UK police powers question?

Almost had a accident with a stupid, stupid driver, who was driving, and usuing a mobile... crossed the centre line and was almost 2 foot over my side of the road, before he steered away - there was no harm done.... this time. The driver was - well, I will just say 'an ethnic minority'

question is this:
If we had had a motor accident - a civil matter - and I told the police that he was on the mobile at the time of the accident, would the police be able to *demand* look at his phone, and check his outgoing calls... or would that be against his civil rights?

snetterton:

1) I purposely didn't mention the persons race

2) I feel that the police are *more aware* of human rights issues, when it comes to 'ethnic minorities'

couple of issues here;

The police dont record almost accident as directed by the road traffic act.
So there is no legislation which would give the police power to access his mobile phone in this circumstance.
The reason being that as you realised, its a civil matter.

If an accident had been caused where an injury was caused we'd have to investigate it as well as its aggravating factors.
(i imagine if they had hit you, you would have caused some injury at least)
and there is a power under section 19 of the police and criminal evidence act 1984 to gain evidence by siezing or examining the phone.

as you say there is a perception that we are more sensitiv to the rights of minorities. I'l admit the policies set by management seem to reflect that, but on a down to earth level by street officer, most opf us honestly treat all people as the individual mindelss pillock they generally are. (thats a joke)

And we dont just randomly help out minorities over other people, but the fact is some people do get victimised, so if ther police didnt have ways of protecting them, it wouldnt be a fair society. But that is any person who gets victimised not just minorities.

No, they could of course check his phone usage. They do this all the time. Quite why you feel the need to mention this person's race is beyond me. It's enough to say they were driving dangerously, surely.

If you had had an accident you could have reported it to the police stating that he was using a mobile phone and that you believed this was why the accident occurred.

That makes it a case of dangerous driving, which is NOT a civil matter.

If the other party denies using his phone at the time of the incident then the police, in theory, would have cause to apply to have his phone records checked.

First of all,what's the relevance of the "ethnic minority"bit?
Secondly,No the police could not demand to look at his phone because they firstly only have your word that he was using it at the exact time of the accident and secondly the police don't get involved in civil matters of this nature.

Not sure why a person's race has anything to do with anything here, no more than their gender,age,height,etc. Bottom line here in Canada, the accident occurs, the police are called and you tell them your side of the story. They check where the cars are at the accident sight [as you do not move until they arrive on the scene] I would think it would clearly show that the other driver was in the wrong. They would probably be charged with dangerous driving and the phone records would not matter unless it became a legal issue that they wanted to dispute. In this case everyone would go to traffic court where a Judge could request phone records.

threepenny53's got it. It most emphatically wouldn't be a civil matter.

Yes they could.

But whether they would is a different matter. its time and money and its not a criminal prosecution so they probably would not bother

I think is against procedure rules in your country . The judge or prosecutor law are correct persons to check it.