Police are unable to take action against a driver who nearly knocked down two children on a zebra crossing because the vehicle's number plate is "unreadable". Shocking CCTV footage shows the moment a car overtook a stationary queue of vehicles that had stopped to let the children cross.
The car narrowly missed the two children who thought it was safe to cross on High Street in Ogmore Vale, on Thursday, September 22. South Wales Police received a report through Operation Snap of dangerous driving on High Street.
Stephen Harris, who captured the incident on his CCTV said: "It’s absolutely insane - another couple of seconds and one or two of them could have been killed.
“Cars are always parking on the zigzag crossing because of the shop and on this occasion, my wife saw the four cars that didn’t stop at the crossing and then when two cars did stop, a car overtook to park outside the shop and nearly took the two kids out.
“Drivers don’t stop and it would almost be safer if they moved the zebra crossing completely because you expect cars to stop for you to cross and they don’t. Nobody gives way to pedestrians at all.”
There were calls for the driver involved to lose their licence or be fined for dangerous driving, but in the footage submitted to officers, the vehicle number plate is unreadable.
A spokeswoman said on Saturday: "Therefore no further action can be taken. The index must be visible for Operation Snap to proceed."
Officers from the force's Roads Policing Unit will, however, are carrying out increased patrols in the area.
Through Operation Snap – which has been adopted by all four police forces in Wales – anyone who has dash cam footage of others driving dangerously or carelessly can submit it online. Road users can submit footage or photographs of driving offences by visiting https://gosafesnap.wales/ or https://gosafesnap.cymru.
The spokeswoman added: "South Wales Police takes safety on our roads extremely seriously, and we will take positive action when appropriate in order to educate about, promote and enforce road safety."
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