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news
Cyclist pushed off bike and into ditch by car passenger (credit - Olivier van den Bent-Kelly)Female Ironman athlete deliberately pushed off bike by laughing car passenger into a ditch, breaking her collarbone
A female cyclist has suffered a broken collarbone, which will require surgery, after she was pushed off her bike and into a ditch by a car passenger who leant out of the vehicle’s window and shoved her while laughing and jeering.
Katie Good, an immigration lawyer who competes in Ironman and Half Ironman events, was training with friends in Kent yesterday morning, when – according to her boyfriend, fellow triathlete Olivier van den Bent-Kelly – at 11.17am a motorist “deliberately drove behind her”.
In an Instagram post, Van den Bent-Kelly said that one of the people in the vehicle then “leant out the window, and pushed her off her bike, before laughing and jeering at her as they drove away.”
The push forced Good over her handlebars and into a ditch, where she was covered in mud. The cyclist also broke her collarbone in the crash, and she will undergo surgery at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
> Cyclist pushed off bike by car passenger on Irish mountain pass says “they could have killed me”
“To be involved in what is effectively a hit and run incident or assault, and for the culprits to act in such a premeditated, malicious manner is abhorrent,” Van den Bent-Kelly said, in a post which has been shared by Good with the caption “Pretty awful day”.
“I’m furious, upset, and appalled at what happened to her. Cyclists are already vulnerable road users who are frequently unfairly treated by vehicles. To be deliberately targeted in such a way really makes me ask the question: how could aiming for a young, female cyclist in this manner ever be acceptable to anyone?
“The lack of empathy, thought or awareness shown towards Katie and her life really highlights that more drivers need educating on how dangerous their vehicles are.”
> Hartlepool cyclist hospitalised after car passenger pushed him off
He continued: “Maybe if they knew that Katie is a seriously talented athlete: a county tennis player, county hockey player, U23 5K national champion, multiple 70.3 podium-winner, sub 10hr Ironman finisher (on debut), they’d have realised she’s an incredible human with an incredible story, and thought twice about attacking her in this way.”
Van den Brent-Kelly also said that Good was building towards this year’s Ironman World Championships, which will be held in October in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i, but that the injuries she sustained in yesterday’s crash “will impact her build towards that”.
He nevertheless added that, despite the horrifying experience, Good has remained in “amazingly high spirits so far” and that she’s “one tough cookie”.
He also confirmed that the police have been contacted and are currently investigating the attack. road.cc has contacted Kent Police for further information.
> "Reckless" passenger hits cyclist by opening car door as driver overtakes
Unfortunately, Good’s traumatic incident isn’t the first time that cyclists have been targeted by car passengers in recent months.
In January, a man was fined £200 by Kilmarnock Sheriff Court for leaning out of an overtaking vehicle and hitting a cyclist with a tub of hair gel, after becoming frustrated that the cyclists were not “moving fast enough”.
Last September, a cyclist in Yorkshire feared 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” after a passenger sat in the rear of a passing car opened the door into him as the vehicle’s driver passed on the B6248 near Wakefield.
And in April 2021, another cyclist, this time from Ireland, said that the occupants of a vehicle “could have killed me” after he was pushed off his bike by one of its passengers – who later posted footage of the shocking incident, which happened on a mountain road near Dublin, afterwards to social media.
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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41 comments
Debauchery at the TDF?
From what I've read there have been more groupies around the England Cricket Team(s).
I've just ordered a new updated chilli tech camera for 57 quid. Obviously it's not the same quality as a go pro but it'll do for me, and I can use my old chilli tech as a rear camera.
I was put off the Chilli cam by the negative reviews for low light footage - half my year would be in low light.
Otherwise they seem like a really well thought out cycling cameras.
Very true - in daylight it's been great, low light not so good. I'll have to see if the updated one is any better in that respect.
Lowlight isn't great, but usable under street lighting conditions, it's the random file dropouts when it skips creating a new video segment and weird battery life that impacts its usability. Feels like it takes longer to charge than it does consuming the power thesedays.
I like their 5 minute publicity vid, where they've reproduced exactly the same close pass and weather scenario on the same piece of road.
I have a 6 year old RePly bullet cam that I might supplement with a pair of these, as I mainly ride during the daylight.
ALWAYS wear camera's front and back.
DETERRENCE and RETRIBUTION.
Go to it (maybe one day even I will). But...
How will it deter the drivers who didn't even see the cyclist?
Retribution? Will I scare the driver to death if my ghost appears in the footage they recover?
I'm guessing Fignon would know.
One of my favourite cycling party pieces is to bellow (phonetics) at the traffic lights etc.. the reg number of any motor that has wronged me in the moment.
I sound like the crazy man. The naughty driver gets a taste of my endorphin hit. On camera! I then tend to calm down a bit later. And contemplate the SNAP over a cuppa. David Banner would be proud.
Showing your age and entrance to the Marvel Universe there
Cameras don't make cycling safer, however they do make evidence gathering easier should the worse happen. I picked a pair of barely used Cycliq cameras second hand and won't cycle without them. We shouldn't have to worry about such things but we do and while we do riding with cameras is sensible if you can afford to buy a set.
Every cyclist should have front and rear cameras fitted. No excuses. Look at the addition few grams of weight as being a safety aid, rather than thinking that you're so good that the additional weight will slow you down.
Fit lights. Fit cameras. Stop cycling everywhere dressed as a ninja. Most of you aren't that good, and certainly aren't that impact resistant.
I have a front camera fitted, but can't yet afford a rear camera (certainly one that would capture a licence plate and last longer than a few cycles)
Yup - I definitely choose hi-vis clothing when presented with the choice!
I've got front and rear cameras fitted and it makes people notice me, I'll say that. Should I have them on my bike also? It sounds from your post that they'll stop motorists hitting me though so perhaps it's worth it as a "safety aid". If I fit them on a car will it stop other drivers rear-ending me too?
I must admit I was hoping my shinobi shozoku would give me some crash protection, but I think I went to the wrong shop. Turns out I got sold hakama (umanori) and they keep getting caught in my chainrings!
Cameras require a considerable financial outlay, especially ones that give you a better than even chance of actually capturing prosecutable footage. Why should somebody have to shell out three times the price of their bike and go through the rigmarole of charging et cetera in order to pop down to the shops? I use one but I really don't see why every cyclist should feel obliged, "no excuses," to face the expense and hassle. Should pedestrians carry cameras, "no excuses"? They too are at considerable danger from motorised traffic.
A camera is not a safety aid in any way, it assists in getting justice when an incident occurs but it reduces the likelihood of an incident happening not one jot. Camera signs do help deter close passes, in my experience, but that's the only type of bad driving they deter, and even then certainly not in every instance.
I've never heard anybody say that they wouldn't carry a camera because of the extra weight, even some pros in GTs carry cameras for TV footage. People who "Think they are so good" and have expensive race bikes are far more likely to carry cameras, in my experience.
Otherwise, spot on…
Since fitting a very obvious go-pro camera to the back of the rear rack on my commute bike, drivers have clearly been giving me more room when passing; obviously, the yobbo element driving cars with missing or stolen plates won't be bothered about being filmed breaking the law, but they tend not to be driving at the times I cycle commute..
It's not a safety aid.
There is potential if sufficient people have cameras as the risk of being caught could act as a deterrent. However, until such a critical mass is reached, it's just evidential
Then you have the issue of grassing from drivers who don't like being held to account.
CCTV doesn't deter the habitual criminal, and wearing cameras while cycling won't remediate the shitty driver. footage of people doing Bad Stuff are worthless when there's no enforcement.
There is enforcement if the police force acts on the footage. Then if you have sufficient cameras, it will deter some but not all ( the shitty driver as you describe).
It's not nothing but I suspect not much. Sadly I think there's a lot of incompetent - or at least "temporarily overloaded" - driving on the roads. That even affects some of the actually "shitty drivers" (e.g. deliberate negligence to outright malevolence).
It's more difficult to deter that which wasn't (fully) intended.
A positive suggestion for increased safety - promote conditions which reduce the chances of deliberate AND incompetent crashes, and work to minimise the harm where it will still be a risk. Then after / in parallel with that add extra cameras and enforcement.
There is enforcement if the police force acts on the footage
Except they don't. This is the one where LancsFilth are refusing to say what happened to the driver (very likely because it was nothing at all and they're trying to cover that up). Case still going on at the Information Tribunal
https://upride.cc/incident/4148vz_travellerschoicecoach_closepass/
And this is a similar one the other day, encouraged by the police refusing to do anything about close-passing. They ignored the report as usual.
https://upride.cc/incident/n300bra_bradshawscoach_closepass/
I caught up with the coach 4 minutes later
Eh? The if was a very deliberate choice.
There are some forces who do take action. But we lack a national standard for evidence and acceptable evidence and national standard of appraisal of incidents.
There seems no way to make some forces actually do their job.
No excuses? Really?
Being able to cycle in security without faffing around with cameras and stuff should be a given.
So if I cycle without a camera and am involved in a collision, then it's my fault? Really?
That's not what he wrote; stop with the 'don't blame the victim' nonsense; it's just common sense to take steps to be as safe as possible when riding in traffic.
Not even on Halloween?
Every cyclist should have front and rear cameras fitted. No excuses
Or, alternatively, think 'b****r off, pillock'. I don't need to proffer excuses to the likes of you.
It takes two people to do this, 1) the passenger leaning out of the window and 2) the driver for facilitating .
Both should be charged as if these injuries were caused by any other assault. GBH sounds appropriate.
Chance of police action? near zero
I hope she heals up ok. I'd like to think the thug that assaulted her will be caught but I doubt he will.
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