Caravan firm sacks driver who was filmed overtaking cyclist with inches to spare (+ video)

There can be little doubt that was an incredibly dangerous pass, quite deliberate, totally unnecessary and was intended to terrorise or cause fear of death and potentially kill or cause severe injury. I believe this falls within case Law, namely:
R v Howells [2003] 1 Cr App R (S) 61 CA - "Road rage" cases involving furious driving with intent to cause fear or possible injury, but no accident, consumption of alcohol or injury - six to 12 months imprisonment.
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_manual/dangerous_driving/

I recommend reporting this to the Police. I am not a Lawyer, but Legal advice may be appropriate.

I can only reply on this as though it was me nearly getting killed which I did nearly 3x in December. I wouldn't give 2 @@@'s about the blokes job. He was a total bastard and he paid - that's life!

Precedent's need addressing in this country in cycling & this goes some way but not in a court of law where they need to start!

Never mind the close pass, mi mayger consern is he clerely carnt spel. Lodes of spelin missteaks on all his vidios!

One big issue also coming out of this is that there is now a lorry driver with an already extreme dislike of cyclists (as shown by his behaviour) with an even bigger chip towards us. If he is like some people, his sacking will only justify in his own head his prejudices and make it even more likely he will carry this sort of crap out in the future. That is one reason why the sacking is not enough.

I have emailed lancashire police and my MP simply drawing there attention to the strength of feeling about this incident. I think the more people who do this the more likely they will act.

As others have mentioned, anger on the roads and people driving around with "issues" that should preclude them from being behind a wheel in the first place. Problem is, having a licence is seen more as a right, rather than something that should be earned and kept through good behaviour.

And the proof the driver was sacked is on their site, because they said so, how do you know that for sure...?

Good call from the company, really happy to see they took this seriously. now its a shame the police and the CPS will do bob all, seems to be no body no crime and even this its only a minor crime.

Driver loses his job. GOOD!

I had a very similar incident with an Eddie Stobart lorry recently. I got a standard copy paste response.

So it's refreshing to see a company take this sort of thing seriously!

I just wish the police would too, there's clear intent there and it was clearly dangerous not just careless and the rider was incredibly lucky to not to have been killed or seriously injured. I'd be surprised if they do anything though

I'm still not buying a caravan

Don't worry about the person losing the work. The work still exists. Someone else will get it and be happy!

For the firm, not re-using one casual hours driver is the bare minimum. The firm should ask why it happened, what load-specific training, videos or whatever, they ought to give future drivers.

The Police need to take action. It worries me that this person is still driving and may have an even bigger grudge against cyclists.

The Police need to take action. It worries me that this person is still driving and may have an even bigger grudge against cyclists.

Last night I was driving home and whilst on a roundabout, it was slow traffic. I checked my mirrors and indicated before moving across a lane but then received a horn blast from a car that was suddenly filling my mirror. Maybe it was my fault, maybe he came shooting up at speed, I don't know but I put my hand up politely to say sorry and carried on. As I continued home I noticed this guy was still driving right up my chuff and waving his fist in anger. I then took a 'strange' route which confirmed he was indeed following me. For 30 minutes this continued. I wasn't overly concerned but didn't want to take him to my house. If need be I would stop and confront him but eventually he turned off.

The roads are full of nutters, people with serious issues who should not be allowed to drive a ton of metal.

In my mind this is simple.
If your driving falls below a standard where it becomes dangerous to other road users then you shouldn't be on the road - period! And don't give me any crap about loss of livelihood, that does NOT trump loss of life.
Well done to the company for terminating his employment. Not so well done plod for not taking this further. This sort of nutter should not be driving large lumps of metal in public places.

I am grateful to Mr Turley for taking decisive action in this matter. Anything else would have been a clear green light for others in his company to do the same.

In my eyes, the good news is that we can all buy our caravans from Forest of Deans caravans.

As for the driver... the best lessons are the hardest learnt. I believe that we have to be less precious about peoples livelihoods... if you mess up badly at work you have to face the consequences. Likewise, if you need to drive for work, then really you should treat your licence with a bit of respect... if not, then take it. We all make choices, sometimes we make the wrong ones and there is no going back. If I employed drivers, I'd make sure they understood what was resting on their ability to follow the rules of the road.

My concern is as follows, you now have a car driver who lost his job because of a cyclist. Does the driver think he did anything wrong, or has he been scapegoated in a witch hunt...

Knowing the Forest reasonably well there are a lot of idiots driving there*.

* including the idiot who was towing a trailer full of DH mtbs last sunday!

I had a similar incident to this last week, unfortunately for the driver (but good for me LOL) there was a traffic jam 200 yards up the road so I caught up with him, I ask him why he went past so close whilst on his horn and his reply.... wait for it....

"I didn't want to have an accident"

My response cannot be printed !

Lets hope they don't re-employ this guy in the future …………. or he get's any other job that requires him to drive. Nice if the driver could be named and shamed with a picture so we can see what this moron looks like. I'm glad he lost his job. There is little reassurance from Forest of Dean Caravans to all cyclists that it won't happen again by another of their employees. For this guy to drive like this there must have been a disturbing culture within the company to drive so dangerously around cyclists or indeed any other road users. I am glad the guy lost his job. Do I care if he lost his livelihood? Not one bit. If more drivers had this happen to them as a result of dangerous driving then perhaps they wouldn't drive at us or knock us down and leave us for dead.The police will do bugger all as usual. The power of social media has meant this guy has been found out. Bring it on.

Why do people think they can use their car as a weapon? Is it the detached nature of being inside the car? You wouldn't wave a knife around in front of someone and then think that it was unreasonable to be arrested because you didn't do any harm.

It's reassuring that there are at least some companies who treat this behaviour with the seriousness that it warrants.

I'm not one for the witch hunts we sometimes see, but this wasn't merely incompetence that could arguably be rectified with training: this was quite clearly done with intent. This was essentially terrorism. Had the dice not rolled lucky double six this should have resulted not in a charge of causing death by dangerous driving but one of manslaughter.

In any case, all credit to Forest of Dean Caravans: this seems absolutely justified and well-advised, and they emerge with their reputation fully intact.

It will be interesting to see how (and whether) the police and CPS respond.