[Closed] “Motorist punches cyclist in the head”

Common assault?  First offence?  Admitted it?  I would expect a caution

Unfortunately the story doesn't say what he as charged with

Common assault? First offence? Admitted it? I would expect a caution

Is that really all you'd expect for assault?

I read this story from another source. cyclists were also in the wrong. No injuries were caused and yes a no injury adult assault I would expect a caution especially given the nature of the road rage where both sides at fault

@Aidy a common assault?

Yes

I am in the business and that is the disposal available for a guilty plea common assault with no relevant offending history

Not saying it's right

...but that's what we have

This one?
"As club secretary and a trained Ride Lead we’re meant to de-escalate any situations"
Putting your hands on someone's car is not going to de-escalate the situation, especially when they are already wound up.

@kato - does punching somebody whilst driving not count as driving without due care or dangerous driving?

Common assault? First offence? Admitted it? I would expect a caution

Yep, that's what the driver who assaulted me got.

I still can't figure out why people like the driver in this case think that their genitalia will grow as a result of aggression.

🤷‍♂️

does punching somebody whilst driving not count as driving without due care or dangerous driving?

You'd think so, especially as he actually ran down and injured the rider with the camera. But hey apparently that doesn't count:

"He also knocked my wife off her bike, the camera was hers and she suffered cuts and bruises but wasn’t considered part of the case as the police couldn’t actually see her."

BECAUSE THE POLICE COULDN'T ACTUALLY SEE HER, ARE YOU SERIOUS ffs the mind boggles

TJ - curious to read the other source? Because in that road.cc article the cyclists seem to have done nothing wrong at all, apart from the fact that he should've known that laying a finger on the precious car would be likely to result in something like that.

Funny the way some drivers go ballistic if you touch the side but have no compunction about ramming you with the front.

(Sorry, bit of a sore point from my own experiences!)

Some link on facebook. The driver close passed. the cyclists caught up with him or he stopped. they surrounded the car all shouting at him and one guy was holding on to the car. Thats not necessarily accurate but its the other side of the story and backed by pictures.

Basically a road rage incident escalated by both sides

lose / lose

He ran down the person with the camera - who was standing in front of the car blocking it from leaving while half a dozen cyclist harangued the driver - again just the view from the other side. My guess truth lies in the middle and both sides acted really badly.

Fair enough but I disagree with this bit:

He ran down the person with the camera – who was standing in front of the car blocking it from leaving while half a dozen cyclist harangued the driver

If there's someone in front of you, you stop.
If you're distracted by something out your side window, you stop.
A driver should never hit something right under his nose, it's driving without due care imo, end of story.

D'you know what makes me sad about this? I realised I'm mostly indifferent. Amazing what you can get used to. 🙁

Oh I agree - but the defense is easy to make " i was surrounded by several very angy cyclist banging on my stationary car and blocking me from leaving and I was scared so I gently nudged my way out of that scary situation"

Only devils advocate here

Oh I agree – but the defense is easy to make ” i was surrounded by several very angy cyclist banging on my stationary car and blocking me from leaving and I was scared so I gently nudged my way out of that scary situation”

Yes, the driver who assaulted me got out of his car to do it as he was scared of the fat middle aged bloke old enough to be his dad.

Goddamnit TJ, stop making sense. You did it in the bacon thread and you've done it again here.

I think if someone was bitch slapping me whilst simultaneously trying to drive over MrsRNP driving a Nissan Puke they deserve to be slowly bludgeoned to death with a Look cleated shoe followed by my fellow bike riding buddy's doing a "No! - I'm Spartacus" and us all getting away with it.

2 things I have learnt over the years of daily urban riding:

1) any incident let it spoil their day more than it spoils yours. don't get angry - laugh at them. ridiculous insults help " thrombus" ( medcalese for bloody clot) or " hope yer next craps a pineapple"

2) If the car stops then i am out of there quickly somewhere they cannot follow. don't get into confrontations. they never end well.

I have also done the odd "scare the driver" when they pull out on me - scream loudly and pull a stoppie that ends up with your face right by their window. Its funny to watch them shit themselves as a screaming man appears to be about to come thru the window

The video on the BBC site rather paints the cyclists as dicks and I'm assuming it's their video so edited in their favour. The pass at the start seems anything other than close, the car was clearly on the other side of road and a reasonable distance from the outer riders. The cyclists clearly surrounded the car to have a go, based on the video not sure what for, the video cuts before the woman ends up on the ground so we don't know what happened to cause her to fall off. Either the driver did something pretty out of order not captured on video or the cyclists caused a unwarranted altercation. There's enough dick drivers out there without cyclists getting in on the act.

slightly longer version

Goddamnit TJ, stop making sense.

Sorry *tugs forelock*

From Pistonheads

Ha I was wondering how long before that video was posted on here - its mates of mine and I'd often be in that group with them

The video didnt show the full story

The driver was held up for about a min through a twisty 30mph section

Driver overtook, beeped, then brake tested them in front suddenly as payback

Riders filtered and swerved round him

Chap went to ask the driver whats up, leans on window for balance, driver explodes, grabs him inside, punches rider

RIders wife was in front of car and is now being run over, as driver isnt really driving but trying to beat up cyclist alongside

Driver went nuts and blames cyclist for it all, even though the driver break tested them looking for a fight

That vid shows the cyclists in a really bad light. Just an unnecessary overtake - not dangerous just annoying. Happens daily
then they surround the car including someone attempting to block it in who then gets nudged and falls over

riders wife was not "run over" She tried to block a slowly moving car and was nudged. Stepping in front of a moving car deliberatly?

The cyclist who grabbed the car looked really aggressive and he escalated the situation

dorks like those cyclist really do not help at all. Utter prats

"Attempting to.block it in who then gets nudged over"

The turn of phrase you're actually looking for is "was intentionally run over"

We're having a really excellent couple of days of victim blaming on here aren't we! Next thing you know, it'll turn out that the driver is dyslexic and should be allowed to nick the riders wallets too

try watching it again. the car is moving and she stops in front of it - and is not " run over" at all just knocked down. Incredibly stupid thing to do. Why on earth would you try to stop a road rager by stepping in front of him? why on earth would you escalate it by grabbing his car while looking really belligerent and angry? No one comes out of this well and the cyclists are really stupid dorks for escalating it. I have no sympathy for them at all.

You do not counter aggression and stupidity with more aggression and stupidity

tj - stop digging the bloody hole you’re standing in, you’re starting to sound like the Daily Heil! What uggski has written is what happened, not what some jackass on Facebook is alleging happened. I saw the news article on BBC Points West, where they went into a lot of detail as to whether the cyclists were in the wrong for riding two abreast, etc.
The situation is the driver got pissy for being held up for a minute or so, then behaved in a reckless, irresponsible manner. Siding with a stupid driver and victim blaming? Really, I thought better of you than this.
If that’s how that driver behaves after being held up by a few cyclists on a short stretch of road, before being able to safely overtake, I shudder to think how he’d behave after being stuck behind a tractor and trailer doing 20mph for over six miles, which happened to me the other side of Warminster once - nowhere to overtake, and nowhere for the tractor driver to safely pull in to allow traffic to overtake; that halfwit in the Juke would have had a coronary!

Are we all watching the same video as TJ?

I don't think they ever call it a close pass, he overtakes, brake checks them, half the group swerves around him, lots of finger-pointing (both sides), grabbing (both), punching in the head (just the driver), throwing to the ground (just the driver) he then runs one of them over.

I am watching the same video - yes the driver was a twerp but they cyclists made it mush worse with their agressive reactions and the idiot who stood in front of a moving car?

everyone involved is a berk. Escalating confrontations like that never helps and who steps in front of a moving car?

See my post earlier. I have learnt in situations like that just tell them once and move away

the guy who leaned on the car is a particular idiot - very aggressive manner and excalated it.

I am not victim blamiong - I am telling you want I see

I see an idiot in a car road raging and a bunch of cyclists escalating it

Idiots the whole lot of them

Yep, just watched it again. I'll agree that how the cyclists responded wasn't 'ideal' in a perfect world sense (however had it been me then I'd have been a lot less restrained than the cyclists in the video)

I'm still only seeing the driver assaulting one cyclist and running over another though. Seems like the courts saw it that way too?

she was not "run over" she does not go under the car and why was she standing in front of it? very aggressive move to block the car in

2 things I have learnt over the years of daily urban riding:

1) any incident let it spoil their day more than it spoils yours. don’t get angry – laugh at them. ridiculous insults help ” thrombus” ( medcalese for bloody clot) or ” hope yer next craps a pineapple”

2) If the car stops then i am out of there quickly somewhere they cannot follow. don’t get into confrontations. they never end well.

Brake checking a cyclist or wheelchair user is attempting to cause death by dangerous driving, so they have a right to self defence

she was not “run over” she does not go under the car and why was she standing in front of it? very aggressive move to block the car in

She's not stood in front of it, she's slowed down (presumably because the car's just tried to force her to crash and there's now a commotion going on).

she was not “run over” she does not go under the car

That would appear to be her legs under the car.

Brake checking a cyclist or wheelchair user is attempting to cause death by dangerous driving, so they have a right to self defence

Even if there was a crime of attempting to cause death by dangerous driving you probably want to get some professional guidance on what self defence is in law before you get yourself in bother.

I’m still only seeing the driver assaulting one cyclist and running over another though. Seems like the courts saw it that way too?

It didn’t go to court. A caution is an alternative to prosecution.

tinas - would you have done either thing? stop in front of a road ragers car that is still moving or lean on the car and escalate things agressivly?

the car is moving and she stops in front of it

Doesn't look like that to me. Looks like she slows down to see what all the commotion is behind her. Probably drifts across a bit because she's looking over her shoulder.

– and is not ” run over” at all just knocked down.

There's no "just" about being hit by a 2 tonne vehicle.

I am in the business and that is the disposal available for a guilty plea common assault with no relevant offending history

Not saying it’s right

…but that’s what we have

Wow, that's shocking. Good (but disappointing) to know.

Otoh, the driver who assaulted me was "very well dressed", so didn't even get that.

@uggski - do you know if they sought the views of the “victim” before deciding on the disposal? May be different approach N/S of border but I *think* up here the complainer would be consulted before any diversion from prosecution (at least for adult offenders). Given the backlogs in the courts avoiding being tied upon that for the next two years might not be a bad choice!

riders wife was not “run over” She tried to block a slowly moving car and was nudged. Stepping in front of a moving car deliberatly?

Well, one man's stepping in front of a moving car deliberately is another woman's turning round to see if that IS her husband being punched by the car driver. And here's the thing - stepping in front of a moving car deliberately does not justify being run over by a knife.

of course it does not - but its really really stupid to do