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news
Cyclist reaches for driver's phone in road rage attack in Sydney (credit - 7News Sydney)Former Olympic cyclist filmed ‘hitting’ driver and calling her “blind” and “fat” during road rage attack has assault charges dropped
A former Olympic cyclist accused of hitting a female motorist, who had allegedly cut him off, during an expletive-laden tirade has had all charges against him dropped, after a medical report found that he was suffering from PTSD from previously being hit by a motorist while cycling.
68-year-old Tony Lally, who represented Ireland in the road race at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and who now works as a superannuation executive in Australia, had pleaded guilty to common assault and entering a vehicle without the owner’s consent, following the apparent road rage incident in July.
However, on Friday a judge ruled that all charges against Lally would be dropped and that the case would be dealt with under the terms of Australia’s mental health legislation, the Daily Mail reports.
The altercation between the cyclist and the driver took place on 12 July this year on Pittwater Road, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
According to police documents, the motorist, known as Monique, was pulling into a driveway when she cut across and struck Lally, who told officers that he had yelled a warning prior to the collision.
Lally then initially told officers that he had followed the driver to a nearby carpark, where he admitted that there had been a verbal confrontation, but insisted that he did not hit her.
“I didn’t touch her at all. I definitely didn’t touch her,” Lally reportedly said. He then claimed that the driver, who was filming the altercation, had “hit herself” as Lally reached for her phone, which he said was simply an attempt “to get the camera and talk to her”.
However, footage from the driver’s phone shows Lally – who the motorist said had cycled towards her “in an aggressive manner” – leaning into the victim’s car and reaching for her phone.
In the clip, which has been shared by the news outlet 7News Sydney, Lally can be heard shouting, “Are you f***ing blind, are you?” before calling the driver a “fat c***” and telling her, “You pulled right in front of me and nearly knocked me off”.
By the time Lally was charged in relation to the incident 20 days later, footage from his own bike camera had been recorded over.
Despite his initial claims to officers, Lally eventually pleaded guilty to common assault and entering a vehicle without the owner’s consent. A third charge, of stalking or intimidating with the intention of causing fear of physical or mental harm, was withdrawn by the prosecution earlier this year.
In Manly Local Court on Friday, however, the charges were dismissed, with Magistrate Robyn Denes linking Lally’s aggressive reaction to an earlier incident with a driver.
According to the Daily Mail, Denes had disclosed to the court that she was a cyclist, and asked the public prosecutor and Lally’s lawyer if they had any issues with her hearing the case. No objection was tendered.
“As soon as I heard what happened, I asked ‘Has he been hit by a car previously?’ And lo and behold, that is what had happened,” Denes told the court.
According to a medical report seen by the court, Lally suffers from PTSD stemming from a previous collision with a motorist.
Dismissing the charges, Denes said: “This case is quite specific because the offending conduct relates specifically to what happened to you as a cyclist. No doubt you had not envisioned that happening again.”
The judge confirmed that Lally’s case would now be dealt with according to Australia’s Mental Health Act 2014.
However, motorist Monique responded to the judge’s decision by telling the Mail that mental health should not be an excuse for abusive behaviour.
“This was an absolute joke,” she said. “I have been in car accidents and I don’t open people’s car doors and abuse them.
“What about my mental health issues? What about me not being able to go in a lift with men? Struggling when I see cyclists?
“This was handed to them on a plate. There was footage and he pleaded guilty, but instead he walked off.”
Claiming that the news had made her feel like she had been “hit again”, Monique continued: “This was the one chance for the court system to send a message to cyclists that are incognito and are untrackable that if they abuse people there will be repercussions.
“But this is the precedent the court is sending? No wonder there are so many abused women in this country.”
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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30 comments
The first time I punched a driver, they'd just opened their door on my wheel. They were very contrite and I let it pass. I had an astonishing bruise on my chest and arm. PTSD? I learned to expect every car door to open in front of me.
The second time: just one punch to their face , before getting them to agree to go to the police station with me. I'd just been sodomised by my saddle when they drove into my rear wheel (and although I didn't really notice at the time, my frame was wrecked) while waiting at a roundabout. PTSD? I still feel very uncomfortable when I hear tyres skidding near me.
I learned never to do that again, when the police declined to have the driver prosecuted, because they felt that I would also get prosecuted. They persuaded the driver to pay me the value of the frame.
I have been in a worse crash since, but have resisted temptation ever since that second occasion. I've never been belligerent in any other kind of situation, but when you've just been assaulted it's very tempting to lash out.
This is a tricky one. I'm pretty sure I have PTSD (two collisions last year, one where a near miss forced me off the road into a fence, breaking my hand; one T-boned at a roundabout where I had clear right of way, sent flying) and still react very badly to close passes and left-hooking incidents. My usual reaction to these would certainly not be considered within the realms of 'sane' behaviour - usually a loud shout (teacher voice is truly an amazing thing), a wave of the arm and a few hard taps on the helmet "are you out of your mind" etc. etc. If it's really bad and the motorist is not too far, say stopped at lights or pulled over, I might confront them and it's impossible to be level-headed at such times. I'm not proud of it, but I refuse to apologise for being angry that my life is at risk.
However -
- If I committed common assault as a result of a traffic incident (not saying Mr Lally did, but...) would this history exonerate me?
- Should said assault not take into consideration incidents leading up to the point of assault (was the assaulter provoked, were they acting in self-defense or responding to a threat, was there a more egregious incident just before it - i.e. an actual nearly deadly collision with a motor car)?
- Is it fair to those who are victims of actual GBH or emotional distress as a result of assault, to prosecute me for something as relatively small as grabbing a phone and swearing because I was fearful for my life? There are domestic abusers out there walking around scot-free.
Open questions, no answers. I wish that people like me or Tony Lally never had to experience the trauma that led to PTSD symptoms, or had some care that helped us afterwards - but here we are.
I think most of those questions should be raised in the courtroom.
I don't understand the reasoning behind trying to grab a phone as it's hardly self defense and does seem to be more about trying to punish the driver. If an attempt was made to grab the keys, then it could be explained as trying to disarm the driver as they weren't fit to drive.
Every case is taken on it's own merits, so it's impossible to say really. As this incident happened in Australia, it's not going to form any sort of case law in the UK.
Drink driving is an offence, so is taking car keys off a drunk driver ok?
Holding a mobile phone whilst driving is an offence, so is grabbing a phone off a driver ok?
In general, probably not, but it will depend on the circumstances.
I think the judge just tried to equal things out, like a referee missing to spot a penalty (no evidence of the woman's road error) and trying to correct this omission followingly by helping the team that initially was unfair to (no prosecution for the rider). Many will oppose that, but I consider this correct.
So in short words, if you made a mistake on the road and you were close to killing a person but no actual harm you made, don't overload the court system because someone sweared at you and tried to grab your phone, but no actual harm he made. Let's make our life simpler.
I disagree. The police might well take on that kind of thinking as they are trying to restore peace and order, so if they can sort out a situation without creating paperwork, then that's good. Judges and courts are there for enactment of justice and it seems wrong to me that suffering from PTSD can make you immune to prosecution.
There's also the issue that the driver wasn't on trial, so it's wrong for the judge to make a judgement that doesn't allow the driver to make a defence etc.
in the channel 7 news clip guy doesn't even get off his bike so "entering a vehicle without the owner’s consent" would be a bit tricky...yes he stupidly sticks his hand out to grab the phone pointed at him but backs off very quickly...slightly bemused that the driver simply didn't shut the car door and hit the locks when he was approaching if genuinely scared rather than pick up (or continue to hold? )their phone and phone the approach thru the open door...suspect couldn't give a toss driver was very happy to argue their own version of the road rules and enter into an argument that was then continued thru the media and the police....as the old "joke" goes says one driver to the other: "cyclists why are they are always so angry?"
Eh? What's her being a woman got to do with it? Do we have to be nicer to motorists who recklessly endanger our lives when they are female?!
It isn't generally acceptable for men to hit women or did you completely miss out on that in your education?
.
It was a verbal altercation. I would call that a fair response when someone has driven their car into me, regardless of if they are a man or a woman. Personally I don't think fisticuffs in the street is generally acceptable, but you obviously were educated to believe that people hitting people is fine, as long as it's not men hitting women.
She hit him accidentally, for whatever reason or stupidity but the key word is 'accidentally'. I don't call purposefully reaching in and grabbing the phone/hitting her an approriate response, that's called assault where I live and we have little rooms without a door handle on the inside to deal with such yobs.
Althought in all fairness, 'accidentally' is often used as a synonym for 'incompetently'...
There is no mention of anything happening about the initial collision?
> the motorist, known as Monique, was pulling into a driveway when she cut across and struck Lally, who told officers that he had yelled a warning prior to the collision.
Maybe without the cyclist video there was not enough evidence...or maybe if a cyclist behaves badly enough afterwards it excuses anything the motorist has done? Or maybe it hasnt gone to court yet and there will be a follow up coming later.
"Northern Bitches road rage incident" 😉
He should have just grabbed her keys and hurled them to the great beyond.
I'm not sure I agree with just dismissing the case due to mental illness. They should have gone ahead and the sentencing could then take into account the mental illness - that way there's still the sense of responsibility and that justice has been done.
It's possible the process is different under Australian law.
One of the many things to take away from this, is if you ride with cameras, and something like this happens ... download and save the video - or at least the relevant bits.
You need to ensure that you protect yourself - even when you are in the wrong.
"Too vulgar to broadcast" on an AUSTRALIAN TV station?
This is what happens when the magistrate rides a bike.
"However, motorist Monique responded to the judge’s decision by telling the Mail (link is external) that mental health should not be an excuse for abusive behaviour."
But it's perfectly ok for her to hit a cyclist, that isn't abusive at all.
“I have been in car accidents and I don’t open people’s car doors and abuse them."
I wonder why she's been in other collisions?
“What about my mental health issues? What about me not being able to go in a lift with men? Struggling when I see cyclists?"
If, by struggling, she means that she will be actually looking out of that big pane of glass in front of her and making sure that she won't be running over any cyclists, that's a good thing.
It may be me, but there's a big difference between accidentally hitting a cyclist -which seems to be uncontested- and that cyclist purposefully engaging in assault.
Turn the tables for a second and make it the cyclist accidentally hitting the car, then being assaulted by the car driver...everyone would be screaming blue murder.
Like others, I have a problem with the case being dismissed before going to court on so-called 'PTSD' issues. If he's got that short of a fuse then perhaps he shouldn't be riding a bike.
And yes, I've been cut off plenty of times by drivers and got run over once. I do yell but never, ever have I proceeded to reach into a car and try to assault the driver.
You're missing the point, either deliberately or accidentally, I don't know which. A cyclist struck by a car is literally in fear for their life; a driver having their phone grabbed by a cyclist is not. The cyclist is behaving like that because they are frightened shitless and no longer rational, having been thus threatened by drivers a number of times, and their fear is entirely real.
Very few drivers are killed by cyclists; thousands of cyclists are killed by drivers. Equality would be that cyclists are allowed, nay, mandated, to carry a weapon, and to fire it at every driver who threatens their life, with approximately equal chance of either being killed. The number of drivers cutting up cyclists would fall to almost zero.
Are you considering a move to Texas?
Interesting idea but I think the outcome would not be lots of better drivers, it would be lots of dead drivers. Either way it's very tempting though.
Given that he's alive and obviously in good enough shape to launch an attack I very seriously doubt the 'being in fear of his life' part. Had he beaten her to a pulp and thrown away her phone to destroy the evidence, you'd still be pulling this crap out of your tall hat. That sort of reasoning brings you into incompetent sollicitor territory. People that are unable to control themselves should be seing a therapist, not be out riding a bike.
Reading your second paragraph, I think you're beyond help. By all means, stay in the UK, we've got enough unhinged radicals on the continent. BTW: had this happened in a society where carrying firearms is commonplace such as in TX (where I worked for 18 months) let me tell you there's an even chance that the car driver would have pulled a gun the second the cyclist reached into the car.
Also, somehow I don't see cyclists who fret over every gramme carrying an unwieldy firearm that typically weighs between 600-900 grammes when loaded and can only be comfortably carried in a holster.
If someone is prone to fits of anger, then maybe they could do both - see a therapist and ride a bike. Personally, I think it's extremely common for cyclists to react angrily to a potentially life threatening event, but in my experience, all the driver has to do is to appear sorry and acknowledge what they've done and the angry cyclist will calm down. Someone suffering from PTSD shouldn't have to be house-bound, but encouraged to deal with their issues in a non-violent manner.
Just to be clear, I don't think that attacking drivers is of any use to cyclists and even confronting them is usually an exercise in futility - just use a camera and hope you're not in Lancashire or an area that has useless police.
FTFY.
Totally agree with you. From my own experience the times I've been nearly wiped out and the driver is obviously shaken and can't apologise enough I've gone from very angry to calm and collective in seconds. I can accept people make mistakes but not taking responsibility for a mistake that could have killed me is the problem.
True this. It's happened to me on occasion, one time a driver pulled in front of me, I still don't know how I managed to stop; they then pulled in, got out and apologised profusely. Took the sting out of the situation completely, I ended up thanking them for their apology, they said they'd learned a lesson.
Wow, the judge had to declare that she was a cyclist - do judges hearing driving cases have to declare their driving status?!
Sensible outcome, it really shouldn't have got to court. Perhaps if driving offences were dealt with, then these sort of life threatening near-misses would not be so commonplace.
Would be good if they did, and even better if they had to disclose their own convictions.