Shocking admission by cop who pulled out on learner driver

Published on: October 2, 2017

Martin Donaldson caught incident on dashcam when taking a lesson in Leeds
Incident happened on Burley Street, Leeds
West Yorkshire Police later apologised to Mr Donaldson

By Charlie Bayliss For Mailonline

Published: 21:55 BST, 2 October 2017 | Updated: 22:05 BST, 2 October 2017

When you taking your first few driving lessons out on the road, there is always a nagging thought in the back of your head that you might cause an accident.

Yet the last thing you expect is a police car pulling out directly in front of you like a boy racer and causing a pile up.

That is exactly what happened during this near encounter caught on instructor Martin Donaldson’s dashcam when one of his learners drove along Burley Street, Leeds.

The learner driver's dashcam spots the police car in the distance about to approach a junction on Burley Street, Leeds

The learner driver’s dashcam spots the police car in the distance about to approach a junction on Burley Street, Leeds

As the learner continues past the junction, the police car also continues, forcing the learner to brake abruptly

As the learner continues past the junction, the police car also continues, forcing the learner to brake abruptly

As the learner continues driving along the road with the right of way, a police car pulls out directly in front of the learner, seemingly without looking where he was pulling out.

The learner driver then has to abruptly hit the breaks to stop a certain crash between the two vehicles.

Mr Donaldson, from Leeds, said the driver did not even realise that he had done anything wrong. It was not until after tweeting a complaint to West Yorkshire Police that he received a personal apology by phone from the driver of the police car.

The driving instructor said: ‘It was about 11.30am on Thursday September 28 and a learner was driving at the time. The police car didn’t realise he had done anything wrong.

‘However, when I tweeted West Yorkshire Police, they passed it onto the driver of the police car who then personally called to apologise.

‘He admitted he didn’t look properly and to pass on his apology to my learner.’