FOI 436-2025 / Apr 2025 / Splashing pedestrians
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 436-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 14th April 2025 as follows:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting information regarding incidents reported involving vehicles splashing pedestrians with water or mud, particularly on public roads or commonly used pedestrian routes within your jurisdiction.
Data on “Splashing” Pedestrians Offences and Hotspots
The number of incidents reported where vehicles splashed pedestrians (water, mud, etc.) from 2021 to 2025.
Including if possible:
- Age of offender/ Victim (e.g., under 18, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+)
- Gender of offender/Victim
- A brief description of what took place (if possible).
- Vehicle being driven
- Actions taken (Fines, penalties, warnings, arrests)
- Injury/Deaths (of offender/victim)
- Location of incidents such as crossings, junctions and school gates.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
On this occasion, Warwickshire Police are unable to confirm whether or not any information is held in relation to Fixed Penalty Notices issued to motorists for splashing pedestrians, and Section 12(2) applies.
Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”
Splashing pedestrians with water or mud whilst driving is not recorded as an offence of its own, rather it would be recorded as an offence of ‘Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road / in a public place without due care and attention’. I can advise that for the year 2024 alone there was a total of 597 such offences and, in order to determine whether any of those contain reference to a driver splashing pedestrians, it would be necessary to manually review each and every one on an individual basis. At an estimate of 5 minutes per record, this would equate to in excess of 49 hours of work for 2024 alone; however, due to your request asking for information from 2021, this time would be considerably greater. Therefore, the cost of complying with paragraph (a) of section 1(1), would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of confirming or denying whether any information specified in this part of the request is held, exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. For Police forces in the UK, the "appropriate limit" is considered to be up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to refining your request where possible; however, I am unable to suggest a way to do so on this occasion.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB