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news
Mellis Road, Mellis, Suffolk (Google Maps)“What the f*** are you doing telling me to slow down?” Road rage driver assaulted cyclist after pensioner waved at him to slow down, handed suspended sentence
A motorist who verbally abused and threatened a cyclist who had waved at him to slow down, before viciously assaulting him during a supposedly chance encounter the following day, has been handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence.
Philip Turvey was driving on Mellis Road, in the small Suffolk village of Mellis on 15 February 2024 when he attempted to overtake a cyclist, who gestured towards him, indicating that he should drop his speed, Ipswich Crown Court was told this week.
After passing the 67-year-old cyclist, Turvey – angered by the gesture – stopped his car 50 metres later, blocking the road. According to prosecutor Godfried Duah, the driver rolled down his window and asked the cyclist: ““What the f*** are you doing telling me to slow down? I’m doing the speed limit.”
58-year-old Turvey then got out of his car and shouted at the cyclist to “come on and fight me”, before swearing at the pensioner and telling him to “go back to Africa”.
The following day, Turvey was preparing to take his dog for a walk when he met the cyclist, allegedly by chance, having parked his car outside his home, the East Anglian Daily Times reports.
As the cyclist left his home, Turvey confronted the 67-year-old, demanding an apology, before shouting and swearing at him once more and grabbing him by the throat.
At that point, the victim threw his bike forward to create space between him and Turvey, making contact with the driver’s car in the process. Turvey grabbed the cyclist’s throat once again, telling him: “I’m going to kill you”.
The 58-year-old then punched the cyclist several times in the face, leaving him with bruising and swelling to his mouth. In a victim impact statement read to the court, the cyclist said he was fearing for his life during the vicious attack.
At Ipswich Crown Court this week, Turvey pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm. He was handed a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to undertake a 20-day rehabilitation activity and 60 hours unpaid work.
He was also banned from contacting the victim for two years and told to pay £250 in costs and £500 compensation to the cyclist.
“This was a road rage incident which shouldn’t have spilled over into the following day,” judge Nicola Talbot-Hadley told the motorist, who claimed the court that he was remorseful and wished he hadn’t behaved in such a manner. Turvey also said that he has now put his house up for sale and is looking to leave the area.
Unfortunately, similar road rage attacks on cyclists – including those who gestured at motorists to drive in a safer manner – are all too common in the UK.
Last year, a female cyclist was assaulted by a motorist in Bristol, who followed her before attacking her and kicking her bike after she gestured for the driver to give her space on the road.
The 20-year-old cyclist was riding on Bristol’s Shaldon Road on 10 April when she attempted to warn the driver of a black Land Rover Discovery that he was driving too closely to her.
The cyclist’s gesture, however, seemingly incensed the motorist – a man in his late 50s or early 60s – who then followed the 20-year-old before getting out of his car and assaulting her.
The man also kicked the cyclist’s bike and shouted obscenities at her during the alarming road rage attack. The motorist eventually drove off after three women came to the victim’s aid.
And in September, a 37-year-old man was arrested and charged with assault following an incident in Edinburgh, the video of which went viral on social media and showed the moment a cyclist was thrown to the ground by a driver who slammed the victim’s head against the road.
> Police make arrest after sickening footage of cyclist slammed to ground by driver goes viral
The video, which was viewed more than 26 million times on X/Twitter the weekend it was posted, shows a cyclist standing front of a vehicle as its passenger remonstrates with him in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
A male driver then got out of the vehicle, before walking up to the cyclist and grabbing both hands around his neck, slamming the rider off his bike and hitting his head against the road.
Afterwards, the passenger and driver returned to the vehicle, which had a learner plate in the front windscreen, while the cyclist was seen holding his head and lying motionless in the road.
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.
Latest Comments
- brooksby 8 min 32 sec ago
Didn't know that, thanks. I wonder whether he also pushed for regulation of sex work…
- brooksby 11 min 14 sec ago
I always find it surprising how little often needs to be changed, to have the bike feel more comfortable. Often literally a case of lifting...
- thrawed 12 min 51 sec ago
For your latter point I'm guessing that the battery requirement to power a light in a flashing mode is quite minuscule compared to powering the...
- Secret_squirrel 23 min 17 sec ago
So... 2 cyclists who were both riding push bikes on the pavement collide and 1 dies and other gets a suspended jail sentence..... Seems a bit...
- Rendel Harris 29 min 16 sec ago
Well, I finally got some response from my repeated requests as to what was happening with the alleged database and was supplied with a link which...
- Hirsute 32 min 13 sec ago
The quote is cannot not were not. As already posted by tom_77 they could be charged with manslaughter
- NickSprink 1 hour 51 min ago
Not sure who is "grinding to a halt" in London. My journey this morning during rush hour from Paddington Station to my office by Trafalgar Square...
- brooksby 1 hour 59 min ago
Thanks - was about to say that.
- Miller 3 hours 12 min ago
Don't buy American.
- brooksby 3 hours 18 min ago
So many motorists don't observe zebra crossings....
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77 comments
At least in Gloucestershire they write the advice down
But they still refuse to tell you what it was?
No they do tell me. This was for my latest close pass.
It was the whole of 2023 that they didn't tell me anything straight away but they did tell me after a year when I asked. Since Feb 2024 they tell me the outcome (NFA, advisory letter or will take action) within a few days but I have to wait a year to find out what action has been taken.
Feedback is brilliant in Gloucestershire at the moment, it's the outcomes for close passes which are the problem. Having to ask for a review to get an advisory letter when it should be an NIP straight away is not really how it should be. I don't know whether it's the law or the training but something needs to change. I did try to get CUK involved but they aren't replying to my emails at the moment.
Please take time to note that he physically struck me as he passed
But were you inconvenienced!
Not at the time. When he stopped though, further up the road to fix his mirror and I caught up, he then tried to weasel his way out with the usual thought there was room and he's a cyclist himself.
I was trying to encourage someone to go ahead and get back on two wheels, and take the positive steps they can to control their own destiny, which includes the controversial step of knowing what is approaching from behind . But ultimately none of us can control what the loonies do, it's a dangerous world. Sorry to hear that you were physically struck.
Oh. I also use bar mirrors which identified the loon pulling in behind the black car. A life saver before entering the crossing confirmed this and then bam. In general motorists are pretty decent. Some loose focus and when confronted are deeply apologetic. Others not so much. Until the judiciary across all 4 nations in the U.K. start handing out more punitive restrictions regarding licenses the better. I once had to listen to someone bang on about the one cyclist a year who receives an 18 month custodial sentence and refused to accept that there are many more motorists out there who receive 20 week community sentences or suspended sentences as well as a 1year ban for killing vulnerable road users.
The one deterrent to people taking up cycling is how hostile and negligent motorists are towards cyclists. It doesn't matter how many measures we take to protect ourselves. Until the attitudes and behaviours of motorists change we will continue to see huge KSIs.
Good to meet another one of the minority! And sorry your precautions didn't keep you safe.
There's an argument for compulsory advanced driver training after a few years of collecting bad habits but it will never happen. Apparently the Do Not Speed lessons used to involve on the road training but it's been reduced to classroom only. That's a shame, it's obviously cheaper but far less educational.
Maybe stiffer penalties would help although as the majority of drivers think they're above average I'm not sure any driver expects to hit a problem.
Good luck out there.
Exactly how is wearing hi vis, being able to see a "loony approaching in advance" and planning a route in advance supposed to stop us from being assaulted?
It isn't. I was responding to someone who is considering getting back on a bicycle but is nervous about it.
Quite a few people I've known, haven't seemed to realise that sometimes "the speed limit" IS too fast
Minimum Speed Limits, isn't it?
That's an appalling case and an extremely lenient sentence given it sounds very like a racially aggravated assault. I assume the attacker is an admirer of Tommy two names.
Presumably this result/judge can be referred for being unduly lenient.
Nope. Under what law?
Unfortunately not, as far as I can see (IANAL) this sentence falls within the sentencing guidance parameters for the offence so no grounds.
Even then you'd struggle. There is no unduely lenient sentencing scheme for crimes below manslaughter and you'd as the victim your have no right of appeal because you're essentially just a witness.
Actually any person, victim or even just a member of the public with no connection to the offence, can ask the Attorney Genertal to review a case under the ULS scheme, and it's not just for crimes of manslaughter and above, drug crimes, fraud and money laundering, some racially and religiously aggravated offences, sexual offences and threats to kill all come under the remit of the scheme. But yes, not for this type of assault, though if the racial element had been included it could have been.
Regardless of discussions on other punishments, how on earth is there not a driving ban.
The goal of jailing someone is protecting the public, which can be achieved here by stopping them getting road rage driving...
I would guess because the original road rage offence would be very hard to prove without video evidence (also I've been told several times by the police and CPS that if there are two offences they prefer just to charge the most serious one), and although the assault clearly followed on from the original incident it did actually occur when the perpetrator was a pedestrian and so much as I agree it would be desirable for him to serve a long driving ban it wouldn't be justified under the law.
This is where the system is broken. The driver has been asked to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activity. This suggests (that without rehabilitation) the court considers him a medium risk of reoffending. We don't actually know what the rehabilitation is for but I'm assuming it's anger management. Firtsly, he should not be allowed to drive until he has completed the course because of the identified risk and once he's completed the course the decision on whether to license him to continue driving should rest with the DVLA. I'm not even convinced that we have a system that joined up enough that the DVLA even know about his mental instability.
He told the victim to "go back to Africa" then came back the next day and beat him up? How is this not racially-aggravated assault??!?!!!
Because cyclist
Telling certain people * to "go back to africa" - even if they didn't come from there - was government policy recently...
Also - perhaps this is just the justice system seeking consistency - if they're not going to lock people up for hitting others with their cars, why should they lock them up for hitting them with their fists?
* Ones without a medical qualification or an invite to study at the University of South Neasden, that is. We probably don't want folks who've overstayed their welcome though (e.g. lingering here after they came over to work post-WW2).
Very strange given that a while ago a white Welsh driver told some white cyclists to "go back to England" or something similar (I think they were actually from mainland Europe) and then drove his car into them and was done for a racist attack.
Good to know that should I want to attack someone, I can wait till he ride his bike and attack him and get away with 20-day rehabilitation activity, 60 hours unpaid work and a 3 digit fine.
Or just run them over with your car. You'll probably walk free.
Sun was in your eyes, momentary loss of concentration or the Scottish, I do not remember...
Frankly, I would like suspended sentences to be modified to being one week in prison and the rest suspended.
I don't want people spending their lives in prison, being further indoctrinated and trained by the range of mindless (and, worse, mindful) thugs that dominate the prison environment. I would rather that a suspended sentence required some active involvement in community-based anger management, retraining (road sense), and worthwhile community contribution than time and lives were wasted.
If prison is necessary to protect society at large, then so be it, but otherwise it is largely counter-productive, expensive, inefficient and poor at addressing recidivism.
Don't get me wrong: when people cut me up, threaten me or assault me, I want to hang them up from the nearest gibbet by what's left of their test tickles after I've repeatedly kicked them there. But that's me, that's revenge; it's not society, and it's not punishment or correction.
That said: that week in prison? That's to let people know what it's really like. Keep out of here, because we only put OCG and unstable people here; either is likely to put your head on a spike while you're still trying to use it.
Meanwhile, I want proper ongoing training to be required to maintain a licence. You have to attend relevant courses, which you must complete satisfactorily to gain the credit, or your licence is suspended. These will include attitudes to other road users, anger management on the road. And satisfactory completion will include an attitude test. Course providers must demonstrate that they don't just pass you when you walk in the room.
When I am world
dictatorpresident, these things shall come to pass, Day 1. And out will go owners with dogs on long/extendable leads. The gibbet is too good them!Not sure tickling is much of a punishment!
The introduction of digital licences does seem to give a way to interface with the car system to prevent banned drivers from driving.
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