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news
justice-2060093_1920Driver “used car as a weapon” in road rage hit-and-run attack on cyclist
A motorist was handed a suspended sentence and ordered to pay £250 compensation after deliberately trying to injure a cyclist who he wrongly believed had damaged his car.
69-year-old Dennis Horton, who had previously admitted assault, failing to stop, and failing to report an accident, was adjudged this week to have used his car “as a weapon” against the victim by knocking him from his bike before driving off in an act of road rage.
The incident, which took place in Selly Oak, Birmingham, in April 2020, occurred after Horton had overtaken the cyclist along Oak Tree Lane before stopping at a junction. The court also heard that the cyclist had momentarily ridden in the middle of the lane to avoid debris before Horton passed him.
Prosecutor Jennifer Josephs told Birmingham Crown Court that the victim then passed Horton while he was parked at the junction, and in doing so accidentally brushed the car’s wing mirror with his elbow.
While stopped in front of Horton’s vehicle in the designated bike box, Josephs told the court that the cyclist heard a car revving from behind and “felt a strong blow at the back of the bicycle. He thought the defendant was trying to run him over.”
Footage captured on the victim’s helmet camera showed Horton driving into the back of the cyclist, knocking him from his bike. Horton then reversed his car before driving away from the scene.
According to the prosecution, the impact of the collision caused the car’s front number plate to crack and inflicted an estimated £2,000 worth of damage to the victim’s bike. The cyclist also suffered a sprained ankle and wrist in the incident.
Defending the motorist, Stephen Garbett said that Horton believed that the cyclist had deliberately hit his wing mirror, which caused him to act impulsively and “lose all sense of reason”.
“He considers what happened was stupid on his part,” Garbett said. “He did lurch forward in his car. It was a momentary lapse.”
> Bristol drivers are Britain's worst for road rage, according to new research
Recorder William Davis told Horton: "There was no justification for what you did. He was stationary in front of you, and you deliberately drove into the rear of him. You should consider yourself fortunate he did not receive a more serious injury.”
However, the judge accepted that the road rage incident was an out of character, “impulsive and angry action”.
Horton was sentenced to 27 weeks, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay the victim £250 in compensation.
According to two recent surveys, Birmingham ranks in the top five of UK cities where you’re most likely to experience road rage. In a study funded by comparison site Compare the Market and published this week, 66% of motorists in Birmingham admitted to regularly feeling anger while driving.
A 2017 study found that almost two-thirds of UK cyclists (63 per cent) have experienced aggressive behaviour from motorists, while over half (56 per cent) believe the problem has increased significantly since 2012.
The survey also found that 85 per cent of cyclists were concerned about the behaviour of motorists whilst on their bikes, whereas 94 per cent said they felt safe and confident on the road whilst driving.
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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Seems probably even more appropriate than what I originally intended.
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30 comments
It appears that those of us who haven't been subjected to an attack by a driver using his vehicle as a weapon should think ourselves lucky, because the police and the legal system are clearly not interested in actions to deter that offence. My experience of this has so far been limited to a BMW driver threatening to 'fucking flatten' me and to use his car to knock me off my bike for unswearingly criticising his close passing. Response of Lancashire Constabulary to the perfect video of it all? Words of advice.
just shows how broken road law is...charged with assault and not dangerous or careless driving...great? Dangerous driving would have given a 12month minimum ban or for the lesser charge at least a lot of points and time to reflect at weekends picking up litter or scrubbing graffiti
typically a first time assault with no prior history/good character wouldn't even go to court for a suspended sentence possibly just a caution...so why choose assault and not use the road rules? because its easier? Suspect that the suspended sentence has nothing to do with the assault...its for fail to stop report...
so he drove off (could claim to avoid confrontation) but then failed to report - failing to stop after causing injury then failing to report should have got a disqualifrication and fine or as a minimum a fine and hefty points - but the Recorder gave (just) a short suspended sentence that for someone of good character results in him walking away with no punishment
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/fai...
Suggested new policy; "First offence? Probably get off with crucifixion".
Should be a lengthy ban, followed by a re-test. Appalling driving......
No driving ban, having demonstrated that he is temperamentally unsuited to driving a car? Alrighty then...
Reminder; A lenient sentence or compensation award does not ever preclude civil action.
Last road incident I was involved in, few hundred compo from the criminal courts, significantly more in civil actions.
And the criminal conviction should make the civil case entire about values, because lioability has already been proven.
The biggest cost in most HSE prosecutions is not the fine, but the compensation payments that follow.
Yup, the most likely course is an out-of-court at that point; They can't argue liability, though they (the insurer or employer/company they are working for (there's a difference!)) might try and argue that they aren't liable, but eh, good luck with that one.
They'll try and lowball, but as soon as they get an actual court date - they'll fold.
All the compensation from the criminal case does, in this context, is prove that you're due a proper compensation - it doesn't constitute that compensation.
In other words; Get a bloody camera, it'll pay for itself if it's ever needed.
Most of my riding is on quiet country roads and I experience motorists' aggressive behaviour frequenty. Not every ride, but I'd say one in three or one in four. I'd love to know where the 37% are riding.
DOOR mirror and "licence".
How do you know? Was it you?
WING mirror sir! And furthermore, I challenge you to a duel should you again profess these idiocies on this noble site!
Door mirror. Unless it was a very old car.
Door mirrors are fixed to the door. Wing mirrors are further forward, fitted to the wings and unknown on modern cars.
Source: I work in automotive.
Whats this then?
I think it melted, whatever it was...
Proof that the maxim that italian cars are beautiful but unreliable is no long true? they can now do ugly as well as anyone.
As a keen student of the descriptivist school of modern English grammar, I disagree about your policy on door mirror. Licence I cannot disagree with.
You're going to get yourself sin binned again at this rate. Just let it slide and make more appropriate and worthwhile contributions.
Maybe he prefers hills to die on rather than a featureless plain of misnomers?
HILLOCKS
I wonder if a cyclist who did something similar to a pedestrian would receive such an extraordinarily lenient sentence?
As you imply, they wouldn't. In the eyes of the law, the fact that the weapon is a car makes it a special case.
I find this absolutely disgusting. How much time would someone get for assaulting someone with a hammer/ plank of wood/ nearest thing to hand?
First time and with those injuries? Very similar most likely
No loss of license or extended retest?
Out of character presumably translates as 'first time caught'. Disgraceful
Yep every time a driver is in court for careless/dangerous driving for the first time it's always "out of character" or "a brief lapse in judgement" or "a moment of madness" or whatever excuse they want to dream up at the time, however, I suspect the same as you..... it is just the first time they have got caught.
Seems to me that courts use "out of character" to mean an older white person.
"66% of motorists in Birmingham regularly feel angry when driving."
No surprises there. It is a uniquely awful city to drive a car in, let alone ride a bike in. The last time I rode down Smallbrook Queensway (I think, it was dark and I had been harrowed by car drivers all the way from Solihull) the segregated bike path had speed breakers, on a long downhill, that were no less than 50cm high. What are they making, an MTB jump track?
EDIT: I realise that my last sentence is exactly what someone who has never ridden an MTB would say.
Joke sentence, but not a surprise. See the rant on the forum.