A cyclist hit head-on by the driver of a BMW on the wrong side of the road had to do his own police work after the crash.
Injured Josh Dey was told by police officers in London investigating the case that he should get the CCTV footage of the incident himself if possible.
The 22-year-old medical student was cycling on Swain’s Lane near Hampstead Heath in North London on Easter Sunday when the crash in the clip below occurred.
Josh Dey suffered very serious injuries, including a
bleed on his brain. The motorist who ploughed into him head-on drove off.
And when Mr Dey woke up and reported the matter, he was advised
by the police to try and secure any CCTV footage himself before it was wiped.
While the incident occurred in England, the same can be said of crashes in Ireland.
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CCTV recorded by businesses is often wiped after a set period; sometimes 48 hours or a week.
There have been some reports the practice has been stepped up since GDPR rules were introduced last year because companies do not want to store data.
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And unless those who want to secure footage get to it
before that period expires, the footage can be lost for good.
Gardai often cannot respond quickly enough to ensure they collect the CCTV footage; something to think of if you are ever in a crash and in a position yourself to go an track down CCTV immediately.
If the business won't release it to you, they may at least save it for release to the Garda.
“I don’t remember anything. I only remember waking up in hospital and wondering what’s going on with needles in my arms and in a lot of pain," Mr Dey told ITV.
“So the police said they’d send an officer more than a week after the incident.
“With the software at the restaurant (the CCTV) would be deleted after a week. So by the time they got there it would have been deleted.
“So they said if you can get the footage yourself that would be really helpful, As soon as I got out of hospital I made that my first priority.”
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