23rd, eleventh, 1941.

-It was a Sunday.

-23/11/41.

Whittington Hospital, St Mary's, during an air raid.

-Explains a lot, don't it?

-Didn't get hit while you were being born?

No, no, me mum was worried, though, apparently.

The person I thought he reminded me of - it was more the glasses

than anything - is Reuben out of Ocean's Eleven.

The casino chap.

1970s, sort of, disco-type bloke.

-What, you're just checking on me, see if I'm legit.

-Yeah, yeah.

I've got to be honest with you, Kenneth,

we thought you might have had a drink or two, cos of the speed...

-No. No.

-..or lack of it.

-No.

When I first spoke to him

I still thought, "We've probably got a drink driver here",

cos he was a little - you know a little bit woo, a little bit way.

But that's obviously just his way.

Extraordinarily, Kenneth's been done for pace before.

RADIO: 'Three coloured points'.

-For speeding.

-No way.

-37 miles an hour. 37.

THEY LAUGH

I don't have accidents.

-Well, do a little bit more than 40 mile an hour on a motorway.

-50? 55?

-That's top whack.

-OK.

Well, whatever you're comfortable with,

but joining at 40 miles an hour is likely to cause something.

Not so much now cos it's quieter, but if you're doing it with any traffic...

OK. I can appreciate that.

But there's nothing on the roads hardly, is there?

People can't afford the petrol. I had to save up for this trip.

-SIREN BLARES

-Well, he's doing more.

-Yeah, there you go, he's making up for you.

If everyone we dealt with was like that, our job would be so much easier.

It's when darkness falls that the worst road accidents usually happen.

And tonight is no exception.

It's nearly midnight and Karl's on his way to a shocking incident.

OK, en route.

A cyclist has been badly injured and possibly worse on the A10,

the London to Cambridge road.

Apparently there might be a push bike next to him,

so don't know if there's been an accident or not

or whether it's someone who's just fallen off his bike.

The A10 is a fast dual carriageway, hardly a place to be cycling.

Especially this part of it, which is pitch black.

The local unit completely shut the A10 or were in the process of doing that.

0-60, if Whisky Seven are coming, if they can start putting a taper just north of the Ware junction

and bring everything off at the 602 for me, please.

There was a local car there and also a paramedic response vehicle.

Right, what we got?

Just turned up, he was here a couple of minutes after.

He was rolled over, so he was on his side.

Bicycle's there. Rolled over, he's just confirmed deceased,

that's it, you've arrived.

These three chaps here have stopped and found him, different vehicles.

No other vehicle involved here.

The cyclist was laying to the near side

and his bicycle was just in front of him.

The man is dead and it's looking like he's been struck by a vehicle that hasn't stopped.

A hit and run.

There are three members of the public at the scene.

I think they've come across it.

They're just being spoken to by the local officers.

I'm just getting all their details.

I'll wait till we've got some traffic units to the scene

to start getting accounts.

But from the state of the peddle cycle he was riding,

it would appear at this stage that it's a 'failed to stop',

but no other vehicles have stopped at the scene,

so it will be a complete closure on the A10 southbound.

It was clear from both his injuries

and the damage to the bike that it had been a very high-speed impact.

Remarkably, a violin case has been found undamaged, just a few yards

away from the twisted remains of the victim's bicycle.

How was he when you found him? Was he faced over?

He was face down.

His jacket was right up over his head, so we've had to...

So I take it he was - his face would have been here, would it?

Yeah, it was there - there's a big pool of blood.

So you've literally just pulled him over as he was.

-Pulled his jacket down, that's it.

-OK.

Sadly, the paramedics had been unable to resuscitate the man

when they arrived.

I don't think you ever get used to it,

but you have to remember that you're dealing with someone's loved one...

..in that, you deal with it as professionally as possible.

Yes, we may have to close the road,

which may well inconvenience other people, but it's imperative

that we conduct a proper and professional investigation for that

person and for their family, so that they know exactly what happened.

And so that, if it's required, justice can be done.

And that means finding out the man's name and why he was

riding along the dual carriageway, and tracing the driver that hit him.

They just saw a man on the floor.

A couple of men chanced upon the cyclist.

They found him, yeah. No witnesses to the collision.

Just as we were driving down the road, spotted the bike and then as

we've shot past, I've caught the clothes out of the corner of my eye.

Went up to the roundabout, spun round and pulled up behind him

and you could see he weren't, you know,

there weren't a lot left there.

It is dark and it's a fast road and people do tear along here,

but you know it's... You wouldn't expect to see a bike on a road,

-you know, this dark.

-It's dreadful, when somebody don't stop, yeah.

We do see it on a fairly regular basis,

but this is something that's quite deeply shocking for them.

Oh, it's horrific.

You know, somebody's obviously done some damage

and not hung around to see the result.

But some vital clues have been left behind.

He's certainly missing his nearside wing mirror.

Karl is turning detective.

Possibly, and this is only possibly, other body work damage

to the nearside, but most certainly, nearside wing mirror missing.

Can we give the details as soon as possible to Essex

and the Met, please?

'Looking at the debris',

we saw a...it was a chrome-effect headlight housing

and both myself and Adam

had come to the conclusion it was from a Mini.

It's a great lead for the cops.

However, no clues to identify the bike rider have been found.

Who he was is a mystery.

Out there somewhere is a family and they need to be told

and the earlier that we can get a positive identification

on that person, the earlier we can let them know.

'Searching the body is a part of what we do.

'A not very nice part, but something nonetheless that we have to do'.

He had substantial injuries, so very heavy impact injuries,

substantial blood loss.

The cops' only hope for a quick identification is a specialist

piece of equipment that can read fingerprints.

Adam had used the mobile ID device.

He'd managed to get a fingerprint from the cyclist.

The device is connected, via a Blackberry, to the police's

National Fingerprint Database.

It's trying to identify him without having to go through his

pockets at this stage. We were only able to use it on one finger.

It's come back with a result, so we're just running that through.

The man's a local musician. 37-year-old James McGee.

Because we'd got an early identification on James,

we were able to identify his home address

and a Family Liaison Officer in place, PC Rowley Smith, and together

with PC Holmes, they had the address and had informed his parents.

Almost half an hour has passed since the accident happened

and the cops have just received a very important phone call.

We've had contact from a driver of the vehicle that we believe is involved.

She's contacted our control room to say that she believes

she was in a collision somewhere around 30 minutes

before calling us. She believes she was involved

in a collision on this stretch of the A10.

She's told us that she'd left the dual carriageway

at the next junction, she's examined her vehicle and found some damage.

I think because I'm quite a cynical person, I was actually wondering

whether it was actually the driver

or whether it was somebody covering for another driver.

Drink drivers are the most likely to flee an accident.

'Because the person had already left the scene, we need to interview'

that person, because she and her car are part of the crime scene.

To avoid any possibility of evidence being transferred

from the crime scene, Traffic Cops based in Watford, PCs Tony Nibb

and Tim Hill have been called in to talk to the driver and check out her car.

All the other officers from that side of the county

were involved at the scene.

Now, from a cross-contamination point of view, those officers then

couldn't leave the scene and then go and deal with a possible offender,

or go and touch the vehicle.

So were asked, as we'd been completely uninvolved with

anything that had gone on prior to that, to go to where this vehicle

could potentially be.

The offender is going to be arrested...

Looking for a little Mini.

..for causing Death by Dangerous Driving.

It carries a maximum 14-year prison sentence.

I can't see it yet, mate.

Tango three, whisky one over. We have arrived.

The car is on the driveway with damage on the front of that vehicle

consistent with hitting a cyclist.

She believed she'd hit an animal, so we actually had to tell her

that she'd actually killed somebody on the road.

The news has come as a total shock to the girl.

She physically broke down and, at one point,

she had to walk into the back garden and was physically sick.

So the young lady's been arrested.

We're just going to breath test her,

so I'm gonna get the kit out the car.

There's a possibility that she may have been drinking.

We didn't know that, so we had to conduct a roadside breath test

on her, which we did inside the house there and she blew zero.

The cops are satisfied they've got the right person.

She openly admitted to being the driver of that vehicle, so has been

arrested by me, at this point, for Causing Death by Dangerous Driving.

So, at the moment, we're just waiting for recovery of the vehicle,

to have it taken away to be examined forensically and then we'll take

her into custody and we'll have her dealt with in custody.

The girl's account is that of another chance event...

something that could have happened to anyone.

She's extremely distraught. She didn't realise she'd hit a person.

She said she saw no lights, she was just driving along in lane one

and she believes she's hit what she thought was an animal.

She pulled over at the side of the road a little bit further up

the road and she's called her father and the boyfriend, as well,

said she think she's hit an animal and had an accident in the vehicle.

Her boyfriend's gone and driven the vehicle back to the home

address here, where she's been good enough to phone the police

and spoken to her dad, as well and he's advised her to phone the police.

Not stopping at the scene of an accident

and failing to report it would have been another offence.

Saved us an awful lot of aggravation in trying to trace

a vehicle of which we only have the briefest of details.

We then conveyed her back to Hatfield Police Station

and, really, she was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But what needs to be discovered, before any conclusions

can be drawn, is whereabouts on the road was the cyclist

and could he have been avoided?

His main injuries appear to be on the nearside. It's his left arm.

He's got some injuries to his left leg, as well.

It's another assignment for Crash Detective, Bob Wagstaff.

But first, a little light needs to be shed on things.

The Collision Investigators, SOCOs,

need to be able to see what they're doing.

We need to be able to find, locate the evidence that's there,

so we had lighting put up at the scene.

The cops have got something especially for the job...

..an inflatable lighthouse.

SOCO, or Scenes Of Crime Officers, are here, as well.

We'll seize that, because we'll be going to the vehicle

probably in a couple of days and we'll do the mechanical fits.

'Hopefully they will be able to tell us where the

'peddle cycle was at the time of the collision'.

Every minute scrap of evidence is being identified for analysis.

We're basically working our way through the scene, systematically.

Chrome headlight surround, is it chrome? I think it's chrome.

It's definitely a Mini.

Well, we're looking for contact marks, we're looking for tyre marks,

we're looking for anything to give us a point of impact.

It's clear that the bicycle had no lights on it or even a reflector.

But it's proving impossible to deduce anything more

from its mangled remnants.

The moment the bike's been hit, it's been hit,

it's been accelerated and thrown forward it becomes a projectile.

So therefore, there's no actual - we couldn't find the actual

precise impact point,

so we couldn't be definitive, as to where it was on the road.

We have got a shoe missing, that we can't find,

but that's marshland. I'm not sending anyone over there at night.

That can be done during the day.

The accident is high up on a viaduct with no hard shoulder or any

spare room to cycle along, at all.

Actually if he'd gone over the railings

he could have dropped down into the river that was below

and nobody would have known that he was there.

We've given the chap a quick search.

The police believe the man had been busking and was returning home.

Somebody suggested he might be a busker.

He had a violin on his back and seems to be some intelligence

that he's been busking with somebody.

Extraordinarily, his violin has survived in its case

and is completely intact.

I suppose if he'd been riding his bicycle up here, no reflectives on.

-As you do.

-There don't appear to be any lights on the bike.

We haven't found any lights on the bike.

The 24-year-old girl has arrived

at Hatfield Police Station for questioning.

She had potentially committed a serious offence.

A pedal cyclist has been hit by a motor vehicle

and, as a result of that collision, the pedal cyclist has died.

'It's a sad situation for anybody. She was fully cooperative',

she came from a nice family,

and unfortunately, it's one of those things that possibly

could have happened to many people.

I'm going to authorise your detention here,

so that we can ascertain

if there's sufficient evidence to charge you with any offences.

Obviously, I understand this is going to be a difficult time

for you, as well, but we need to look into what's happened

and we need to work out how to deal with it.

'And all the way through she always said

'she thought she'd hit an animal'.

And then became scared.

And I think it's only when she got home

and spoke to stepdad and I think a little bit of realisation set in,

which is why then they called the police.

Because they believed it may have been something perhaps more

than an animal and that the police needed to be aware of what

had happened or potentially what may have happened.

Back at the scene of the accident, it's looking,

from all of the evidence, that the girl is not to blame.

Is it reasonable that the driver didn't see him?

Well, yes, it is reasonable, because, you know, he's in a black

environment, he's on a trunk road, he's got no lights,

he's got no reflectors, in complete dark. There's no contrast

to help anyone see him, as potentially being a hazard.

It's likely she wasn't on main beam, because she's on a dual carriageway

with other traffic coming towards them, so she will be driving

on dipped beam and it's on a long, sweeping curve, as well.

So as you're coming round, your lights are forward,

although on dipped beam they would be to the near side,

but potentially, you know he would be to the nearside of her

and she still wouldn't necessarily pick him out.

Purely from her reaction,

when I've arrived at knocked on her door, and told her the sad news

that she has killed somebody, I think she's telling the truth.

Another discovery has been made which might have been

a factor in the accident.

The paramedic who was dealing with the casualty informed us

that he suspected that there may be an element of alcohol involved.

Whether that's had any bearing on the collision, we don't know,

but he did think that he could detect alcohol on the deceased.

Like with most accidents, there's a chain of events that have

happened and it's all of those little bits that have led to,

unfortunately, to this death occurring.

Um, had one of those bits changed,

it may have been a different outcome. May never have happened.

At his inquest, it was revealed that James McGee was nearly

two-and-a-half times the legal limit for driving.

The coroner described the gifted violinist's death

as "a tragic accident".

The young Mini driver was not charged with any offences.

The man with a stash of guns in his car, who was trapped after being hit

from behind by a lorry, was released from hospital the following day.

Kelsey, the young girl who was badly injured after crashing into a tree,

spent four weeks in hospital recovering from her injuries.

She had no recollection of her lucky escape.

Seeing the top of the car, how it was, I'm thinking, "My goodness!".

I'm lucky that I'm alive.

And whether she was distracted or not, will never be known.

There was no third-party influence.

There was no defence that was put forward that could have given

an excuse as to how that collision occurred.

It was 99% down to driver error.

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