Police in Scotland are investigating after the passenger of a passing white van allegedly reached out and punched two cyclists on a rural road before fleeing the scene yesterday afternoon.
Emergency services were called following the incident, which took place on Lunan Bay Road, between Montrose and Arbroath, Angus, at around 2pm on Saturday.
Police Scotland say a man reached out of the window of a small white van as it passed a man and woman riding their bikes on the road, before punching the pair.
The driver of the van then continued towards Lunan Bay following the alleged assault. The condition of the cyclists is currently unknown.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said that officers are “appealing for anyone who may have witnessed this or may have CCTV or dash cam footage around the time of this incident”.
Witnesses are asked to contact police using the reference number CR/0259515/23.
> Car passenger fined for lobbing tub of hair gel at cyclist from moving vehicle
This weekend’s alleged assault is not, unfortunately, the first time that the passenger of a moving vehicle has attempted to confront or harm cyclists on Scotland’s roads.
Earlier this year, a man was fined £200 for hitting a cyclist with a tub of hair gel, which was thrown from a moving vehicle by its passenger.
Following the incident, which took place on the coastal Greenock Road, towards Skelmorlie, in August 2022, 22-year-old Barry McCammond admitted to police that he had “lost his temper” after becoming annoyed that two men who were cycling on the road ahead had continued – albeit briefly – to ride two abreast, and that they were not, in his eyes, “moving fast enough”.
He then leaned out of the open passenger-side window of his mother’s car and threw a small tub of hair gel at them, hitting one of the cyclists in the calf and causing “pain but no injury” to the rider.
> Motorist avoids charges despite swinging golf club at cyclist during shocking road rage attack
Meanwhile in Wales, in October 2022, we reported that an A&E nurse was hurt when she fell off her bike after being pelted with eggs by a car passenger as the vehicle’s driver close passed her at speed.
“It was disgusting behaviour,” Megan Brown said after the attack, which occurred on the Horseshoe Pass in North Wales.
“I was minding my own business when the car came past at speed – it must have been going 60-70mph. I looked down and saw eggs smashing. I lost my balance, swerved, and came off my bike, most likely due to the shock,” she said.
Two weeks earlier, a Yorkshire cyclist said that he could have been killed when a passenger in an overtaking car opened one of the vehicle’s rear doors, hitting him on the hand.
Fortunately, Trev Walker escaped relatively physically unscathed, suffering swelling and bruising to his right hand, but said it “could easily have ended with serious injury or fatality”.
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13 comments
Hitting someone in the calf with a tub of hair gel ... £200 fine.
Hitting someone in the face with a 500ml bottle, thrown from a moving car with no MOT and being captured on HiDef video = "can't remember the incident" and no further action.
Police Scotland... there's a joke.
Prehaps the posters who blame cyclists that challenge bad drivers for subsequent assaults can explain what this couple did to cause the attack!
It'll be the direct and predictable result of Cycling Mikey's crusade against hard working, previously law abiding drivers.
Why is it only drivers are hard workers? If so, why aren't people cycling more, in order to make their jobs easier?
And they're always "previously law-abiding", aren't they?
Just like with anything else so long as there are motor vehicles, there will be thugs and idiots who drive them. Sadly the cities that ban cyclists from their centres don't or won't see that if they were to apply the same logic to their roads to protect the more vulnerable road users they would be banning cars from entire cities.
Small white vans tend to have disproportionately angry drivers in them though.
You’re… not wrong. The most egregious examples of aggression and road rage (not simply bad driving, but bad driving followed by jumping out, fists swinging if anyone dares complain) that I’ve seen in person and online almost always seem to involve van drivers.
I don’t usually like buying into stereotypes, but it does seem that many light-goods vehicle manufacturers are now insisting that potential customers fail an IQ test and be diagnosed with severe anger management issues before they even let them in the showroom.
Put these on X and tag Harper and Sunak, asking how their defence of the poor oppressed motorist is going.
These are hate crimes, just like any other where the person is attacked simply because they have a stereotype.
Unfortunately don't see that changing (even if you could define cyclists like goths). But more importantly we're nowhere further on from our mainly legalistic "each road 'accident' is a unique event" perspective. Supporting that I note the Road Safety Investigation Board is still a notion, a year on.
Don't you come on here with your anti-driver nonsense.
Worse than that - I read over the weekend that propagating "anti British values" might be classified as "extremism", so being "anti driver" might lead to a visit from an anti terror squad...
Priti Patel would have you strung up on Anti-Terrorism offences.