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Cyclist deliberately knocked off bike by laughing driver (Twitter)Cyclist deliberately rammed by laughing driver “blown away” by public support
An injured cyclist who was deliberately knocked off his bike by a laughing motorist says he has been “blown away” by the public support he has received since the shocking incident.
A GoFundMe page created to raise money for cyclist Mark Rogan, who broke his collarbone in what one local councillor described as a “horrendous attack in broad daylight” in Dundalk, Co. Louth, has already racked up €1,500 in donations in under two days.
Rogan was seen riding through the Irish town, which is located halfway between Belfast and Dublin, at around 3pm on Sunday 27 November when he was struck from behind by a motorist.
In a short clip uploaded to social media at the weekend showing the incident, which also appears to have been recorded by the driver of the vehicle, a voice can be heard saying: “How heartless I am, see him on the bike, look, look.”
As he intentionally steers into the cyclist, the motorist then apparently laughs before saying, “LOL, LOL”.
*Reader discretion is advised, the following footage is shocking and distressing*
@GardaTraffic Castletown Road Dundalk .. Find Him ! pic.twitter.com/uDQDaWdBbU
— Curious Charlie VLC (@Curious_Eire) November 28, 2022
Following the hit-and-run, Rogan, who is in his 50s, was taken to Drogheda’s Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, where he was treated for a broken collarbone and injuries to his arm.
In the wake of the distressing incident, fellow Dundalk resident Graham Donnelly set up a GoFundMe page to help the cyclist, who works in a local takeaway, as he recovers from his injuries. At the time of writing, over €1,500 has been raised by 110 donors.
Donnelly, who doesn’t know Mr Rogan personally, told the Sunday World that he was shocked when the fundraiser was almost immediately inundated with donations from the local community.
“It’s raised over a grand in less than 24 hours. It’s crazy,” he said.
“He [Mr Rogan] was blown away by the response and was very appreciative of it, so it’s gone down well on both ends.
“It shows that there’s more good people than bad in this town by the reaction. People were really quick to rally around and wish Mark the best and slam the actions of this individual, whoever he is. Everybody just can’t get their heads around why someone would do that.
“I’m just blown away by everyone’s reaction. It just shows what kind of town it is. Every town has its bad articles but overall, when something like this happens, people really look after each other in this town. We have each other’s back.”
The deliberate hit-and-run has also been condemned by local politicians.
“It’s a horrendous attack to happen in broad daylight,” Fianna Fáil councillor Sean Kelly (not to be confused with the two-time Paris-Roubaix winner) told the Sunday World.
“It’s a scary prospect for people that are out and about, both on bicycles and pedestrians that are walking on the street, that something like this can happen.
“I wish the gentleman in question who has been injured a quick and speedy recovery. I hope he gets well soon and can get back to work.”
An Garda Síochána has released a statement appealing for witnesses or anyone with information concerning the incident, which took place on Dundalk’s Castletown Road on Sunday afternoon and is currently being treated by Gardaí as “endangerment”.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Dundalk Garda station on (042) 9388400, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.
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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18 comments
To my ears, the driver sounds like a drunken / drugged up moron.
"An Garda Síochána has released a statement appealing for witnesses or anyone with information concerning the incident"
surely this is a cyber investigation? the incident has been posted online, they just need to track down the person who uploaded the footage.
If that doesn't constitute a lifetime driving ban then I don't know what would.
I think driving sentences need to get a lot stricter for acts like this. That person does not belong behind a wheel.
I don't think there is anything that seems to constitute a lifetime driving ban. The closest is one of the those drivers who continues to drive (and fail at driving) even when banned and it just keeps on getting extended.
The courts (in the UK, don't know about Eire) do have the power to impose a lifetime driving ban, but it's very rarely used: according to RoadPeace in 2018 only five lifetime bans were imposed in England and Wales out of 63,342 in total; only one causing death by dangerous driving conviction out of 157 that year got a lifetime ban.
I think what is more worrying in that Roadpeace report was that it showed less bans are being given out as well.
Is that because of a trend of dangerous driving being prosecuted as careless?
They attribute it to less prosecutions on offences which attract an instant ban (Drink Driving because of 50% less breath tests in 2018 then in 2009 (almost like a decling in the amount of officers happened in 2010?)
And the courts not imposing discrentionary bans anymore. Like speeding offences prosecuted in court having less then half banned. As they point out, if it is in court, it is because it was too serious for an FPN /course, or repeat offenders. These bans have dropped from 1 in 18 to 1 in 40.
I didn't realise Parliament in 2018 had discussed instant lifetime bans for Death by Dangerous Driving which started the report linked below. Was that in the papers as much as the Death by Dangerous Cycling discussions were?
RoadPeace calls for greater use of lifetime driving bans, as well as shorter bans - RoadPeace
The new drivers act has an impact on that tho - courts are directed to give points where it would lead to revocation instead of giving a ban.
Theyre also more lenient on speeding. Used to be that around 100 was a sure fire ban , now people at 110 have been given points.
If the biker died- is that murder?
Probably not, murder requires proof of the intention to kill which, disgusting as this behaviour is, probably doesn't apply in this case. Manslaughter, i.e. causing death by reckless, negligent or violent behaviour but without the intent to cause death, definitely.
As I understand it, in Ireland (as in the UK), murder doesn't require intent to kill - intent to cause serious injury is enough. But even that might be arguable in this case - it is no doubt that deliberately knocking someone off their bike is highly likely to lead to some injury, but a good defence lawyer could probably argue convincingly that there wasn't sufficient intent for serious injury.
If you want some light reading, there is detailed discussion here: https://www.lawreform.ie/_fileupload/reports/rmurderandinvoluntaryms.pdf
Yes, sorry, you are quite right. I think (though IANAL) it has to be a form of serious injury whereby the defendant could reasonably be expected to foresee that there was a good chance of the victim dying, e.g. you can't stab someone in the chest and say I was only trying to hurt them, given that any chest wound has the potential to be fatal.
As far as I can see, it's sufficient that the defendant intended to cause serious harm, whether or not they intended or foresaw (or could reasonably be expected to foresee) that harm could be fatal: https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/homicide-murder-and-manslaughter
I think you're correct, thanks – added to the knowledge bank!
"...... cyclist Mark Rogan, who broke his collarbone in the “horrendous attack”."
No; it was broken for him by the callous driver. In these days of sensitive reporting, shifting the blame onto the cyclist and implying that he injured himself is just wrong.
I think it should be "whose collarbone was broken in the 'horrendous attack'.
I'm sure we will have a Cambridge graduate along in a minute (albeit under a new moniker) to correct me.
Thanks for sharing Ryan.