A New Malden woman has been found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm after a jury ruled that she deliberately tried to drive her Audi Q7 4x4 into an autistic cyclist with whom she had been arguing. Witnesses described seeing the victim roll over the bonnet of the car before it smashed through the window of a hair salon.
The Surrey Comet reports that Natalie Pyne got out of her car and had an argument with cyclist Simon Edgley after an alleged near miss between the two. Anna Best, who had been waiting at a junction next to the salon, said that Edgeley “was kicking the car in quite a comical manner” and that a teenage boy in the Audi shouted at him. It is said that there were at least four children in the car.
After Edgley started to cycle off, Best said Pyne reversed before driving towards him and into the Park Salon in Park Road.
Another witness, Louisa Morris, who had been in her parents’ house opposite at the time of the crash, said she remembered hearing loud revs of an engine and then tyres squealing. "The cyclist was hit by the front of the car and pushed off his bike. He rolled over the bonnet coming off the side."
Pyne claimed her 4x4 malfunctioned before she clipped Edgley and went through the bay window of the salon, causing more than £25,000 worth of damage. In a statement taken by police after the accident and read out by prosecutor James Lofthouse, Pyne said she had been having problems with the car and felt threatened by Edgley’s behaviour.
However, traffic officer PC Peter Traylor said he could find “no fault” with the car, saying: “I tried lots of different scenarios to try and [get the car] to do what the lady had told us it had done. The car's fail safe system would not let me do it.”
Lofthouse said: “What happened was road rage. [Pyne] intended to cause Mr Edgley very serious harm. She was reckless.”
Pyne was found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm, dangerous driving and damaging property to the value of more than £5,000 and will be sentenced on November 6 at Kingston Crown Court.
Jon Fray of the Kingston Cycling Campaign commented:
"I am not experienced in law but I suppose the police picked the charge of attempted GBH because they thought that is the one that would stick. I have some sympathy for people who think it should have been a harsher [charge.]
“All I know is it could have been a lot worse for the cyclist involved. It is not all cyclists versus motorists on the road and thankfully these incidents happen very rarely."
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Quite aside from the kinetic energy/momentum issue (which is a point against the more massive vehicles), larger cars take up more road space and hence, whether parked or moving, increase the likelihood of conflict between vehicles.
Cars have been getting larger, on average, for many years now (I think its a foot of width over the last decade or something like that), yet still people argue there's "no room" for cycle lanes.
Extrapolating, in a not-at-all-questionable-fashion, I predict that eventually London will fill up with giganti-cars, and all the _people_ will have to move elsewhere.
Bikepot
I feel bad I left you alone jabbering into the evening. I thought we had finished as we agreed on something:)
I think it time to put this to bed now.
So to summarise, your were wrong and I was right
Fairly normal reasoning from many 4x4 drivers. Dodged the questions, ignored basic physics, decided you were right anyway regardless of the safety of others.
GBH = custody in my book. a woman recently did time for not paying a truancy fine for her child, so i find it difficult to imagne why this road rager shouldnt be going down. good riddance.surrey will be a safer place without her
GBH = custody in my book. a woman recently did time for not paying a truancy fine for her child, so i find it difficult to imagne why this road rager shouldnt be going down. good riddance.surrey will be a safer place without her
It's a while since I studied physics, and I'm far from an expert in collisions, but is it energy or momentum that is more relevant? Energy scales with mass and the square of velocity, but momentum scales with mass and velocity, so the vehicle speed isn't the huge factor it is in calculating energy.
Anyone?
Maybe it depends on whether you're likely to be flung by the impact. After all, hitting a person will send them flying, and the speed they "fly" off at will be determined by momentum. If you hit a building, it's not going anywhere as such. I guess if you're being flung by a car the energy will be spent flinging you rather than breaking your bones... That will come when you land.
Either way, I'd rather be hit by the corsa than the q7.
Elasticity is what matters. Rigid bodies will conserve momentum, which is great because it means I can play pool badly and get away with it. The physics in a car crash are complex, as it's all about crumple zones and absorbing the energy. The greater the KE, the greater the crumpling of the car and whatever else is involved.
A q7 weighs roughly twice what, say, a corsa weighs and has about 3 1/2 times as powerful an engine, so has a power to weight ratio that is about 75% higher. To be carrying as much kinetic energy as a q7 the corsa would have to be travelling about 40% faster than the q7. With the disparity in power/weight ratios that is harder to achieve on a regular basis.
And a q7 is far from the heaviest or most powerful Chelsea tractor.
I think the point bikebot is making is that, for heavier more powerful vehicles, there should be a higher standard of driving test - as there is for PSVs, HGVs etc. For anyone who actually needs a 2.5 Tonne 4x4 - e.g. farmers, landscape gardeners - then it's not too much of an obstacle. For the arms-race on the school run, it's a deterrent.
There are issues with the higher, heavier vehicles. It's not unknown for SUVs to be reversed over small children because the visibility out the back doesn't extend to so far down. The higher centre of gravity means that they are more likely to tip over in high-speed swerves. If you've got an utter bell-end driving near you, would you rather they were in a Micra or a Q7?
But I can kind of see both sides. For any weapon to be dangerous, it requires someone to use it dangerously. SUVs don't kill people - people kill people.
You got it exactly, and the last comment is very pertinent. Many people have drawn parallels about the arguments made for cars and those made for guns. An automatic assault rifle is a perfectly reasonable gun for anyone to own without any more restriction than a small handgun, because... you know, it's people that kill, not guns.
The licensing and regulatory requirements should increase with the potential for harm of whatever is being operated. That's a fairly universal principle across all kinds of machinery.
Shes a Female. I think she will get a £30 gift voucher for H&M or M&S.
When I was learning to drive, the first thing my instructor said to me was "Remember, you are in control of a lethal weapon." What sort of mad person tries to deliberately run over a cyclist. Whatever the provocation, this is totally out of proportion. Let's hope she is banged up for a while and that the judge recommends she has a psychiatric evaluation before being allowed near the wheel of a car ever again.
>Ramuz
A gun in a locked drawer is still a dangerous weapon and, quite rightly, there are strict laws in the UK about gun ownership, storage and use.
Our annual toll of road deaths reminds us that all cars are dangerous and the laws of physics remind ius that heavier, faster vehilces are more lethal than slower, lighter vehicles.
The attitude and skill of the driver has a crucial role in decreasing the risk that the danger will strike but no gurantees can refuse the risk to zero. Heavy fast vehicles have no redeeming value in everyday domestic life and don't need to exist at all.
Nutter + Nissan leaf = dangerous driver
Nutter + Q7= dangerous driver
Nutter + transit = dangerous driver
See above common denominator
Sensible driver + Nissan leaf = safe driver
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Completely different outcome.
The driver in this case would of been dangerous in a little car. She was a grenade waiting to go off. Fortunately no one died and she is going to be punished severely
Tell that to the shop owner.
So this also happened near to me - http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/13792983.UPDATED/
If that had been a Q7, the child would almost certainly have died.
2.5T Q7 + bad driver = dead child.
1.5T Hatchback + bad driver = injured child.
See the difference?
Whatever next, is someone going to start defending speeding as perfectly safe. Some of these replies are sounding a wee bit ABD.
Shop are only bricks and mortar
You cannot make that assessment between the two vehicles. A smaller vehicle can have as much destructive force as a big vehicle. Too many variables, speed and pace of acceleration being two obvious ones
Car size, car weight, engine power, all factors.
No a smaller vehicle cannot "have as much destructive force as a big vehicle."
Because physics, duh.
And shops aren't only "brick and mortar", they usually have people in them. I've seen the aftermath of three such incidents in the last year or so, including this one
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2704040/Did-think-drive-Driver-c...
Again, thank God that Corsa driver wasn't another person that bought into this nonsense that the car makes no difference, it would have been a much worse story.
Your missing the point it's the driver who is the danger
Yes a smaller vehicle can have more destructive force. Just punch in different weights and speeds into your calc. You will see that a small car can have more kinetic energy
Are you really bad at maths as well as physics?
Pick a velocity, type into into the equation with the weight of a small car, see result. Now replace with weight of a large car, see result. Bigger car carries more energy. Honestly, I think they teach this at year five now.
It seems very strange to me to question that, as that principle is already used throughout our road traffic laws and vehicle licensing framework. The only appropriate question is whether the current level of graduation is sufficient, and I don't believe it is.
If you think I've missed the point about the driver being the source of the danger, you haven't understood my rather lengthy post above about raising the licensing requirements for those that chose to drive larger vehicles. It's entirely about the driver and ensuring that as their potential for harm increases so does the appropriate licensing requirement.
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Calm down chappy
I said there were too many variables to say one vehicle is more dangerous than another
You were ranting on that bigger cars are more dangerous than smaller, no they are not. It's the driver that makes one more dangerous than another
Eg
Vehicle 1
Mass 1000kg
Speed 50 mph
kinetic energy 1250000 joules
Vehicle 2
Mass 2000kg
Speed 30mph
Kinetic energy 900000 joules
You see smaller vehicles can have more destructive energy. Then there is the shape of the car, length of bonnet yadda yadda.....
Which one would you like to bounce off now
So you're arguing that those that drive these large vehicles should have lower speed limits? Rough calculation, someone in a Q7 would have to stick to 20mph in a 30 zone, so that if it were involved in a collision its potential for harm is the same as a typical hatchback.
That seems rather draconian to me. I just want to raise the licensing requirements to ensure that those who drive such a vehicle are less likely to be involved in an accident in the first place, and so that we can take those cars away from them if they can't operate them safely.
You're going off topic, small cars can have more destructive energy than larger. Do you agree?
All drivers of cars should be required demonstrate a sufficient level of competency to drive a car. Those who drive dangerously should be punished in accordance with their offence.
Nutter+ car(any size) = dangerous driver
Sensible safe +car ("") = safe driver
It's my argument, I'll chose how to make it.
On a like for like basis (same roads, same speed limits, same driving conditions) small cars are safer than large cars. Do you still disagree?
Nutter in a big car has the potential to cause greater damage and injury than nutter in small car in the event of a collision.
You are either agree with that or you don't, but if you don't you're not arguing against me but our entire vehicle licensing system as it already exists. The law already accepts that principle, the only question is over the graduation.
I am not arguing with anyone. If you think I am arguing with you you're pushing on an open door.
I was pointing out that having arbitrary arguments blaming one size of car is worse than another is misguided. You're blaming the wrong element. It's the driver which is dangerous.
"Guns don't kill people."
I agree. Small gun big gun is dangerous in the wrong hands. People kill
Keep your points brief, battery running low, plus my film starts in 30 mins
So as well as all motor vehicles having a flat approach to licensing, you think the same thing makes sense for firearms. Sidearms, shotguns and assault rifles should all be treated the same?
Perjury for lying about the car under oath?
As bikebot states, it's simple physics. The kinetic energy in a two tonne car is vastly greater than a compact car and in parts of London, Q7''s, XC90''s, cayennes and range rovers are the vehicle of choice for the school run. It's way past time that these vehicles are taxed out of sight as people have proven themselves too stupid (in London particularly) to make the right decision. There is no argument that vehicles of this size, power and weight are required in London and all they do is add to pollution and congestion in a polluted and crowded city. My only hope is that the volkswagen scandal finally wakes people up to the lifestyle bullshit the auto industry pumps out.
I did a little bit of digging through some legal sites, and it seems charging for GBH or attempted GBH in combination with the driving offence isn't at all rare where "road rage" is the problem.
It's a bit difficult to compare past cases, but a custodial sentence of 6-12 months seems to be a good indication if the court weren't considering her children.
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