“I was slowly pulling out after checking there were no cycles coming from the left but was suddenly confronted by a young teenage boy doing a wheelie with no hands coming down the one way street the wrong way. This so alarmed me as he was not in control that I swerved slightly and hit a large metal bollard doing £1000 worth of damage to my car.”

– Senior police officer pledges to act on problem cyclists in Darlington town centre

I didn’t even know Peter Sagan had visited Darlington.

doing a wheelie no handed ……

surely the laws of physics should be applied before putting quotes in newspapers ?

He missed out..

‘whilst returning from my masonic temperance evening….

….I was so shaken up I had to immediately drink a bottle of famous grouse on the spot. Before my colleagues arrived’

doing a wheelie no handed ……

surely the laws of physics should be applied before putting quotes in newspapers ?

Surely the laws of google should be applied before putting posts on Singletrack?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=no+handed+wheelie

surely the laws of physics should be applied

which law would that be?

young teenage boy doing a wheelie with no hands

poor kid had no hands, give him a break…

Skillzz!

Just more evidence that people are judged by their mode of transport.

…fear of being knocked down by a bike.

There are some treatments for it… Cyclo Phobia

surely the laws of physics should be applied before putting quotes in newspapers ?

I reckon what’s happened here is “normals” have encountered this sort if thing:

And an intrepid law enforcer has decided he needs to tackle “problem cyclists” which in reader’s will mostly equate to this poor lot:

When the best way to address pissed, wheeleying chavs, it is by sorting this lot out:

Darlington, what a dump.

If you think a no handed wheelie is breaking the laws of physics you should see what some of the flatland BMX guys can do.

we see lads doing wheelies …..it’s about getting a balance

Slightly paraphrased but looks like a fairly clear statement…..

Right so in summary the lady quoted in the OP failed to look properly, lost control of her vehicle and crashed into a bollard – but it wasn’t her fault because “cyclists”. 😯

And she is so convinced it wasn’t her fault that she wrote to a newspaper about it 😯

“we do know that some older people are wary of the cyclists and quite rightly. “

I’d urge Inspector Button (quality name by the way) to take a look at his accident stats and compare the frequency and severity of injuries caused by cyclists to those caused by drivers.

To be fair to the Inspector, all is is doing is fobbing off the people complaining about cyclists.

Typical local newspaper non story about cyclists written to stimulate “debate” and for click bait. The police were asked to comment, so they did without committing themselves to doing anything different whilst keeping people happy.

I notice that woman wasn’t bothered about the value of the damage she did to an innocent bollard.

Disgusted at the OP drawing me in to what I had presumed would be a new take on the classic Jasper Carrott sketch of Insurance claims.

Check video from 2:30 onwards:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppQJcj6iUKc[/video]