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news
Video: Van driver filmed swerving at cyclist
Virgin Media says it is looking into an incident in which a driver of one of its vans was filmed swerving towards a cyclist who was overtaking it.
According to the timestamp on a video shot by the dashcam of a vehicle immediately behind the van, the incident took place on 29 June.
The footage, which was taken close to the Golden Days Garden Centre in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, was uploaded to YouTube on 31 July with the title, "Van Trying to Hit a Cyclist."
The description of the video reads: "Van driver trying to hit a cyclist twice. "
As the rider overtakes the van, the driver swerves sharply to the right, forcing the cyclist to take evasive action.
The cyclist then moves to the nearside of the vehicle, unclips and has a brief conversation with the driver, who moves the vehicle to the left.
While the general consensus on social media is that the driver deliberately swerved at the cyclist, another explanation could be that he simply did not see him and that the rider overtaking the fan coincided with the van driver deciding to overtake a vehicle in front that may be waiting to turn left into the garden centre, although that is not clear from the footage.
The incident was flagged to Virgin Media by Twitter users this morning and the company requested further details.
If you are the cyclist involved, or know who the rider is, we'd be very interested in learning what the van driver's explanation was.
Hi, Philip. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Can you confirm where and when this occurred, please? ^ZR
— Virgin Media (@virginmedia) August 6, 2017
The episode seems is reminiscent of one we reported on that happened in April in which a van driver in Sussex swerved into a cyclist, forcing him off the road.
The driver was sacked by his employers immediately they became aware of the footage.
> Sussex van driver filmed forcing cyclist off road to appear in court
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.
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138 comments
I wouldn't give them £70 a month, what a ripoff! Think of the interesting things you could go and do with the money.
Life's too short to spend so much of it watching a load of crap on TV ( there's still a load of it available for free with the terrestrial channels).
A general question: How many hours a month do you actually watch? Subtract the adverts. How much actual content are you watching?
Returning to the topic, deliberately endagering a life = dismissal and driving ban. If he did that to a police officer I'm sure it would happen but as he did it to a pleb cyclist the chances are slim.
I think you're on the wrong forum if you want to debate what the poster should / shouldn't subscribe to with his / her own money.
It's only an opinion - just like yours - and Jack has surely been around long enough to know that it's his money, not mine. Equally, you won't get very far trying to make me spend money on satellite or cable TV.
70 quid is for phone, broadband and TV.
I have no TV upgrade options in place.
This money covers most of the entertainment for a family of four and gives me over 100Mbps of internet speed.
This family of four live in the west of Scotland where it rains 75% of the time and is dark after work/school for 40 % of the year. In the bits in between we do lots of stuff outdoors.
Incidentally, I also manage to fit in over 5000 miles of cycling every year.
The ISP alternatives in my area don't offer what Virgin media do. None of the above means I happily give them 70 quid a month though.
I totally agree with Mungecrundle.
From the moment the van driver spots the cyclist the van's movement forwards and to the side are exclusively aggressive and clearly deliberate.
Sacked and charged with at least dangerous driving must be the penalty for this idiot.
Wow!! That's crazy, the driver is so lucky he didn't actually hit the cyclist. Hope he's been fired and had licence suspended for that.
The left block is all too common in stationary or very slow moving traffic. Driver sees bike coming thinks 'no way im letting this fecker pass' and basically kerbs thier car. The usual response is to go right, if safe, as this chap did, usually not followed by a second block/ take outmanoeuvre though! Hope the driver gets his comeuppance.
I tried to watch the video and read the article, but the page keeps auto-scrolling to an advertisement video with sound. Road.cc, you are making your website impossible to use.
There is no way that was anything other than an attack.
Deliberately blocks the left and then swerves violently to the right when the cyclist goes to overtake.
There was a discussion on another thread not so long back about the body language of vehicles. The body language of this van is anger and aggression. There is nothing methodical, just a violent sawing at the wheel in frustration at another road user when the first blocking manouver is thwarted. There is no car in front waiting to turn left, there is no reason visible that the van driver was taking evasive action to avoid something else, e.g debris in the road. To remove all doubt, after the cyclist is in front, just look at the speed the van picks up almost hitting the back of the bike before having to brake hard to avoid the stationary vehicles in the queue of traffic.
I hope all his / her tools fell on the floor, and that a letter from the Police will be landing on the doormat ready for when he / she gets home from their last day at work having been escorted from site after an uncomfortable meeting with HR.
Would the driver pull that stunt on a motorcyclist ? Having watched a lot of YouTube, I'd say it's possible.
Yet they're still the face of Virgin to the man in the street. It should be important to them how these people represent their brand.
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Hmm
I cant believe anyone doesnt think that was completely deliberate by the van driver
its not just the turn to the left or sudden veer to the right, its when the cyclist is trying to then move off, and the van driver is still using their van to intimidate them all that stop start stuff, theres nothing in front of the van at that point to hold it up like that, cyclist took the right choice to stay well clear after that.
But I suspect like alot of tv cable installers they are just subcontracted, they dont work for Virgin directly, even though their van might have the right logos on it.
All the Virgin liveried vans I see around these parts (South Manchester) also include the name "Kelly Communications", part of Kelly Group (kelly dot co dot uk).
Apologies if stated previously. If you use virgin media and you cycle. Stop using virgin media.
And that's why I only use Sky, a media company that invests in cyclists, not tries to kill them...
Think you better google 'Sky team bus close pass'.
No-one likes a smart arse
This is how that conversation went:
Van Driver: "Get on the fucken cycle path, what are you on the road for, road tax blah blah blah"
Cyclist: "Um...?"
Its madness, its honestly insane, why would a human-being try to kill another human-being that happens to be on a bike because they are overtaking them or not using a cycle path or whatever?
The ''law abiding'' driver who's out there dealing out vigilanty justice to cyclists who won't use cycle paths ... You can bet that the driver doesn't go up to people when he doesnt have the size advantage of van vs bike and threaten them when they cross at intersections before they get the green man symbol.
What a douche, does not deserve to be allowed to drive on public roads.
I'd like to believe it was just an accident but it totally wasn't. You don't do a minor swerve left before overtaking. Also look at the vehicle in front of the van, it's way ahead so you would't start over taking there anyway. And finally its such a violent swerve to the right that it can only be either to take the cyclist out, or it's some crazy U-turn manoover which it clearly wasn't.
I know this stretch of road well. It used to be a relatively safe route in and out of south manchester. The local council turned it in to a very dangerous road for cyclists to use. The road was more than wide enough to share with traffic. However the council narrowed the road significantly to add a mixed use cycling path and footpath (on the right and side of the road in the video). The victim in the video would have to cross on coming traffic to get on the path for a few hundred metres only to be deposited into the oncoming traffic when the path runs out. It's impossibly dangerous to use.
Worse still, and I think of rellavance to this situation, is that traffic on this road now expects cyclists to actually use the cycle path. Since it's inception I've been treated to punishment passes and actual verbal abuse directing me to get off the road and on to the cycle path, on a number of occasions. I now avoid this road whenever possible.
By strange coincidence, I rode this very route on my way from the Peak District back home to Liverpool on Sunday. I did exactly this - bottled out on the road so crossed oncoming traffic to get on the shared-path, weaved past the irritated pedestrians/prams/dogs/softball players and then hit the end of the path only to have to cross both lanes again. Waste of time and much more dangerous for all those involved.
why is this being investigated by virgin media rather than the police?
why is this being investigated by virgin media rather than the police?
Maybe it is being investigated by the police. We don't know who the cyclist was (road.cc is asking for them to come forward), so isn't it possible (devil's advocate) that a complaint was already made? Do the police accept "third-party" complaints (ie. from the person in the following vehicle, not the the cyclist)?
And that's why I hope Jeremy Clarkson gets a hospital-acquired infection. Oh come on, it's just a joke like on Top Gear.
What was he supposedly overtaking?
I thought he was looking to do a U-turn actually.
This isn't a motoring offence, it's an assault plain and simple and should be charged as such but add in an 18month ban for good measure anyway.
I hope this cunt gets what's coming to him but sadly unlikely.
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