Following on from the post the other day; I was out for a Christmas morning blast, full of good cheer an all that. I had cut short my planned ride, as it has started to patter with soft refreshing rain…. actually, that’s a lie, it was sunny, then cold, then it hissed it down, so I cut the corner out of my usual 20 mile route.

Riding down a two lane one way street through the local shopping area, I rode towards some traffic light that were red, with a little queue of cars in each lane. I wove through the cars until I was in the left hand curb, but at the front of the queue. Now I know these lights very well, as I travel through them by car a lot, and you can see when they are going to change. Just as they were about to change, I set off, not running a red, but just on the cusp of the change. The traffic set off a couple of seconds after me.

As I got up to speed (remember two lane one way street) a guy in a LHD truck came alongside in the outside lane, and threw me a compliment and a big smile and I gave him a thumbs up. At that moment I was overtaken by an elderly gentleman and his wife in a silver / grey Nissan Almera, complete with Christmas decorations and nodding Churchill dog on the back parcel shelf. As the Almera got level with my front wheel, he cut hard left, right into the curb, and had I not had the brief moments slow down because of the nice truck guy, I would have been crushed into the curb, as it’s high and I’m not that good at bunny hopping my roadbike.

I did not get the cars reg number, and I’m not going to report him, but it did display (yet again) a worrying trend amongst car drivers, especially older men, who seem to think they have the right to show displeasure by trying to kill other road users.

I got home fine, and am now just about to go an eat my Christmas dinner… yum yum.

Please send an email to the police, it may not do anything but at least if a slver almeria with a nodding churchill dog in the window is involved in another incident there is evidence of a pattern of behaviour and not just a one off.

Report it.
The more reports there are of driving like this, the more effort police put into stopping it.

🙁

sorry to hear about your ordeal, had a rather less deadly encounter myself but nonetheless bizarre…

riding 2 abreast on a dead quiet main trunk road a driver on the other side of the road, honked his horn repeatedly while signalling for us to get off the f***ing road (his road no doubt) and people say christmas cheer is dead!

My pal and i were dumbstruck.

the thing is, if you don’t report it who will? if you report it, its your word against his so no charges will come, but the police will have a word and that may be enough to scare motorists into driving properly. The most frequent offenders aren’t malicious, they’re just negligent and don’t realise! No one likes to be challenged, especially in the heat of the moment, but a quiet word from the police may save another cyclists life!

Utterly pointless reporting it with no reg.

eop; Thanks for your concern, but, like all the other ‘near death’ experiences I have almost every time I ride my road bike, I shrugged it off.

I’ll e-mail the local Police, but I am also going to keep an eye open for this guy, as older people tend to be creatures of habit.

I think the thing that concerns me the most is that this guy (and many others) give absolutely no thought to the consequences of their actions. What would it have done for both of our Christmases if I had not slowed, or been sharp enough to have seen what the old scrote was up to? What would have happened if he had crushed me?

I am sure that as far as he is concerned the sanctimonious pratt has succeeded in showing me what’s for and is feeling very satisfied with himself. Much like the guy flashing his headlamps, these people appoint themselves arbiters of the road and all other road users are supposed to comply with their demands. Trucks, busses, other cars etc are pretty hard to bully, but a cyclist is an easy target, and so we cop the lot of their unjustified frustrations that everybody else ‘doing it all wrong’.

Hence the reason to find Mr Nodding – Dog, as I’d rather like to leave a brief note to that effect (along with the fact I have reported him to the Police) under his windscreen wiper.

I shall keep this ‘short’ but here is what occurred….

Riding along a ‘typical’ town street – not a major road, just a normal road with houses and the odd shop on it, with also a smattering of parked cars (2) I was riding along with no other road users on’my’ road. To my left there was an adjoining road – T junction. I was well illuminated – lights – 2 each end; hi-viz coat, hi viz-trousers, hi-viz backpack etc. As I rode across the t-junction (remember I was heading straight along the road with right of way) a van pulld out of the t-junction at some speed t-boning me into a wall on the opposite side of the road – a distance of some 20 feet or so. The van stopped; driver got out and immediatley appologised, said it was his fault, asked if I was ok, if the bike was ok, said he cycled himself etc. 5 witnesses to the incident all concerned with my welfare with comments of “how did you not see him, he’s lit up like a f****n xmas tree” etc.

Van driver then gets all aggressive. Witnesses say he smells of drink. Police called but he’s driven off. Police at scene say nothing they can do; until a witness says the van driver is drunk…then calls in the re-inforcements. As far as they were concerned I “could report it, or not, but there was nothing they could do”. I asked whether the officer had children. “What the **** has that got to do with anything” he says; but i persist and he says yes. I asked what he would do if it was his child hit. “off the record…. I’d f****n hunt him down and do him” says the copper. Nice. Eventually I go home. I have reported it. I had a reg number thanks to the witnesses. The van driver had found nearest pub it turns out; parked up and locked up van then proceeded to neck as much booze as possible. Police….. “we’re sorry sir, but there is nothing more we can do.” Gee thanks.

Utterly pointless reporting it with no reg.

Well I just did it online anyway, so neeeaahhh!

PS. Just for balance – I’m a car driver too. In my early driving days, inexperienced, I knocked over a cyclist. Worst moment of my life. My fault, I misjudged distance and my ability to stop/manoeuvre etc. He was OK and jolly decent about it too. Helped, by his comments and attitude, form my opinion that there are as many idiot drivers as there are idiot cyclists. I didn’t drive again for a while. I will, however, never forget that moment, or just how graciuos my ‘victim’ was. God bless him.

Neil, good luck, I hope I’m wrong.

Police….. “we’re sorry sir, but there is nothing more we can do.”

I don’t follow this. They have a report of an actual collision, identifying the vehicle, corroborated by witnesses, that represents dangerous or at the very least careless driving, but there’s nothing they can do? Was there any injury to you or damage to your bike?

They prosecute for speeding even if the road conditions were good and there was no other traffic about – surely they should prosecute for actual collisions?

They prosecute for speeding even if the road conditions were good and there was no other traffic about – surely they should prosecute for actual collisions?

POSTED 16 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Do not be deluded into thinking that the police are there for the benefit of society.

Fazzini

So it’s leaving the scene of an accident minimum.

Press for it.

In a shopping area you say? His dangerous driving, and reg, may well be recorded on camera….

They have a report of an actual collision, identifying the vehicle, corroborated by witnesses,They have a report of an actual collision, identifying the vehicle, corroborated by witnesses,

Are you psychic?

The op did not mention any collision.

Nor any witnesses.

His identification of the vehicle is insufficient for the police to search for it (unless there is CCTV).

Thread reading failure.

How so?

The poster you quoted wasn’t talking about the OP but fazzini’s accident instead.

You would wait 15m+ before telling me 😳

Set my stopwatch for the edit window expiry time 8)

but the police will have a word and that may be enough to scare motorists into driving properly

Nah they won’t bother doing anything, IME. “We’ll just makea note of it and keep it on file” is the normal response.

As for Fazzini’s experience, that doesn’t surprise me. I went to the police with video of a hit and run (me on the bike being hit), I wasn’t really hurt, but still they should have dealt with it. Instead the bloke on the desk, not even a police officer, just a G4S goon, wouldn’t even let me report it, or get an officer to check that he wasn’t talking rubbish. He told me that because I wasn’t seriously injured the driver hadn’t done anything wrong. “You’re the second cyclist this week who’s come in saying the same thing”, he’d turned him away too 🙄

Get the name of the Chief Constable, actually phone them up and ask for the name and contact details, then write a big long letter. I’ve been shrugged off by police that aren’t interested. When the CC gets involved they start getting interested.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1421135/Road-rage-driver-reversed-over-child-in-bicycle-buggy.html#

Ride away – this happened a few years ago nr me, it just ain’t worth meeting the wrong kind of person 🙁

Baxter said outside the court: “I had never seen a trailer like that before. There was no sign to say a child was in it. I panicked. I would give anything for it not to have happened.”

so it is ok to kill an adult but not a child?

Yeah good one that one.

Carl Baxter deliberately, with intent, reversed his vehicle 200 yards at speed, in order to run down the father and daughter (breaking his leg and pelvis and leaving the daughter with a fractured skull) then he drove off and left them for dead.

He had previous convictions for reckless driving and assaulting another motorist.

And he still only got TWO fricking years in jail!!

http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/23229/cps-explains-carl-baxter-sentence