Caravanners, vote with your wallets (bike related)

That is **** unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything as bad as that before.
I shall never use Forest of Dean caravans to buy or rent a caravan in the Forest of Dean.
Even if I am desperate for a caravan in the forest if dean.

🙄

Pete
linked it to a mate reporting to the Citizen. May not be of interest of course.

Whilst in no way condoning the behaviour of the driver and being perfectly aware that you are not obliged to use the share use cycle path….in that particular circumstance I think it would be my preferred option – looks a horrible road to cycle on.

Looks a fine road to cycle on apart from a single homicidal lorry driver. Not huge amounts of traffic, plenty of space for vehicles to overtake, which in all but one case they use. As opposed to having to stop and give way at all the side roads on the cycle path.

Options differ! Personally I tend to chose quieter roads. I’ve never cycled along there but when driving it it is either nose to tail or very fast moving traffic.

Prefer quieter roads myself convert thing is quieter roads tend to be narrower, twisty (blind corners) and invariably nsl while traffic volume is a lot lower I’m not sure your chances if you do get passed, are any better. The road in the OP as aracer points out should be safe.
In a car if you had the choice of a residential rd with a load of unmarked junctions where you have to give way (slow down and into second gear for unmarked junctions my instructor insisted) or a parallel “main” road where you have right of way pretty much all drivers would take the express route, so it’s a bit perverse that drivers get all arsey when cyclists make the equivalent choice.

The driver has been fired.

How did you find that out?

Wow 😯

Fair do’s to them!

Great if true and good in the company. Partial justice, just need the cops to do something now but I doubt that will happen.

Good result.

On phone so links tricky but article on Caravan times website.

http://www.caravantimes.co.uk/news/people/human-interest/forest-of-dean-caravans-fires-driver-after-cyclist-near-miss-is-caught-on-film-$21384068.htm

Family-run Forest of Dean Caravans has been criticised after a video was posted on YouTube of one of its vehicles narrowly missing a cyclist.

The driver has since been fired from the company after decisive action was taken by the company.

The video was posted on Thursday (6 March) and has received over 30,000 views. The footage was taken from the helmet camera of a cyclist, named by the Gloucester Citizen newspaper as Jon.

The film shows Jon on the A59 at Samlesbury, Lancashire at 7.10am on Wednesday (5 March) being passed by other cars.

A horn is then heard before a flatbed truck, carrying one and towing a second Bailey Unicorn caravan, passes dangerously close to the cyclist.

The truck was identified by its Forest of Dean Caravans logo and the dealership has since apologised to the cyclist.

Police in Lancashire and Gloucestershire have been notified and an investigation is ongoing. Forest of Dean Caravans are conducting their own investigation and will release a statement soon.

Mark Turley, Transport Manager for Forest of Dean Caravans, told Caravan Times:

“The driver is no longer an employee of ours after talking to him. It was a stupid piece of driving and we’ve been let down by one of our employees.

“We’re unhappy with what happened and shocked with what [the driver] did.

“It’s never happened before and we’ve been transporting caravans for over forty years,” he added.

“We’ve dealt with it, and hopefully now we can move on.”

More:

http://road.cc/content/news/113535-caravan-firm-sacks-driver-who-was-filmed-overtaking-cyclist-inches-spare-video

That’s great news, and well done to those who got involved. I’d prefer to see the criminal justice system handle cases like his, but while it does not, social pressure is a good alternative.

I for one will sleep safer at night knowing this guy is hopefully off the roads for a while(hopefully never employed in a driving capacity again). …

Good result, lets hope the police also take action, would really like to get the driver out on a bike & subject them to the same “punishment” overtake as sadly without education the end result is possibly going to be an even more cyclist hating driver 🙁

That’s a positive development, so I now feel obliged to redress the balance of earlier posts by saying that Forest of Dean Caravans are a responsible employer and people should have no hesitation in using the services of this fine caravan supplier in the Forest of Dean (just for the benefit of Google) 😉

Whatever you do, don’t read the comments below the video!
It’s a rogue’s gallery of anti-cyclist stereotypes! (sign in is via Facebook so full name and job title appear!)

Check out these enlightened individual’s opinions:

Alan Norton · Surveyor at Cambridge City Council
Ann McColgan · Inverness Royal Academy

It’s like a bigot trawler!

my flabber is well and truly gasted. Firm takes cycling video very seriously (mind you it was a fairly extreme example)

I for one will sleep safer at night knowing this guy is hopefully off the roads for a while(hopefully never employed in a driving capacity again). …

Well, he’s still, at least for now, got a driving licence and I seriously doubt whether he feels more positively towards cyclists than he did last week, when he was already dangerous…

Well, he’s still, at least for now, got a driving licence and I seriously doubt whether he feels more positively towards cyclists than he did last week, when he was already dangerous…

Maybe, but this will probably appear on http://www.TruckDriverTrackWorld.com and even if the douchebag minority still hate cyclists, they won’t be passing so close if they think there may be actual repocussions.

Very good result

Free caravan for Jon as an apology maybe? 😀

Just realised this happened up on the A59 between Preston and Clitheroe.

Drove along there a couple of times recently and rode a bit too, thought it seemed like a dangerous bit of road. Speed limit and road layout changes quite a lot and saw quite a lot of nutty driving.

For those who are interested here is an insight into how the police will deal with issues like this. Despite the obviously appalling manner of driving displayed it may not be as straight forward as you imagine and this may give you an idea of where cases fall down.

1. The incident is reported to the police. An officer will look at the evidence and establish if there are any possible offences. This is not optional and a duty to investigate offences is enshrined in law. Now each officer is different and they may interpret the evidence differently. I would not seek to criticise other officers and in this case the evidence is clear enough that this should not be an issue. But if you disagree with the officers conclusions you can challenge them. I would advise politely putting across you views to them. If this does not work then ask for it to be reviewed by their Sgt. The last resort is an official complaint and the systems are their to ensure that reports like this are taken seriously.
In this case there are obvious offences of Dangerous or careless driving. The test for Dangerous driving is weather the standard of driving ‘falls far below what would be expected of a careful and competent driver’. In this instance most reasonable people would conclude that it has.
The issue of whether the driving was likely to cause injury does not effect whether the offence is made out, but does add to the seriousness of it when it come to how the offence is tried and sentenced.
The next issue, is can the offence be proved beyond reasonable doubt? Are there independent witnesses? No, but there is good video evidence and this suggests there is a good possibility of proving the offence should the driver plead not guilty. The time, date and location of the incident will also have to be clear (camera clocks are not always reliable).
Can the driver be identified? in this instance the registration is not clear but the vehicle is recognisable and it shouldn’t be a problem (the owner has legal duty to state who was driving at the time of the offence).
A statement would be taken from the cyclist and the video footage seized as evidence. Then the driver would be reported for the offence and summonsed to court. An interview under caution could be considered but the offence is clearly made out in the footage. So as long as there is no doubt over who was driving an interview is not strictly necessary.

2. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will receive the file. This is where the real problems start. The job of the police is simply to present the evidence. It is the CPS who prosecute the offence. The CPS don’t like traffic offences. I don’t know if they think it is below them but they seem to have little interest in aggressively pursuing them (from personal experience only). They will only pursue cases if they are certain they can win. To this end they will ask the driver how they will plead. If the driver (or their lawyer) has any sense they will either plead not guilty or ask if the CPS if they will accept a guilty plea to the lesser offence of Careless Driving. Nine times out of ten the CPS will accept this as they do not want to risk losing in court. If the driver pleads not guilty their Lawyer and the CPS will look closely at the evidence. In this case it will hinge on the video evidence (If it were not for the video then it would be one word against the other and it wouldn’t have even got to court). The defence will try to have the video evidence excluded on the grounds it is unreliable. They will say it could have been altered, it is not clear or could have been staged. This may sound ridiculous but all they need to do is introduce a bit of doubt and the CPS will fold and the case will be dropped.

3. Trial by Magistrate or Jury. If its a guilty plea it is likely to be for careless driving and the driver may not even have to attend court. They will likely receive 3 points and a small fine. If by way of a miracle it’s a not guilty plea and the CPS have had the balls to run with it, then you are relying on a magistrate or jury to come to a conclusion (assuming of course the defence don’t try again to have the video evidence excluded). You just have to hope they have not been held up by a cyclist on their way to the court.

Free caravan for Jon as an apology maybe?

Has he not already suffered enough?

Interesting to read your take on the issue Compass.

In this case I’d imagine the employer would be happy to verify who was driving and there is video evidence of a hugely dangerous bit of driving.

Would be nice to see a prosecution attempted anyway.

Chakaping

Unfortunately “police are investigating” is likely to be the only response that will be released until the matter is finalised. This may take a while and is all they can really say without jeopardising the case.