'Absolutely unacceptable': campaigners rage as LBC reveals 96% of hit-and-runs on London’s cyclists go unpunished

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Instead of coming to my aid, the driver immediately sped away, leaving behind huge chunks of their car’s outer shell which were ripped off in the crash.

I’m a cautious, law-abiding, experienced city rider. But I had just been a victim of a hit-and-run in the heart of London.

I contacted the police. Yet the driver was never caught. It’s an all-too-common story.

In hospital, a nurse told me anecdotally that I was one of several casualties of this crime she’d seen that day alone.

And LBC can now reveal that according to figures obtained from the Metropolitan Police, there were at least 106 car-on-bike hit-and-run collisions recorded in London in 2025, with 52 resulting in personal injury.

So far, zero arrests have been made. There have been four prosecutions, but only after drivers came forward voluntarily.

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The Metropolitan Police says arrests are dependent on several factors, such as the severity of any injuries. The force clarified that suspects may still be subject to prosecution, even in the absence of an arrest, and that a number of investigations remain open.

“Amongst the hundred or so incidents, I'm sure that there'll have been some quite serious ones. So the fact that they've never led to any [arrests] is still quite alarming,” Cycling UK’s Duncan Dollimore tells me. “The threat of enforcement is something that has a massive impact on people’s behaviour. And at the minute it feels as though that fear of being caught is disappearing on our roads.”

Tom Bogdanowicz from the London Cycling Campaign agrees: “if people think they can get away with it, they try and get away with it. It’s absolutely unacceptable and shocking.”

So what can be done about this largely unpunished crime?

Mr Bogdanowicz says “one of the reasons behind hit-and-runs is the existence of unregistered or uninsured vehicles or drivers. The police can take action to reduce this by using the cameras that they have up on the roads and taking those vehicles off the roads. I think they should be able to do it even with the resources they have, by making better use of existing technology.”

The Metropolitan Police maintains its “dedicated team of officers” are “working hard to reduce collisions and ensure the safety of all road users” by cracking down on “offences that cause the greatest harm,” including uninsured or unlicensed vehicles and drivers.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London says City Hall is “backing the Met police with a record £1.26 billion funding to provide more visible policing in hotspot areas, as well as data and intelligence-led policing to continue building a safer London for everyone.” Transport for London is also accelerating investment to expand the safety camera network, according to Sadiq Khan’s spokesperson.

However, the Motor Insurer's Bureau estimates that up to 6% of vehicles currently on UK roads are being driven uninsured.

Rory McCarron, a lawyer for Leigh Day, explains that “it is an offence within itself not to drive without car insurance, so if someone is involved in a collision, they might think: ‘I need to get away from this and abscond because I’m already committing an offence here.’”

Mr McCarron represents cyclists critically injured or killed on our roads, providing training to police and giving evidence to Parliament. “Other than acting for people who have been involved in hit-and-runs, I’ve also unfortunately been knocked off my bike deliberately. The chap mounted the pavement to get away and simply drove off,” he recounted to me.

“Generally, most of the time the motorists will have known they’ve been involved in the collision,” he says. “It's not something that’s inconspicuous. Leaving someone seriously injured on the road with no regard to their safety is probably one of the most callous things you can do. It shouldn’t be in our human nature to do that.”

The driver who hit Mr McCarron was never identified or found.

The government is considering creating a more serious offence with higher penalties for those who fail to stop after injuring or killing someone. But they first have to be caught.

“People talk about how motorists can be held accountable because they’ve got a vehicle registration number,” Leigh Day’s Mr McCarron says. “A lot of the time that doesn’t mean anything because unless you actually capture that vehicle registration number, you’re really in the hands of CCTV or surveillance. And quite a lot of the time that’s not available, unfortunately.”

“You can’t walk down the street without a camera looking at you. But it takes a lot of manpower to actually obtain that footage and go and get it retrospectively,” Mr McCarron adds. “Because of the volume of collisions in London, the police might not get that footage which is required to secure a prosecution.”

He suggests enforcement is also hard due to funding pressures and because the Met’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit cannot attend all incidents in real time. “Unless you actually die on the road there and then, they won't come,” he claims. “So you’ve got people who are losing legs or suffering brain injuries and they don't get the investigation that's desperately required. The overall feeling is that victims are being let down.”

Despite me providing the time, location, car make and model, my case was shut a month after I was hit in February 2026, with police citing lack of available evidence.

With thanks to my LBC colleague Tom Watts who came to my assistance and rushed me to A&E.