Riding along, as you do, on the way to work. There’s a bad chicane that bends right then 90deg left. I take primary position as everybody cuts in on the left part of the bend (hitting the apex) and squashes cyclists against the curb. I probably take the corner high teens mph which is about the same speed you can drive it safetly in traffic.

Anyway someone took exception to this yesterday and was shouting and waving as he went past. He then waited till the straight, and slammed his brakes on in front. I had no where to go (probably about 20mph) so braked hard and then cut down the inside. He then overtook me again, tried to squash me against the curb and brake checked me again before speeding off.

Anyway, I’m alive, it’s not the first time :cry:. I’ve learnt to back away from situations while commuting as I’ll lose a fight with a car.

I’ve reported it as I took the reg (Northumbria police) and the police are coming round this evening to have a chat. What should I expect? Unfortunately as there were no witnesses I don’t imagine anykind of prosecution will take place. I was disappointed when I was knocked off in Somerset and the guy didn’t even get a point on is licence.

He wasn’t so much driving without due care and attention but assaulting me with a deadly weapon or trying to kill/seriously hurt me…

The corner is here

Take it all the way, insist on a prosecution, the nutter is perfectly capable of killing someone in a fit of road rage.

All too familiar – and without witnesses I expect its your word against theirs unless he has been reported before.

To make you feel better someone cut me up on a round about last week on my way home from work. I looked at him and just shook my head and just cycled off. He blasted past shouting “I did see you mayte!” – so I returned “well why didn’t you give me space?……

You get jerks in all walks of life and unfortunately they are allowed to drive 🙁

But I would push it and see if you can get somewhere with it – he might not try it again if it goes as far as a police visit?

As MSP says, take it all the way…it might be your word against his, and CP may not bother taking it to court, but if it gets to the point where a copper knocks on his door to say “Sir, we’ve had a report…”, that might scare him.

Having said that, people who are ok with doing this sort of thing are probably familiar with dealing with the police anyway.

Glad you’re ok. And well done for walking away – that was the most important thing you did.

With any other weapon than a car, the police would be round like a shot, go wave a samurai sword at someone in an angry manner and see if it the police wait till the next day to come round for a chat.

in Somerset and the guy didn’t even get a point on is licence.

You can take the boy out of Somerset…..

A similar situation to mine up to the point where he rammed me into the side of a bus in September last year.
He’s just got a 12 months driving ban, 40 hours community service and £75 costs. I’m waiting for his response to my £1200 bill for a new frame, front wheel and bars that he wrecked.
The policeman that dealt with it had advised me that he could have in all probability have been sent to prison. The same bobby (who lives in the next close to me and we now road ride together – how sweet) says he has got off very lightly.
He did also say that without evidence (CCTV from the bus) and/or witnesses it would of at worst have been a straight forward collision – insurance claim

How did you react to him when he was shouting and waving at you?

You made it through Felling alive, you should count your blessings.

It’s not the ones in cars you should be worrying about.

Keep at it, idiots shouldn’t get away with stuff like that, you may need to persevere as even people who speak legalese and have video evidence have trouble getting police to take it seriously

It’s not the ones in cars you should be worrying about.

the OPs situation sounds pretty worrying to me, who should he worry about then?

a year or two back I was involved with a nasty piece of work. He overtook me at around 50mph on a hill round a blind corner. I shouted ‘cheers mate!’ at him. He skidded to a halt, reversed at me and told me to remember him and his car as the next he saw me he was going to kill me.

Police didn’t really give a shit to be honest

need DezB’s little camera he uses on commutes, if i remember correctly it records on a loop or something 🙂

Get a Muvi mini canmera, money well spent.

A few years ago I got cut up by a truck. I got back in front and rode on, next thing he came up alongside, ran me off the road jumped out and started yelling abuse. Genuinely terrifying, I couldn’t believe how much I was shaking afterwards.

I got his registration and conveniently he had his name and phone number on the back of the truck too (one-man-band removals kind of thing) so I reported it to the police and they “went round for a chat”.

The officer I spoke to was very sympathetic, promised they’d treat it seriously etc. Got back to me a couple of days later, they’d had a stern word with him and when he got arsey and denied all knowledge they started checking his truck for any expired MOT, non-legal tyres etc… 🙂

Push for a resolution on this with the police – claim attempted murder and make it clear you want to take it all the way.

More articles like this i read makes me think I should get one of those wee cameras on my helmet (oo-er).

On my commute there’s a few places that are always horrible for cyclists, I think it may be time to look for quieter roads.

I would expect Northumbria police to take this seriously. They did when a taxi driver ran a red light a a crossing when my wife was pushing a buggy across just missing her. They offered the options of prosecution or words of warning. In that case she went for the warning as it was a mistake.
Personally I wouldn’t do anything other than report what happened and make it clear that you had to deliberately avoid a collision. Let the police decide what offence occurred.

LHS – Member
How did you react to him when he was shouting and waving at you?

Poor troll – irrelevant.

I think the police do give a shit in most places, so it’s worth reporting. Copper I play football with says they’ll always pay a visit to someone who gets reported for stuff like this.

Deffo worth reporting IMO. your incident is more serious than one i reported recently (guy right hooking me causing emergency stop and swerve whilst on his phone)..
at worst even if it just goes on their records you’d hope that by the 4th, 5th etc time someone reports a particular driver the Po Po may start to crack down…

I’m amazed that people cycle to work along the duel carriageway (A264) near me, 500metres to the north is a quite country lane (Wimland Road/Lane) that turns into a private road that turns into a smooth bridleway that takes you right into town.

Here:

http://tinyurl.com/43nh96w

Even better is that on the way home is the Frog and Nightgown pub which a) is pretty much someone’s front room and b) serves proper beer.

OP, 😯 what a nug. (the driver, not you!)

Out of interest, does anyone know whether the ‘quiet word’ from the police has to take place at the driver’s home? Of course a reg plate will only provide the home address of the registered keeper, so police aren’t going to know where else to look.

But what about people who drive company cars and vans like idiots? Vehicle will be registered to lease company/employer before you get to who the vehicle is allocated to, non? (we have logs in the glovebox for our pool cars you would have either ring the manager or visit work and look at the log to find who was driving it at any one time) I think being asked for and spoken to by the police at your workplace with all your colleagues making Kenneth Williams ‘ooooh!’ faces would be a pretty good deterrent to making a speactacle of yourself in a work/company vehicle again! And for persistent offenders with own car but workplace known to police, would you be able to speak to the at workplace just for the extra ‘shame in front of peers’ deterrent factor? (assuming your colleagues are not also macho-murderous cyclist-mowers)

Having had a similar experience some years back I can sympathise with you, it’s not a nice experience. As others have written, the police won’t do much because quite simply there’s no proof.

I was lucky enough to bump into my aggressor in a petrol station forecourt. As I was in my ‘civvies’ I had no choice but to give him the benefit of the doubt when he denied all knowledge of the incident although the change of colour to his face told me otherwise. I was quite content at his cowardice rising to the surface without his protective suit and would like to believe the experience put him off doing it again but I have been known to be a bit of a dreamer.

Poor troll – irrelevant.

Not a troll at all, not suggesting that the OP did anything wrong in anyway whatsoever, I was just wondering what his reaction was and whether it had an impact on the incident.

“the OPs situation sounds pretty worrying to me, who should he worry about then?”

The scrotes in Felling who’ll nick your bike! 😆

For anyone who rides regularly in a town or city, people trying to knock you off is commonplace. It just doesn’t worry me anymore, I expect it every day. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve had to dive onto the pavement to avoid a car/bus/van.

My favourite was the Honda Blackbird coming up the cycle lane at me, at about 50 mph, on the wrong side of the road. That was a jazzer!

Had a run in myself on Tuesday with a proper plum, slow overtaker in a Landy on a bend, tight but not too bad… But then his wide axled horse box came creeping past! needless to say I was not pleased and I don’t think he appriciated my vocal communication of this fact, these things can easily escalate depending on peoples temprement and what they had for breakfast…

I’d be interested to see how your meeting with the rozzers goes, without evidence/witnesses I’d be interested to see how far and/or seriously they take these complaints…

While thay may not be able to prosecute I’m sure a discresionary visit; just to let the driver know the police are aware of his behaviour and will be keeping an eye out for him could well be in order “Preventative policing” isn’t it.

If charges were brought I’d have thought the best they could muster would be threatening behavior and/or possibly dangerous driving, and of course the CPS would probably Vito the whole thing for lack of evidence.