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news
Car towing caravan - Licensed CC BY-2.0 by Highways England on Flickr.jpgCyclist gets own back on caravan-towing driver who almost knocked him off his bike (+ link to video)
A cyclist in North Yorkshire who was almost knocked off his bike by an inattentive driver got his own back on the motorist - by applying the handbrake to the caravan his vehicle was towing, then sitting back and watching what happened.
Scarborough fish-and-chip shop worker Ken Lofts, said he was clipped by the caravan as the motorist approached a set of traffic lights in Scarborough town centre last Monday, reports The Sun.
"It just shows how little attention the driver was paying that firstly he didn’t notice hitting me, and secondly he didn’t notice me put his handbrake on," he said.
“I didn’t come off the bike completely but he bumped me off the saddle and I had to get my feet down to stop myself falling over.
“He clipped me on the arm with the front of the caravan but there was no acknowledgement, no apology, nothing. I ended up on the path.
“He was slowing down for the traffic lights and I was in front of him. As a cyclist there’s always a few close calls but no-one’s ever actually struck me before.
“I was a bit pissed off at the lack of a ‘sorry’ or anything so I thought ‘how can I get him back?’. The handbrake was right there so I pulled it up and off I went.”
The newspaper's website has footage (also posted to YouTube here) showing the front wheels of the Vauxhall Vectra spinning as the motorist attempted to pull away from the traffic lights.
Mr Lofts, meanwhile, was watching from nearby.
“The driver could have been there all day and not realised what was going on," he said.
“It was only because two people were crossing the road and spotted him not moving.
“A passenger got out and at one point all three of them were scratching their heads trying to figure out the problem.
“Eventually they worked it out but in that time the lights changed about five times.
“I think it was a combination of their confusion, the wet surface, the condition of the road – I never expected the wheels to spin and squeal for that long.
“I was in a good mood before that and I suppose it was a bit mischievous. I just thought ‘sod it’. I did have a good laugh when they tried to push the caravan," he added.
“People said I put them in danger but if they were the ones who put me in danger, so this was just a bit of revenge for that.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- joules1975 1 sec ago
Glad I wasn't the only one that thought 'eh?'....
- Steve K 55 min 21 sec ago
Dame Laura Kenny is going to be one of the Today programmes guest editors over Christmas. https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/today-programme...
- S.E. 1 hour 45 min ago
That made me think of that "Hot Fuzz" comedy movie... so many truths in it.
- Rendel Harris 3 hours 37 min ago
Good to see a V-brake option available for all those people who ride Cosmic Elites with V-brakes...seriously, you must know really that the answer...
- mattw 4 hours 15 min ago
Get thyself over to Buildhub - a community owned forum where I am on the moderation team ("Ferdinand") which is about self-build and renovation....
- Destroyer666 14 hours 19 min ago
Nonono, not those, but those that have constructed Italian cars and motorcycles that have been driven to hundreds of race and championship...
- RoubaixCube 14 hours 28 min ago
This may well be the case although Im unaware of the brands popularity on their home turf. I used to see them being advertised more in the UK...
- qwerty360 14 hours 58 min ago
Arguably sticking it in a bank account is bad....
- Sredlums 15 hours 57 min ago
I'd counter that those brakes were in fact so inadequate that they eventually developed a whole new type of bicycle that was actually suited for it...
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36 comments
Older drivers. How very dare you
Coming from rural Devon with singletrack roads caravans are an abomination. Nobody can drive them, nobody can reverse. Until you can teleport the chuffing things where you want them they should be immobilised and left as sheds.
The worst of it is that he probably has no idea how or why this happened. You'd hope he'd keep a better eye on the road, but I'm not holding my breath!
Most fun I've had for a while watching that video. Hillarious!
I'm not going to enter the us or them debate but if it happened to me I'd do the same.
I passed my test a 'considerable number of years ago and, for a number of years, drove a 7.5 tonne truck around the narrow lanes of the Yorkshire Dales (that country pub you want to go to for lunch wouldn't have any food if I didn't..!) but, if ever I was considering towing a caravan, I'd certainly seek out some extra training for it...
Trucks often have those 'if you can't see my mirrors' signs on the back - the other day I was following a caravan, by car, at a distance of 6 or 7 car lengths and I couldn't see the mirrors on the towing vehicle, despite the extension arms, so the driver obviously had very little chance of seeing the traffic behind..!
Genius man and he owns an Activator 2!!
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Satisfyingly childish.
Amusing!
I think additional tuition and a test should be required for towing. I got knocked off by a driver towing a trailer that was wider than his car several years ago. It cost his insurer five grand for my injuries and damage to the bike, so you'd think the insurance industry would be lobbying for an additional category on the driving licence.
This is already true - if you pass your driving test today you only get "Category B" (cars), and therefore you can only tow relatively small trailers, and certainly nothing as large as a caravan. To tow larger/heavier trailers you have to pass a separate test and get "Category B+E".
However, older drivers who passed their test before (I think) 1997 have their B+E grandfathered, and also their C1 (HGV up to 7.5 tonnes).
Edit: https://www.gov.uk/towing-with-car
And this is what I'd like to see rectified. It does seem rather bizarre that people who passed their test at an earlier date are considered competent enough to drive something that those who passed later on are not.
The website above does not state what you think. A driver with only a Cat B licence can tow up to a maximum train weight (based on Maximum Authorised Mass) of 3.5 tonnes. The MAM of my car and caravan is 3.54 tonnes. Irritatingly this means that, although my B+E licence allows me to drive that combination, my wife's B licence doesn't. The old caravan was 100 kg lighter. She could legally tow that.
The 750 kg limit applies only to *unbraked* trailers. As you will notice from the video above, caravans generally have brakes.
Good man!
Ah, now it all makes sense. It was my caravan and I went for the close pass to punish him for cross-chaining.
This bloke should put himself forward as a temporary Prime Minister while the politicans sort their shit out. Possibly in a power-sharing arrangement with Lord Buckethead.
I'm sorry but I'm struggling to see much benefit to anyone here, other than a bit of amusement and a little entirely justified revenge for Ken.
If I understand correctly the driver was never confronted about the fact he hit the guy with the caravan, and presumably just left the scene completely bemused as to why his caravan handbrake had somehow come on.
The driver has not been educated in any way and a load of people behind him have been inconvenienced.
Maybe the driver will see the video?
He knows now...
Terribly amusing, I'm sure, but all this does is make the roads less safe for every person on a bike out there, as it futher fuels the them-and-us mentality.
Sun actually says "revengeful", rather than "vengeful", but it is hardly a complimentary term either way.
It then concludes, "“People said I put them in danger but if they were the ones who put me in danger, so this was just a bit of revenge for that.”
Which of course is precisely the sort of tit-for-tat mentality you don't want when you are perched on 8kg of carbon with a small up turned potty on your head, and the other guy is in a 1 tonne killing machine, fully equipped with airbags etc.
Oh pish. Everyone not towing a caravan hates anyone towing a caravan. This puts us in the Us camp with most car drivers against the Them camp of caravanners.
And puts you in the po-faced miserablist camp all on your own.
I agree with rjfrussell, so he/she is not quite on his own.
Ummm, where's the handbrake on a caravan then? Just asking for a...caravanning friend...
Please tell your friend that it is where the caravan connects to the towbar and looks similar to a car handbrake
Instant karma. I like it. However the Vauxhall featured is an Insignia, not a Vectra.
Haven't watched the video, but from the picture in the article thats a Signum not an Insignia
Oh, good man. Not as exciting as I had envisaged.
I'm more concerned about his groupset. That and The Sun says he's A VENGEFUL cyclist. Not just a cyclist a VENGEFUL one.
Ignore the groupset that's a Raleigh activator 2, it's about 25 years old.
I remember seeing those in a catalogue years ago!
Those seatstays are very parallel to the downtube in a very pleasing way.
This is one of those rare moments when I find myself wishing there was a video (on a proper website, not the sun).
To save you having to visit The Sun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwOpi8HEDYY
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