Near-Misses and Dashcams

when I drove over a nice old man, in Strawberry Hill, I saw him tumbling behind me in the rear view mirror.
Luckily for me, this was basically in front of the Twickenham Police College, and several 17 year old trainee PCs were soon on scene.
Once we had found Henry John Hxxxxx, as he had disappeared from the road - he was found in the local off-license buying a loaf of bread.
His statement was to the effect that he walked into the road without looking, was a bit surprised to be hit by a car, but it had happened before.
It was his fault, and he was going home to eat.

I received a month later a letter from a Chief Constable, indicating that I was not on this occasion being prosecuted, but i would be responsible for the life of Henry John Hxxxxx for One year and One Day from the date of the incident, and I might be later arrested. I wasn't.

Drive more carefully, I don't think the UK currently do policing by CCTV, retrospective fines without consultation, for minor RTA incidents.
Unless you were speeding, or passed a light set at red. Drive slower, and a speed awareness course might be more beneficial than an advanced driving test - that might even make you drive faster?

Was it really necessary to include personal details in your post?

when I drove over a nice old man, in Strawberry Hill, I saw him tumbling behind me in the rear view mirror.
Luckily for me, this was basically in front of the Twickenham Police College, and several 17 year old trainee PCs were soon on scene.
Once we had found Henry John Hxxxxx, as he had disappeared from the road - he was found in the local off-license buying a loaf of bread.
His statement was to the effect that he walked into the road without looking, was a bit surprised to be hit by a car, but it had happened before.
It was his fault, and he was going home to eat.

I received a month later a letter from a Chief Constable, indicating that I was not on this occasion being prosecuted, but i would be responsible for the life of Henry John Hxxxxx for One year and One Day from the date of the incident, and I might be later arrested. I wasn't.

Drive more carefully, I don't think the UK currently do policing by CCTV, retrospective fines without consultation, for minor RTA incidents.
Unless you were speeding, or passed a light set at red. Drive slower, and a speed awareness course might be more beneficial than an advanced driving test - that might even make you drive faster?

What I am anxious about is I know some cars will have dashcams and I wanted to know what type of penalty/fine/punishment I would be facing. And how long can I expect a letter to arrive. I haven’t made any sort of mistakes driving before this but I know it could have ended badly. I tried searching it but it didn’t specify and the incidents some people posted were usually more serious.

In the meantime I’ll practice with an experienced driver and be even more cautious when driving at night. Probably look to take some advance driving courses once I can so afford it.

TLDR; near miss of rear ender due to failure to indicate. Nothing happened but what penalty/fine would I have been looking at and how long should I expect before a letter arrives?

It is very unlikely that the police will prosecute you based on a third party dashcam if no accident actually happened. The could if they really wanted to, but the reality is they have a lot of other stuff to deal with like actual collisions. Most people with dashcams aren't going to go through the effort of submitting the footage to the police unless something serious happened. The footage might end up on one of the dashcam compilations on youtube, but that is about it.

No offense, but this reads like pure-o OCD, and making this thread is the reassurance compulsion.

You should really re evaluate driving with this mindset. If you go past a speed camera without looking at your speedo, will you worry about it? What about that red light that was in-between amber and red? What if god forbidden you actually end up getting a speeding ticket?

Driving has associated risks, on pretty much every single level. Dangers to yourself/vehicle, dangers to others, dangers to your license. Acceptance of this is key, and there is a genuine (relatively low) chance of these things happening, which can be mitigated even further through advanced driving.

The fact that you made this thread tells me you're probably a very careful and safe driver, but seeking reassurance on one thing that happened is very much an OCD trait, and is also very bad from a resilience perspective.

Be a confident driver, not an obbsesive one! Trust me, way worse things can happen than this. You need to be mentally prepared my friend.

Where did you get your PhD? If he is new to driving, he will be worried about every mistake he makes, most people are. Nothing wrong with having OCD, just as long as it doesn't affect safety.

I don't disagree with your point, but reading the original post, op had said a few compulsive solutions, which (to me) looks like they're beating themselves up to an irrational level about a non event.

Hello! Would like some knowledge?

A few days ago, I drove for the first time at night due to my work and got into a near miss because I failed to indicate. The car behind me did not know I was also changing into their lane and that was where the near miss happened as they had to brake. They beeped, and flashed (?) and shouted I think, all which I understand. Nothing happened however, thank goodness.

Due to me having to change the road I take due to several road closures, I got distracted thinking what if the road up ahead was closed too. There was also a (drunk?) person walking on the road instead of the footpath and I was concentrating too much on what he could unpredictably do. Doesn’t excuse anything but just wanted to relay how the mistake happened.

What I am anxious about is I know some cars will have dashcams and I wanted to know what type of penalty/fine/punishment I would be facing. And how long can I expect a letter to arrive. I haven’t made any sort of mistakes driving before this but I know it could have ended badly. I tried searching it but it didn’t specify and the incidents some people posted were usually more serious.

In the meantime I’ll practice with an experienced driver and be even more cautious when driving at night. Probably look to take some advance driving courses once I can so afford it.

TLDR; near miss of rear ender due to failure to indicate. Nothing happened but what penalty/fine would I have been looking at and how long should I expect before a letter arrives?

No offense, but this reads like pure-o OCD, and making this thread is the reassurance compulsion.

You should really re evaluate driving with this mindset. If you go past a speed camera without looking at your speedo, will you worry about it? What about that red light that was in-between amber and red? What if god forbidden you actually end up getting a speeding ticket?

Driving has associated risks, on pretty much every single level. Dangers to yourself/vehicle, dangers to others, dangers to your license. Acceptance of this is key, and there is a genuine (relatively low) chance of these things happening, which can be mitigated even further through advanced driving.

The fact that you made this thread tells me you're probably a very careful and safe driver, but seeking reassurance on one thing that happened is very much an OCD trait, and is also very bad from a resilience perspective.

Be a confident driver, not an obbsesive one! Trust me, way worse things can happen than this. You need to be mentally prepared my friend.

When I started to drive, I used the GPS ALL THE TIME, wherever I went, that way I did not have to think about the route, when is the next turn etc., I could completely focus on driving.

Think you're overthinking.... Probably nothing going to happen from this.

The police have better things to do than prosecute someone for a genuine mistake.