[Closed] Caravanners, vote with your wallets (bike related)

posted on the caravan club forum too

I wonder if Swift and Bailey caravans would be happy knowing that this company use their caravans as potential weapons?

I don't think they would like that brand promotion.

Disgusting behaviour. It's the equivalent of waving a sword near a person's head as they walk down the street.

There must be a way of punishing this in a civilised society?

Wwaswas,
change the title of your video to include "Forest of Dean Caravans". I'm sure with a bit of support it'll make it fairly high up on a Google search soon enough. Maybe add their name to the title of this thread as well?

As the driver of the truck must have an HGV license, it could be worth getting the plod involved? As a "professional" driver it's his livelehood
at risk as well as a battering by the herds of MTB'ers who frequent the FoD!

Edit - just realised it's not yours... it's early.

I'd regard that as attempted murder!

Is that forestofdeancaravans.co.uk unsafe dangerous driving? The place that you get caravans near the Forest Of Dean?

IMHO that is a criminally prosecutable maneuver. That is a blatant 'punishment pass' that needs to be prosecuted. A vehicle of that size, driving that close, is mentally unsound driving. I am hugely angry just watching that video. That driver needs locked up and never let drive any vehicle ever again. Totally ridiculous, unnecessary, life threatening, ignorant, selfish behavior.

Contact.Centre@gloucestershire.pnn.police.uk

WOW> That must have been a proper bum clencher moment. Forest of dean caravans may be the premier new or used caravan supplier in Wales or England but forestofdeancaravans.co.uk need to have a serious word with their drivers.

I've not had a reply from Forest of Dean Caravans yet.

I've spent more than £20,000 on caravans in the past 10 years. Plus all the awnings, water carriers, electrics etc you need to use them.

Currently have a trailer tent but still spend a fair amount on accesories each year.

None of it will be spent there.

(note: if you're trying to mention them for google purposes use the name of the company in natural text rather than putting links or the url in every time - it'll get treated like link farmign and be penalised if there's too many on a page).

Are they on Facebook/Twitter?

I couldn't find them with a cursory search.

Forest of Dean caravans in the Forest of Dean? I've cycled past there quite a few times

Tagged

no, but they do have a google + review page.... 😉

This?: https://plus.google.com/110451555853034663046/about

This doesn't have many comments:

think this is from the bloke who posted the video;

[i]Just spoke with Forest Of Dean Caravans transport manager. He's 'horrified', will be taking 'disciplinary action' & co-operating with police[/i]

Good.

I'd give them a chance to make thing right before bombing their online presence (videos / google+ etc) with negative comments. The owners of this caravan company may come through and do the right thing/s, in which case a trail of negative feedback is unnecessary and unfair.

WW - that comments not from the same user as the original video poster. Probably just some one else who direct the forest of dean caravans transport manager to the video.

Crazy. Surely a criminal offence was committed there. If the rider had been clipped he could have been killed or seriously injured. Thank god it was caught on camera. Hopefully he will lose his job and hgv licence.

'kiiiiinell, scary shit.

Thank god it was caught on camera. Hopefully he will lose his job and hgv licence.

Controversy will kick in here as well.

There is a clearly marked shared use cycle lane on the pavement on the left - you can see the blue sign at the junction.

I think the driver was using the punishment pass to 'tell' the cyclist to use the shared use path rather than the road.

Looks like quite a new cycle path as well, [url= https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Balderstone/@53.778909,-2.577485,3a,75y,19.95h,93.61t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sdtJJhHLCnRhexoyQTUZp0g!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x487b742fe30a5f9b:0x116980618482ff14 ]here is the junction on Google Maps[/url], the shared use pavement is not there on that older picture.

Absolutely, not willing to use a poorly laid and dangerous cycle path should be punishable by death

[i]There is a clearly marked shared use cycle lane on the pavement on the left - you can see the blue sign at the junction[/i]

this has been picked up on twitter too.

Thing is it's not the law to ride on the cycle path.

'punishment passes' might be considered dangerous driving and is thus illegal.

not been here long?

I think the hgv licensing body are pretty strict, wouldn't expect the cops to do anything but the company and hgv bods may.

There is a clearly marked shared use cycle lane on the pavement on the left - you can see the blue sign at the junction

this has been picked up on twitter too.

Thing is it's not the law to ride on the cycle path.

'punishment passes' might be considered dangerous driving and is thus illegal.

I totally agree, that in no way mitigates what that driver did.

However, on that busy main road, I'd personally be on the pavement, shared use or not. I hate having to cycle in main road traffic, mainly because of psychopathic drivers like the one in the video, and also just plain ignorant careless ones who also do close passes (old folk are bad for this I find).

Proper squeaky bum time that!

There maybe a cycle path but he doesn't have to use it and even if the driver thinks he should it doesn't give him reason to nearly kill him. Proper tool!

Jeez that was so close, so lucky that he didn't get hit.

What I'm struggling with is why it says on purpose? I don't have sound - does he beep or something?

RM.

eskay currently [i]sounds[/i] like the company may be taking it seriously (or they may just be paying lipservice to prevent a social media PR screwup) but I'm cynical the legal system or the "HGV bods" will do anything meaningful.

What I'm struggling with is why it says on purpose?

[quote=rogermoore muttered bleakly]Jeez that was so close, so lucky that he didn't get hit.
What I'm struggling with is why it says on purpose? I don't have sound - does he beep or something?
RM.

yes, there's a massive blast from the horn that starts as the lorry approaches

A 3 second horn blast before he drives alongside. Def' not a SMIDSY-type scenario!

Rogermore - the lorry sounds its horn 2-3 secs before the pass and continues as it passes.

Class-A tosspot driving certainly.
Didn't the clip say it was a year old though? Drivers probably already doing 7 minutes jail time for death by dangerous driving.

[i]Didn't the clip say it was a year old though?[/i]

😳

I saw the 5th of March, it had been tweeted by all and sundry today and I just assumed it was current.

[edit] but it was posted to youtube yesterday. odd.

Text in the video says 6/3/2014. The 2013 could be a typo

yes, I think so.

*rekindles righteous anger*

I don't care how old it is or whether there is a shared cycle path - that trucker was bang out of order. I blame Putin.

Text in the video says 6/3/2104. The 2013 could be a typo

I think they may have just put the wrong date on Youtube, as the date on the actual filming says 05/03/2014.

Edit: As already stated as I posted. 😛

As shocking as the video is, and there is no excuse for that sort of driving at all.

I don't really like the idea of the internet keyboard warrior slur campaign on the company involved.

It seems like it's an instant reaction to start repeatedly typing the company name in posts to ruin their business/reputation before they are even aware that there is something they need to deal with.

Give them a chance to react first ffs.

Hopefully the company do the right thing and he gets sacked.

Hopefully the company do the right thing and he gets sacked.

Not often I see these videos and think "fffffuuuuu...... " but with that one I did. 8-o

I don't really like the idea of the internet keyboard warrior slur campaign on the company involved.

In a case like this does the end justify the means?

*to clarify I'm not happy that sometimes companies will ignore valid requests/complaints from an individual but if you get all your mates involved they will suddenly turn all helpful.

Terrifying. Reminds me of a similar pass by a logging lorry by Loch Ness. Had to hop sideways on to the pavement. Car behind did an emergency stop as they thought I'd been hit.

[i]presumably the company will get a well done/thumbs up if they do something to prevent this sort of thing happening again. [/i]

I would certainly add to hear or twitter anything positive I found out or was told. Not heard from them yet, though.

All companies are the same, though, one person complains they fob them off. Lots of people complain or it gets in the press and then things happen.

That's absolutely awful. I hope the cyclist is ok.
If the cyclist had it on film why didn't he just send it to the police and then call the caravan company? Why would you put it on youtube?
All the early comments on this thread of "I'll never use them again blah blah blah" seem a bit silly as it was one of the drivers being a tool who should be sacked and prosecuted.

If the cyclist had it on film why didn't he just send it to the police and then call the caravan company? Why would you put it on youtube?

If the cyclist had it on film why didn't he just send it to the police and then call the caravan company? Why would you put it on youtube?

He may well have gone to the police but with matters like this the police are generally uninterested. No one was hurt, no actual damage done so there's little to no risk of the driver being prosecuted.

It goes on youtube and yes there is the indignant fury of people completely unaffected by this however there is more chance of that driver being punished for what was an extremely dangerous, irresponsible and anti social action through bringing his company into disrepute.
He was representing a company at the time of the incident, the company have a responsibility to deal with this, it sounds like they are. I'd be interested to hear of any outcome

Unfortunately I cannot work out his registration or company name. if anyone can help..

Where did you find that? I must be a bit stupid.

He was representing a company at the time of the incident, the company have a responsibility to deal with this, it sounds like they are. I'd be interested to hear of any outcome

Agreed. But why is this thread called caravaners vote with your wallets?
And why are people saying they will be avoiding this company?
If a Ford Focus comes too close will these same people be boycotting Ford?

[i]If a Ford Focus comes too close will these same people be boycotting Ford? [/i]

If it were driven by a Ford employee on company business I'd question their ability to choose employees who exercise good judgement and therefore whether I should be buying a product from them.

I think as vulnerable road users the only real way we have of making companies force their drivers into behaving sensibly is to use our spending money. We can't fight them on the roads, we'll lose.

There's a number of companies local to me I won't use because of how their staff choose to drive vehicles around the city. It's not much but it's pretty much all I can do.

Where did you find that? I must be a bit stupid.

that's utterly terrifying.

A company doesn't employ staff whom knowingly will give them a bad name.
There is no doubt that the driver should be dismissed with immediate effect based on endangering the lives of others and bringing the companies name into disripute.
If the police do nothing (wich they probably won't) the driver will probably not work locally again for a very long time.
Why would you want to do anything to the caravan people? They just had a bad driver.
They won't be the first employer who'se had to sack an employee for endangering lives.

If they go down the route of that you suggest then I would consider using them.

In the meantime, not.

text shown at the end of the footage

I missed that but saw this underneath the film on youtube.

Published on Mar 6, 2014
This person put me in great danger by sounding his horn and passing very close by with a large vehicle at speed. Shame I can't work out his number plate etc but if anyone wants the original file to try please ask.
Sorry about the swearing.
Forest of Dean say it looks like one of there wagons but need to talk to the driver.
Had a letter from the MD of the company saying the same. please give the company time to investigate this and follow there procedures etc.
They do seam a good company and have responed very well.
May I say thanks for identifieing the company and may people have also contacted the company as well.
Thanks to all.
Will update when I have more information.
JTHEF

A similar thing happened to me while cycling from Rugby to Dunchurch about 2005. I was approaching the roundabout near the supermarket and a white van did the same. There is a shared path which I was not using as it was usually full of pushchairs and street furniture. I said very similar things as the white van tried to take an impression of my body with it's steel side. I try not to cycle on the road these days!

iolo - pretty sure that a lot of the text was added this morning, originally it stopped at the swearing bit.

even if it's the most pristine, smooth, billiard-table-flat cycle path with nothing in it apart from empty space and a guaranteed wad of tenners at the end of your journey should you use it, there's absolutely no compulsion to do so. you have every right to not cycle on it.

some more info from the company on the road.cc report;

[url= http://road.cc/content/news/113083-video-caravan-firm-horrified-after-cyclist-suffers-shocking-near-miss ]http://road.cc/content/news/113083-video-caravan-firm-horrified-after-cyclist-suffers-shocking-near-miss[/url]

Jeepers, trailer as well just to make it worse, that's the real scary part as you think its over then it carries on, not to mention the pull created as it passes! Feel angry watching that!

It's not as though the cyclist provoked such an act of stupid driving.

There is no way the driver could have said he didn't see the cyclist.

Driving ban at the very least.

My bottom clenched when I watched it so I would imagine the chap on the bike could have crushed a marble with his ring when that happened.

Depends how you look at it. The driver was on company time in company livery so the company has already done the wrong thing.

I hope some random employee wherever you work, that you've never met, doesn't do something stupid and cost you your job when the company suffers a loss of business after an "internerd attack" then.

(You will no doubt tell me why that couldn't happen to you, but you get my point)

I hope some random employee wherever you work, that you've never met, doesn't do something stupid and cost you your job when the company suffers a loss of business after an "internerd attack" then.

If I was in that position then I would want to rely on more than hope.

You would have [b]literally[/b] nothing else to rely on.

How can a company with loads of drivers (or whatever) guarantee that none of them will ever do anything stupid.

Totally impossible.

What they need to do is react appropriately [b]*when[/B] it happens.

*because it will.

That's properly frightening. Not just a close call. The guy must have been an inch or two from death. And for what purpose?

Don't usually post on these threads for numerous reasons, but on this occasion it appears to be a case of plain crazy, very dangerous and totally unnecessary behaviour from the lorry driver and absolutely unprovoked. I hope they are dealt with appropriately by the employer and by the law. there's no excuse for deliberately trying to make a point by putting someone in great danger.

Controversy will kick in here as well.

There is a clearly marked shared use cycle lane on the pavement on the left - you can see the blue sign at the junction.

I think the driver was using the punishment pass to 'tell' the cyclist to use the shared use path rather than the road.

Hopefully that's what he says when interviewed - assuming that is the police decide to take any action at all. Or at least that was my initial thought. Unfortunately as always if he does get prosecuted he'll be in front of a jury of his peers - that is peers of the driver, not peers of the cyclist - they might well agree with the driver. I'd suggest that video on it's own is evidence of at least careless driving, given the standard clearly falls below that of all the other drivers who overtake, so we have a clear baseline of "competent and careful" to judge against. If only such cases actually worked that way.

[quote=nealglover]As shocking as the video is, and there is no excuse for that sort of driving at all.

I don't really like the idea of the internet keyboard warrior slur campaign on the company involved.

It seems like it's an instant reaction to start repeatedly typing the company name in posts to ruin their business/reputation before they are even aware that there is something they need to deal with.

Give them a chance to react first ffs.

Hopefully the company do the right thing and he gets sacked.

What is more important - some two bit caravan haulage firm, or someones life?

If cases like this had proper serious outcomes (driver in the jail, firm out of business), perhaps it would make proper news? And perhaps then some of the retards doing this kind of driving would think twice about their unacceptable actions?

It is indicative of the awful, combustion engine centric mindset, that makes a lot of British drivers feel entitled to have everyone scatter out their way because they are bigger / faster / harder.

In the unlikely event the driver is caught, he'll probably face no action, or a small fine plus a couple of points or undertake a driver improvement programme. That'll teach him.

This companies vehicles are a menace round here. I get a double dose at the moment as a local road closure means that they have to come by my gate to get anywhere. Actually I suspect 1 driver as over the years, every time I have been cut up by one its the same chap I think. Been touched twice in the last few years by a towed caravan. Their vehicles are rather long for the local roads but as they were here many years ago it wouldn't be fair to complain about that aspect. (and I am a firm believer in the idea that if your vehicle can't cope with the prevailing road conditions then it shouldn't be there)
Knowing a bit about the company ownership I suspect that some harsh words have been said at the minimum to that driver. I look forward to the result.

How can a company with loads of drivers (or whatever) guarantee that none of them will ever do anything stupid.

Driver getting properly disciplined by the company sounds reasonable to me, not sure why nikk thinks the company going under is a good idea (unless they have form for employing known dangerous drivers) [b]if[/b] any legal action happens driver will get slapped wrists, not happy about that but it's not going to change today, this company can take a stand against punishment passes and treatment of vulnerable road users today tho.

<edit> ah Matt posted while I was typing, you reckon just 1 driver then? Have you reported incidents the company has ignored Matt?

What is more important - some two bit caravan haulage firm, or someones life?

Why does it have to be one or the other ?

They are both important. That's exactly my point.

If you earned your living as a good employee for a "two bit caravan haulage company" you might feel a bit different.

You must be trying [b]really[/b] hard to not see my point 😕

If I put the life of a member of the public at risk with a stupid stunt like that, whilst on company business, I would fully expect to be sacked on the spot.

Shouting, swearing at the public for example, warrant [i]disciplinary action[/i], but there is simply no other action for something like that than instant dismissal. Absolutely shocking. 😥

but there is simply no other action for something like that than instant dismissal. Absolutely shocking.

@ neil - I hope the other employees of the caravan company would expect prompt and effective action to retain their employer's reputation.

@ neil - I hope the other employees of the caravan company would expect prompt and effective action to retain their employer's reputation.

I can't see any reason why they wouldn't.

We might hear some news on Monday then.

Further to mattsccm's comments it's possible that the driver is a family member or, if not, then a long-standing employee. It'll be interesting to see if the local press pick up on the story. I've never had a problem locally with their vehicles but I was nearly taken out by a McArthys drawbar trailer rig last year in the FoD and it really is a heart-in-mouth moment 😐