A10 crash: Family say no-one cares about motorcyclist collision

Andrew Giles spent six weeks in hospital following the crash

The wife of a motorcyclist seriously injured in a crash has criticised the lack of police investigation and said "no-one cares that it happened".

Andrew Giles spent nearly six weeks in hospital after a crash on the A10 near Milton, Cambridgeshire in April.

His wife Kaye felt "let down" after police did not visit her until two weeks afterwards and she is concerned witnesses were not followed up.

Police said there were difficulties in identifying him at the scene.

Andrew Giles' motorbike was badly damaged in the collision

Mr Giles, a keen motorcyclist from Haddenham, said he "smashed up all my pelvis, broke 13 ribs, smashed up my arm" in the collision with a car at a junction on 20 April last year.

"I was probably bedridden for 10 weeks with very limited abilities of getting in and out of bed," he said.

The 39-year-old exterior cleaner said he has ongoing pain issues but is doing "better than expectations" after initially being told it would be at least a year before he could walk properly.

Andrew Giles said he is still unable to do the physical side of his job as an exterior cleaner

Mrs Giles said a neighbour who passed by the crash first told her about what had happened after recognising his bike, but, having had it confirmed by the hospital it was her husband, she had to call 101 herself before finally getting a call back from an officer.

"I had to give her the list of injuries and she said she'd only just got back to her desk, so I questioned why she wasn't at my house."

Mrs Giles said she felt "disappointed, really really let down" by the initial police contact.

"There's absolutely no excuse for somebody not knocking on my door and telling me," she said.

"Nobody came to see me until two weeks and two days after and that was prompted by an email I sent."

Andrew Giles said there was a possibility that he may not fully recover, adding "that will obviously impact work, social and family life"

Andrew Giles said his recovery was going "better than expectations"

Mrs Giles said that witnesses to the collision were sent paper questionnaires but after none responded the police dropped the investigation.

"The police have their phone numbers, they have their addresses, why have they not knocked on their door?

"It fills me with no confidence that had this been worse, as it could have been, that anything would have been done had the worst happened."

When asked about the police attitude to the case, Mrs Giles said: "I don't feel like they care that someone's son, husband, father had this accident that was life-changing, and could have been life-threatening... whether they didn't have enough staff or whatever the excuse is, no-one cares that it happened."

A Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman said: "We were alerted to the collision by the ambulance service, and Mr Giles was taken to hospital by paramedics.

"Officers were not able to find any identification left at the scene, therefore were unable to notify his wife of the collision."

The force said two witnesses from the scene were contacted but "did not come forward to assist the investigation".

The spokeswoman added: "The driver of the car was interviewed at the scene but claimed to have no recollection of how the collision occurred. A thorough investigation was carried out by our Cameras, Tickets and Collisions (CTC) team, which concluded that there was insufficient evidence to take any further action.

"This conclusion was reached after neither driver involved had any recollection of what had taken place and no witnesses came forward, therefore there was no independent evidence."

Earlier this month, the parents of Louis Thorold, a five-month-old baby killed in a crash on the same road in January 2021, lodged a formal complaint over the police investigation, calling it a "shambles".

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