Ah, don’t you just love it when you’re waiting to turn right at a junction, and a motorist chooses to cut the corner, ploughing straight into you, and then, five years later, some so-called ‘media personality’ shares it on Twitter and asks “whose mistake was this”?
> Mechanic escapes driving ban after cutting corner straight into cyclist
That’s the unfortunate internet fate that has befallen poor Michael Rammell, who was struck by a BMW driver while out cycling in Berkshire back in March 2019, luckily only suffering some “bumps, scrapes, and bruises”.
Rammell revealed at the time that he had been bombarded by anti-cycling trolls after sharing footage of the collision, describing it as “quite chilling just how many people have no regard for road safety”.
Well, as they say, those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it, and almost exactly five years after the collision, it’s doing the rounds again, having been viewed a whopping 20 million times since Oli London posted it on Twitter on Saturday, alongside the caption: “Whose mistake was this, the driver or the cyclist?”
Let’s just say some of the replies are… predictable.
“Cyclist. He was supposed to stay single file in his lane,” wrote Robert.
“Cyclists do this to themselves—they think they’re invulnerable to the 2000 pound very fast machines around them, and they want to use the same space as those machines. Their collective sense of entitlement is infuriating,” added another user, perhaps forgetting to note that the motorist in the clip in question certainly felt ‘entitled’ to use the wrong lane while taking a corner.
“I’ll go ahead and piss everybody off by saying 50/50. The cyclist is fault because he was in the middle of the road, rather than the middle of the lane or the outside edge. The car is at fault because they cut the turn too close and entered the wrong lane,” said the diplomatic, but still very wrong, TX Dodge Dude.
Thankfully, others had some sense (a rare commodity on social media these days, mind you).
“How is this even a question? Cyclist never leaves his lane, driver cuts the corner,” noted Glenn, helpfully.
“It’s very clear driver was on wrong side of road,” said the very observant Leilani.
“Car clearly goes into the other lane. Car is in the wrong, all day long,” added Matthew.
Alright, that’s enough of that ‘debate’…
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58 comments
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LOL!
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Gosh, it's been so long, but still you remember the good times that we had together, don't you, Babe. (Although it does rather seem that you have forgotten my name. All men are beasts, aren't they?)
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OK, here goes, by special request and for one night only:
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'A Lay Ba Council. A Laaaaaay Ba Council.'
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Happy to oblige! Regards, FB.
Alas... as the bishop said, my apologies.
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
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By each let this be heard,
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Some do it with a bitter look,
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Some with a flattering word,
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The coward does it with a kiss,
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The brave man with a sword!
... but the smart money just runs it over with a car.
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Nice one, Chris, but don't you be going Wilde with me!
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All in good spirit (unlike some!). 'preciate it.
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Not bad, but IIRC Stephen Fry topped yours when interviewed about his role in an Oscar biopic - "I was born to be Wilde".
Very good, Oscar himself was fond of a pun: he once boasted when giving a talk that he could make a pun on any subject; someone in the audience shouted out "the Queen" and he replied "Oh but of course the Queen is not a subject."
Shame Fry didn't win an Oscar for the film (I've known worse performances win it), he could really have gone to town with the puns then.
Quite possibly, as a Conservative council wouldn't even have trialled an LTN unless some corrupt Big Oil, Big Tech or stupidly rich tw@t businessperson/industriallist/thief had paid them to do so.
Oh, and I'm still a Woke, Snowflake, Left Loser FYI!
You missed out racist and mysoginist from your list of Tory donors.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-68546206
So even Tory MPs agree that at least one of their donors is exactly that.
It's not racism if you do a lot of business in Jamaica, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
In fact, some of my best friends are black.
Good to see LABOUR pull yet another u-turn on something.
As Boris said, they've got more flip flops than Bournemouth beach
Also sorry to hear you're still heading down the rabbit hole of woke leftness, good luck picking up the pieces when you find out what a flop it is.
Can't beat Rhondda Pickering for cutting corners!
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-842-298401
I'd forgotten about that one! Thanks, hirsute!
Regarding the corner cutting...
I think the question to ask is "Would the driver's manouver have resulted in them failing the driving test?"
Given how dangerous it is, I would say "Yes."
In which case, anyone denying it is the driver's fault should burn their own licence.
Ultimately, it is worth considering that if a driver's actions caught on camera (or with other conclusive proof) would result in a failed test... should the law be that they immediately lose their licence?
I also remember this one from a few years ago.
I was legally waiting in the ASZ/bike box to turn right when an approaching tram driver thinks I'm in the way...
https://youtu.be/7mOl-62dSbo
Interesting that the corner cutting tweet replies are full of Yanks pulling their puddings.
at a time when inflation seems rampant in the cycling industry, it's good to know there are still bargains to be had
“Cyclists do this to themselves—they think they’re invulnerable to the 2000 pound very fast machines around them, and they want to use the same space as those machines. Their collective sense of entitlement is infuriating,”
I don't think there's a single cyclist that considers himself invulnerable to the 2000 pound very fast macines* and, yes, as a taxpayer I do feel entitled to use the space that those taxes have paid for. **
* if we were only dealing with vehicles that weighed just 2000lbs (approx 900kg) perhaps we would feel less vulnerable.
** and I am legally entitled to use.
Why are you giving that utterly digusting oxygen thief london publicity?
I've never heard of him. I take it from your comment you wouldn't recommend I spend this afternoon going through his back catalogue?
I've been on the end of that exact corner cutting situation myself a few years ago. Driver (not the car) in question was cutting the corner even more extravagantly and wasn't even looking ahead & only looked up (presumably from his phone) as I began to shout rather loudly having identified the "oh sh1t" moment and realised that as I was at a standstill there was absolutely nothing I could do. I think I got as far as "OH FUUUUUU...." before the impact. Broken ribs & a dislocated shoulder. Fortunately only superficial damage to the bike. Equally fortunately there were witnesses & a passing paramedic and it ended up with said driver going on an awareness course.
How anyone can think that the cyclist is any way at fault beggars belief, but just speaks to the prevailing attitude on the road.
“Cyclists do this to themselves—they think they’re invulnerable to the 2000 pound very fast machines around them, and they want to use the same space as those machines. Their collective sense of entitlement is infuriating,”
Totally arse about face. The car is the invasive species in a public space. When driving we are wanting to use the same space as other, more longstanding and more vulnerable, road users. It's the driver & their car that pose the danger (not the road) - hence the requirement for a licence and insurance, and all that infrastructure that's needed to make roads usable by motor vehicles (the very visible presence of which every inch of the way being what makes the non cycling, non walking, angry drivist belive that "roads are for cars"). The collective sense of misplaced privilege & entitlement.......
The car cutting the corner is a result of the driver looking for the gap instead of the road that they're turning in to (clearly on the wrong side). Had similar nearly happen to me although the driver saw me last minute and had to swerve on to the right side of the road. Clearly in a trance waiting for the gap coming from the opposite direction.
This. People are only looking for other large motor vehicles - that is the "threat" and (human nature) they focus most on that.
How we get beyond that? Perhaps:
a) having an appreciation of the kinds of poor driving which are apparently inevitable (when we have mass motoring) and
b) when designing infra it needs to be very very clear about what to expect where. (It also needs to be standard). Especially where different modes of transport interact. Think level crossings... we've collectively learned the hard way there that you can't be too clear and salient. (We've also increasingly realised that it may be better and even cheaper overall to avoid different modes interacting altogether).
Currently cyclists on the roads are still a very rare occurrence (most places). A proportion of drivers "do not expect..." and some "look but don't see".
Had a mother dropping her precious off at the local school do the same to me. Luckily she pulled up just in time. She then scowled at me until I moved out of the way. Now that's entitlement!
Re cutting corners; never mind it being a problem when on the bike; it's a problem full stop. I can guarantee when I'm out in the car, stopped at a junction, a driver will cut the corner. I blame The Bell End School of Motoring!
Plenty of corner cutting shown in dashcam videos.
Replace the cyclist with a car and driver and no one would be saying the driver was in the wrong place on his side of the road.
All the people saying that the cyclist ought to have been in the middle of the lane, or over to the left (to turn right?) and yet you can guarantee that if the road had been slightly wider then motorists would have been happily waiting side by side to come out of there…
Have you seen Mr Neal's latest cycling video on Youtube.... now we know who runs the school of motoring you name. The bloke has not got a clue!
The obvious fault of the driver cutting the corner, not bothering to look for a cyclist and hitting him was just what happened to me (imagine the cyclist waiting to leave the Sainsbury's exit road in order to turn right onto the main road), except that the offending vehicle was going faster to avoid an oncoming vehicle. I was lucky in being only hit by the offside mirror. The police said 'it was only a momentary loss of concentration-NFA'. So began my headcam career and the increasingly dispiriting dealings with the unapologetically anti-cyclist, pro-motorist LancsFilth
Bywaters Skip lorry driver going through red light in London next to a CSH bike lane, years ago.
https://youtu.be/3hNGrZqAck8
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