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Devon driver who allegedly knocked cyclist off the roadMiddle finger councillor who ran cyclists off road fined
A Devon parish councillor, who forced cyclists into a hedge before flipping them the middle finger, has been fined £140 and issued with eight penalty points on his license.
Two cyclists were injured in the incident last July, in which Bridford parish councillor James Atkinson tried to overtake the group on a blind bend in his Land Rover, before veering into the group of four to avoid an oncoming car.
The incident, which took place in the Teign Valley in Devon, apparently left one rider upside down hanging from a tree, and another impaled on a fence. Atkinson, whose reaction after the incident was caught on helmet camera, admitted careless driving to Exeter Crown Court.
Cyclists say enraged Devon councillor ran them off the road
According to the Exeter Express and Echo, Prosecutor Lyndsey Baker said the four cyclists were riding single file at 25mph when Atkinson roared up behind them and tried to overtake them on a blind bend.
Atkinson then veered into the cyclists to avoid an oncoming car, which was travelling at 20mph, forcing them into the hedge, and “a jumble on the floor”.
It is reported Atkinson showed no remorse, and he tried to blame the cyclists for riding four abreast and forcing him to the opposite side of the road.
Cyclist and hair salon boss, Rob Pierce, who shot Atkinson’s reaction after the incident on his helmet camera, calls the punishment a “slap on the wrist” and says one of the riders hasn’t been able to cycle since.
Mr Peirce, 48, told the Express and Echo: "We were riding single file along that road which is one of the few flat roads we can use. We ride 200 miles a week and we are experienced riders.
"One of the injured riders was a stranger who suffered a head injury. An ambulance was called for him.
"My friend Jason Acreman was also hurt. He hasn't been cycling since because of the emotional effect it has had on him.
"Atkinson's driving was the most aggressive extreme driving we have ever encountered.
"In my opinion he is going to kill or seriously injure someone. His attitude was outrageous.
"I am not surprised he has received a slap on the wrist. But he should have been banned – you get a stiffer penalty if you break the speed limit on the motorway than nearly killing two people on their bikes."
Mr Acreman, who suffered back, hip and shoulder injuries in the collision, said: "I heard this beeping from a car and then heard screeching and skidding.
"I was riding by a hedge and had nowhere to go and was left upside down and hanging out of a tree. I was quite lucky really."
Mr Peirce said: "We tried to speak to the driver about what had happened and he gave me his middle finger. I was giving him a piece of my mind that he could have killed people – women and children use this road – and he looked me in the eye and kept swearing at me. A lady driving the other way stopped and confronted him. She rang the police.
"We were cycling back from Tiverton along the Teign Valley. It was a nice sunny day. Atkinson began hooting along the straight road, it was not the twisty bit.
"He was aggressively revving his engine and beeping his horn and overtook us on a blind corner and took two of the cyclists out. James is a keen cyclist but has not been out since which is a real shame. One of them was impaled on a hedge fence and the other was left lying in a gutter. The driver did not show a jot of concern.
"The lady driver went ballistic at him but he sat in his Land Rover with a smug look on his face. It was unbelievable – and then he drove off."
According to Teignbridge Council’s website it appears Atkinson is still a Parish Councillor.
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.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 3 sec ago
TBF I think that's before she saw the light and got on her bike. Not so great if her views have been informed by Mr. Briggs though.
- chrisonabike 3 min 51 sec ago
I hope I'm not being a delicate snowflake, ignorant of the lessons of the school of hard knocks, department of that's how it is, university of life...
- chrisonabike 16 min 27 sec ago
Genuine question - what is the baseline? As in - what do transport secretaries get done on average in - say - 6 months? (Noting that the bigger...
- Saracen888 39 min 21 sec ago
That's a great price. Just bear in mind Import duty and handling charges will be applied pre delivery.
- Paul J 41 min 5 sec ago
It's a standard technique. See my longer comment....
- bikes 1 hour 25 min ago
It happens so often that people need to drive expecting it to happen. People walk / jog across the road without looking all the time, particularly...
- Griff500 2 hours 1 min ago
Yep, I appreciate your problem. I wouldn't buy a bike without at least sitting on the same frame configuration on a trainer in the shop, something...
- Secret_squirrel 3 hours 15 min ago
One less thing to clutter up your jersey pockets no? Though difficult to retrieve in a hurry...
- David9694 4 hours 7 min ago
was it one of these? https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202411246675771?
- lesterama 4 hours 24 min ago
Houchen is utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt, as readers of Private Eye know all too well.
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41 comments
I'm so glad this is seen as such a trivial offence by the authorities.
I don't feel so bad about hoping an HGV does the same thing to him and his family the next time there on the motorway.
I hope the injured cyclists take his insurers for every penny they've got.
In all honesty I don't blame the cps for not charging him with dangerous driving. it's nearly impossible to get a guilty verdict from a jury made of fell motorists.
It would be amusing if his email address was used to sign up for many, many cycling-related email newsletters, wouldn't it?
. . .
It would be good to know whether he was initially also charged with dangerous driving and whether there's been some good old negotiation going on.
Well perhaps now that he has been found guilty (albiet a minor penalty in that he didn't get banned) all the cyclists injured both mentally and physically will be suing him and his insurance company for compensation.
going by the cyclists comments, in what way was this careless? As for the penalty! Out of interest is he still a councillor?
"you are guilty of a careless driving offence if you drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place.
Driving without due care and attention means driving in a way that falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver, while driving without reasonable consideration for other persons requires those persons to be inconvenienced by your driving." - AA.com
"A person drives dangerously when:
I'll be honest, I would have called this for dangerous driving, but we know how much the CPS seems to hate inconveniencing motorists so I guess it was easier for them to get him on simple carelessness...
I have to agree, but how anyone can argue that this wasn't dangerous is beyond me. You really have to wonder what the CPS is thinking.
I suspect it's not that they didn't think it wasn't dangerous driving - pause while I count the negatives there... - but that they knew that proving careless driving was much easier and less time consuming.
You are correct - of course, it would have been even easier for them to simply accuse him of a breach of the peace by having hooted too loudly, in which case the whole affair would have been done and dusted in seconds and he would have got off with no more than a talking to. We should be grateful they charged him at all
I honestly wonder what it would take to be charged with dangerous driving in this country! Sadly, the most likely scenarios I can imagine are either hitting another car rather than a cyclist, or injuring a young pedestrian - I truly struggle to imagine any scenrio that would routinely see motorists charged with dangerous driving in terms of their behaviour towards cyclists (even the recent event where a car was filmed accelerting in to the back of a cyclist, knocking him off, not stopping at the scene and not admitting who was driving, still resulted in a slap on the wrist and no ban).
No...methinks you've misspelled it....he's a Cuntcillor.
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