Police in Northampton have appealed for witnesses after a cyclist was pulled from his bike and attacked by a motorist during a road rage incident in Northampton last week.
Officers say the driver, described as a stocky white man in his late 30s or early 40s and wearing a white vest top and jogging bottoms, punched the cyclist repeatedly in the head following a reported rush hour row on the busy Mill Lane between the suburbs of Kingsthorpe and Dallington.
The cyclist’s bike was also damaged during the confrontation, which occurred around 8am on 15 June.
“Between 7.50am and 8.05am a cyclist was pulled off his bicycle at the entrance of Thornton Park following an incident with the driver of a silver SEAT Alhambra in Mill Lane,” a Northamptonshire Police spokesperson said.
“Once on the ground, the driver got on top of the cyclist and repeatedly punched him, causing minor injuries to both his head and face.
“The bicycle also sustained damage during the incident.
“Officers believe the road may have been busy at this time of day and would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed or captured the incident on dashcam footage to contact them.”
Anyone with information can call Northamptonshire Police on 101, citing incident number 22000343740, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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21 comments
Even if they find a witness they won't prosecute unless they have evidence of who threw the first punch . I was knocked off my bike by a driver and then punched in the head and I had 3 witnesses . They just saw me being punched in the head and not his first punch and they didn't prosecute and said I was lucky I wasn't being charged for damaging his wing mirror
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I have every faith in the police to catch this criminal and to bring the full might of the judicial system to bear on him. After all, they "believe the road may have been busy at this time"
joggers and a vest top....I dont tend to judge people on what they wear but in this case I'll make an exception.
Bonus points if he has LUV and HAT on his knuckles.
Northampton's problems, like many, is that cycle infrastructure is cr*p. This incident took place near a busy junction where cyclists have no choice but chance it and use the roads. I avoid it wherever I can, which is difficult when it's on my commute to the station.
This is not too far from where I live. On Wednesday, I recorded 14 (fourteen!) close passes on my rides within a mile of this location. They'll be loaded up to Northants Police 'Operation Snap' portal tonight.
Northants Police's record on detailing with such reports has historically been awful. I can count on one finger the number times that anything was done. Like many other forces, you had to be knocked off for anything to be done.
But since the updated Highway Code, give credit where it's due, I've noticed that close passes that I've reported are now being dealt with. I've a 90% "success" rate (RT88575 being issued) since the new code was published, and I've certainly noticed many more motorists giving me a much wider berth. Whether that's because the word's got out that close passes are finally being dealt with, or the motoring public has taken in the Highway Code changes, I couldn't possibly comment.
Thousands of years of evolution and all it takes to take us back to the stone age is someome taking another's small piece of tarmac.
It's not, but that ought to be a Hitch-Hikers Guide statement...
I totally agree with the sentiment. It's only socital norms and the force of law and order that keep us in check, most of the time.
See the thug that got out of his car to assault Cycling Mikey in his latest video. We need the police to step up and show that you can't get away with attacking cyclists without paying a personal cost.
(...it's worth pointing out that the stoneage wasn't really a long time ago in evolutionary terms. There has been no evolution in that timeframe. We as a species are exactly the same a stoneage man. If you raised a stoneage child today they would be indistinguishable from anyone else because we are stoneage man. Only mention it as I think that's quite interesting and explains a lot.)
"Officers believe the road may have been busy at this time of day"
Can't have been busy. A decent human being (i'm told some drivers actually are) witnessing this would have stepped in to help and the usual scumbags would have recorded it and put it all over social media.
Someone must have witnessed it.
Yeah, but somebody else's problem, innit...
Was his fist really that close to his face though?
The entitlement of the cyclist wanting to get to work without a bloody nose just seeps through this article.
Honestly, this is just another attack on the poor motorist who simply wants to cause another 1600 deaths this year without judgement while getting more and more tax breaks to keep killing the survivors slowly through pollution and climate change.
Unbelievable.
Well if it was it was only because he chose in his arrogant entitled way to put his face that close to a hardworking fist that was only trying to go about its legitimate business.
This is quite right , frankly I don't think the plod want to be bothered with these pesky cyclists, they actually have the affrontery to take up road space , thus denying the poor motorist a clear track to wiz along unincumberd , after all , motorists are a valuable asset to the treasury, cyclists paying nothing are by that very fact expendable. We do not know what transpired between these two but whatever was said it could not warrant such vicious behaviour, if this individual is caught it almost amounts to a certainty that he will be given a quiet word by Mr plod and told to be on his way and do a better job next time , after all it was only a cyclist.
Scumbag motorists!
Scumbag person. I doubt he is any better when he isn't driving - although clearly he is not of a fit mental state to be in control of a motor vehicle.
Please do remind myself and the many cyclists who also hold a driving license and drive to punch ourselves as we cycle along.
As I saw two yoofs run out of our co-op Monday and jump on bikes with their stolen goods, I thought to myself "scumbag cyclists!"
I suspect Christopher is being ironic to make exactly the same point as you.
Sorry I forgot, there's never sweeping generalisations on here. My bad.
"Why do cyclists use action cameras?" you say?
Ah so the cyclist taunted the driver by wearing a camera so he just had to punch him! The only explanation that makes sense!