A driver deliberately blocking someone from filtering is committing a Section 3 offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988.
I don’t commute on the motorbike anymore but there was a period I was plodding in and out of the A40 every day and drivers would generally behave very well towards the filtering Powered Two Wheelers but occasionally some plonker would deliberately block us.
The offence has always been there so he is not telling anyone anything that is new.
Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act is Careless driving which is then sub divided in to 2 categories
1 Driving without due care and attention
2 Driving without reasonable consideration for other road users (lane hogging comes under this category as a rule)
I was booking drivers who blocked filtering bikes way back in the 80’s, but (and this is where the difficulty can arise) is that to secure a prosecution, it has to be established that the standard of driving fell below the standard expected of a reasonably competent driver, so the bar is set very low, and there are lots of mitigating issues that can and have been brought into play not forgetting a lot of plea bargaining by defence lawyers.
It is subjective, and you would need to prove that the act of blocking was deliberate.
So don’t get too excited, it all comes down to evidence and finding a) a Traffic cop and b) a cop who will give it a run for its money and c) and this is the real difficult one, getting the CPS to run with it.
Thanks for the clarification. Hopefully some bikers with dash-cams will make a few reports. I can see it might be difficult to show deliberate intent but I’ve had a few which were unquestionable.
