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Priory Lane road rage driver Jason Wells delivers a threatening tiradeSW London road rage meltdown driver apologises, while cyclist reveals he was clipped by wing mirror
The road rage meltdown driver filmed in Roehampton, South West London, during a long tirade threatening to kill a cyclist for not using a cycle path has apologised for his "unacceptable" behaviour. Meanwhile, the bike rider involved has told road.cc the motorist clipped him with his wing mirror as he tried to pass.
The driver, identified yesterday as cafe owner and father of two, Jason Wells, apparently misjudged overtaking the cyclist on Priory Road near Richmond Park on 14 March before squeezing in toward the hedge. Wells was yesterday issued with a public order fine of £90.
The victim of road rage attack, who wants to be known only as Michael, told road.cc Wells hit him with the Land Rover Discovery's wing mirror during the close overtake, and says he is disappointed with the £90 fine. He also regrets his own anger during the four minute long expletive-laden argument caught on his bike-mounted camera. Since footage was released on Sunday the video has had almost 120,000 hits.
Wells, who apparently trained as a master butcher, is reported by the Evening Standard as saying: “I would like to apologise for any offence caused. My behaviour was unacceptable and regardless of the situation, I shouldn’t react like that.
“I fully appreciate that cyclists have as much right to the road as any other road users.”
Wells' south west London business, the Brew café chain, with outlets in Clapham, Putney, Wandsworth and Wimbledon, was popular with cyclists, but now faces a boycott from the cycling community.
Michael was cycling to Richmond Park on Saturday 14 March for some exercise when the incident occured. He told road.cc he regrets his own anger during the argument.
"I'm not happy the way I reacted, I was extremely angry and at one point - you can hear in the video - I am so angry I can't even get my words out properly," he said.
"It doesn't show me in a good light."
"The last time [Wells] gets out he's angry because the mirror is bent right in, because he hit me with it. When he squeezed me for space I'm lucky I didn't hit the kerb and come off completely."
"He was seriously angry. I have never seen anyone get that angry and not act on it. He messed up the overtake then he tried to force me off. He feels I have violated his property because I have tapped his car."
Michael praised the police for spending two hours going through his video footage with him, but said the law fails to protect cyclists adequately.
He said: "I was a bit disappointed with the fine, because I'm pretty sure he can afford it."
While Wells is seen yelling at a number of people on bikes during the tirade for not using a shared-use path on the opposite footway, Michael said cyclists would only use it if they were "really tired or a small child".
He said that none of the cyclists heading to Richmond Park via Priory Lane would use that cycle path "because you have to cross a lane of traffic to get onto it, which means you have to hold up a lane of traffic."
He said: "It has happened before at almost the exact same spot. It is pretty much the same issue - the cars get held up by cyclists going up that small incline, they try to overtake and they make a mess of it and push you out of the way."
Although Michael, who wouldn't give any more details for fear of reprisals, was clearly unnerved by the incident, he remains philosophical.
"It is just one of those things - it has happened before, and it's probably going to happen again: someone is going to take displeasure with me, they believe I am impeding their route but as long as I have got a camera, I can document the event."
He said: "The main reason I went to the police was I didn't want it to happen to someone else - if he does it to someone else and they stop riding - I don't want that to happen."
Michael says the cyclist who intervenes in the argument was contacted by police as a witness but didn't come back.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: "Officers from the Putney Safer Neighbourhood Team investigating an incident which took place on 14 March near Priory Lane, SW5 involving a cyclist and the driver of a vehicle issued a 50-year old man with a public order PND (Police Notice Disorder) fine of £90 on Monday 1 June.
"The fine was issued after the man voluntarily attended a south London police station where he was interviewed in connection with the incident. He was not arrested."
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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74 comments
PND? No criminal record then, just a token civil fine. Still able to holiday in the states. And a wee apology to keep the idiot cyclists rolling into the cafes.
Well I'm glad this multimillionaire nutter has been fined £90
Yep that'll teach him.
Probably spends that on a pair of socks
Hope the driver shows some real remorse by giving all cyclists a bit of a discount in his cafes?
Road.cc club, get on it.
Looking at previous posts, the angry gentleman clearly suffers fro BCSD syndrome.
( big car, small dick).
Came home last night and was complaining to my Mrs about a couple of crap manouvres I had pulled on me on my ride home. Then she showed me this video on the Daily Mail site.
Top rated comment is currently "I hate cyclists too" with 4600 likes. How depressing.
The Daily Mail is the most elaborately decorated bog roll on the market. I wouldn't lose sleep over what its readership thinks.
Maybe he should take his business venture outside the capital and open a cafe in the New Forest? He'd fit in well here...
He can stay away from here, thanks. We've got enough of his sort already!
Small dicks?
The cyclist involved regrets his own anger:
Well when I watched the video I could feel my blood pressure rising. With the adrenalin rush that accompanies these incidents I suspect that I would have reacted the same way as the cyclist.
£90!
It's outrageously harsh, you can get that sort of fine for actually killing a cyclist.
Michael, if you are reading this, has anyone ever told you that when you get angry you sound just like Richard Herring (of Fist of Fun fame)?
"which he says don't show him in a good light"
Au Contraire they show him for exactly what he is, a nasty agressive danger to other road users.
It is also well worth checking out the pic of him on twitter @thebenoliver it certainly explains where the root of his agression problem lies T**y W***y Syndrome.
Unbeliveably his business Brew-Cafe also used to offer cycle repair services I doubt it does any longer.
It's the cyclist who said that
While I always think "don't respond, don't escalate the situation, don't rise to it", the fact is, when it's YOUR adrenalin that's just gone through the roof due to a near-death experience, it's just not that simple. That's the problem.
There was a question on twitter ages ago, "If cycling makes you happy, why are cyclists always angry?" I replied to tell him that the interaction with cyclists occurs after an accident or near miss, thus adrenalin and shouting. He replied to thank me for explaining. He genuinely hadn't realised that all those 'interactions' he was referring to, were self-selecting...
Agree with this.
Only just watched video. I don't imagine he was driving deliberately dangerously - definitely recklessly, which to all intents and purposes is the same thing. There is a lot of swearing. Bloke seems to think his car is very, very precious, certainly sufficiently precious that he is willing to risk someone's life to preserve it. If you had asked sweary bloke "is the extra c.2 seconds you save by overtaking that cyclist worth the risk that you will kill him" in any normal context I imagine he would say "of course not". But people rarely think they will make a mistake/things will go wrong. Actually people rarely think. There is a lot of swearing.
I think he'd have got past £90 with any office swear box.
It looked like the driver had earphones zipped inside his jacket.
It's not illegal to use them whilst driving but a police officer from Gwent has this opinion on earphones...
"If a driver listening to earphones was involved in a collision then they could face charges under the more serious offence of dangerous driving."
A wing mirror contacting a cyclist would constitute as a collision in a court of law.
But we know the law is an ass...
I see the @Brew_cafe account is still running though...
This git would not have had a second thought of leaving the cyclist for dead on the road. I really hope he goes bankrupt!
I am seeing a few comments about taking coke floating around, I wonder if the police are going to be arsed to investigate that? Going off on one, POTENTIALLY driving under the influence, using a car as a weapon, etc etc etc.
Then just to reinforce things if you read and believe the twitter comments about unpaid bills, sexual harassment etc.
Or will the Met let him off?
If someone makes a specific complaint as a witness they will. They won't on hearsay.
Possession for personal use is never going to get pursued. Driving under the influence would require him to actually be caught while under the influence, which is far too much bother to chase down.
Why the hell did the police not charge him with a driving offence? It's an open and shut case: Dangerous, entirely unnecessary, overtake, hit another road user... surely that's far below the standard expected of a driver?
Clear contact at 0:30 on the video when he's closing the gap and swearing. Before the mirror is in one position, an audible knock is heard, then it's in another position when next in view. The cyclist was quite lucky to stay up.
There needs to be zero tolerance for this sort of deliberate dangerous driving. Hopefully the MET will re-investigate the driving standard demonstrated.
I don't know if anyone else has spotted this guy's twitter account, but for the sheer creativity of abuse he's copping, it's well worth a read...
https://twitter.com/BrewWells/status/541679259606327296
Looks like the page has been closed. I can't say I'm surprised.
A couple if things worth mentioning,
Firstly I am really disappointed to see a lot people on this site criticising the reaction of the cyclist. Yes he did respond with expletives but given the fact that the arrogant thug in the 4x4 almost killed him I’m not at all surprised. Similar things have happened to me in the past and yes it would be great to be calm as a cucumber when things like this happen but that’s not always possible, for one thing you’re probably in a state of shock and possibly fearing for your life, screaming and shouting under those circumstances is perfectly natural and anyone who says different is talking out of their arse. Personally if you drive into me like that expect a bit more back than some verbal abuse, we need to stop putting up with this shit and acting like a bunch of bloody accountants. Secondly he’s all sorry now, I guess the fact that his face is all over the media and he’s got a few hundred thousand cyclists on his case might explain that, either that or his business might take a hit, I don’t believe a word of it, if it wasn’t filmed he’s be bragging to his mates about it.
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