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news
Road rage motorist (YouTube/road.cc reader)Road rage motorist who tried to punch cyclist and threw bike fined £600, given six penalty points and ordered to pay for repairs
A cyclist has recalled how he was attacked by a motorist during a road rage incident which ultimately saw the driver arrested and fined after trying to punch the bike rider before throwing his bicycle, causing damage to components.
road.cc reader Mark, who also uploaded the footage to YouTube, dodged punches and grappled with the motorist who tried to take his camera when he realised the attack was being recorded, the incident sparked by the man becoming enraged with the cyclist taking primary position in the middle of the lane at a roundabout to stay visible to other road users.
The driver was arrested later on the same day of the incident, which happened in Tynemouth in September 2019, Mark opting for a restorative justice resolution rather than taking the case to court, the motorist ultimately fined £600, ordered to pay £280 costs for damage to the bike's rear derailleur and bar tape, handed six penalty points, and told to write a letter of apology.
Having pulled over the motorist got out the vehicle and stormed towards the cyclist, asking: "Do you want to go then d******d?" Having missed with a couple of punches the driver then picked up the bike and threw it away.
When trying to justify the attack the motorist then continued: "In the middle of the road? On a roundabout with two lanes? You didn't signal to move over, you didn't signal your intent to go straight ahead..."
The footage then goes shaky for a period of time while the motorist, confronted with the fact their driving and subsequent actions are being filmed, unsuccesfully attempted to take the cyclist's camera.
A couple of passers-by came over to intervene, one of them heard telling the driver "he's allowed to be" when the motorist remonstrated with them about the cyclist being "in the middle of the road".
Recalling the incident to road.cc, Mark said: "I was riding to work, and regularly ride across the roundabout. On a few occasions drivers going west up towards Beach Road have pulled out in front of me on the roundabout, so I make a point of always taking a primary position in order to make sure they can see me.
"On this occasion I could hear a car behind me revving and eventually beeping. I waved at them to make them aware I was holding my line, which no doubt was a red rag to a bull. I proceeded straight across The Broadway only to have the driver follow me and try and ram me off the road as per the video.
"The altercation started, he swung a couple of punches that didn't hit. I span around to dodge them. Once he realised I had a camera on he then tried to rip it off. At this point a couple of other drivers came to my aid."
> Here's what to do if you capture a near miss, close pass or collision on camera while cycling
The motorist was arrested later on, but due to pandemic-related delays a resolution was not found until summer 2020 when Mark opted to "go the restorative justice route" rather than a court appearance.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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55 comments
Hi, I'm Mark, the rider in the video. Firstly thanks for the all the comments, and words of support. To answer a few questions :-
1) The reason for going restorative justice route - The incident happened in September 2019. In January 2020 my wife had an aortic heart valve replacement, we all know what happened in March 2020, and in June 2020 my Father in Law passed away and we ended up having to care for my elderley Mother in Law who has dementia. Needless to say, my hands were full and going to court was the last thing I needed at that time whilst working full time too. If circumstances had been different I wouldn't have needed to think twice about taking him to court.
2) His apology letter - yes, it was a half hearted, half arsed, two line apology. But he was made to do it and I get satisfaction from that along with the fine he had to pay, and the repair costs he also had to pay.
3) My line on that roundabout - We all ride in our own way, especially on roads we know well. As stated in the article, I ride this roundabout regularly, and know from experience that if I'm too far left drivers coming from behind to go straight across will cut across in front of me. You'll never please all the people all the time.
4) Why did I stop - I ask myself that often. In 30 plus years of commuting I've had the odd run in with irate drivers, though rarely do I stop to engage, finding a quick cheeky wink and a kiss blown their way working way better to calm the situation down. But sometimes I do stop, and on this occassion when he asked me if I wanted to go, I assumed he meant for a nice sit down in a local cafe for a good chat about driving standards. Oh how wrong we were.
5) He definitly wasn't local - I've not seen him since, and judging by the state of the inside of his car, poor driving standards and weak misjudged punches, I imagine he has more going on in his head than worrying about bumping in to me again.
Stay safe out there, it's a jungle at times!
I'd have dropped a casual "my name is Ronnie Pickering" in there, then cooly got back on the bike and ridden away.
The driver doesn't sound local. The fact that he didn't land a punch gives it away. He's definately not a Geordie.
Other than rattling through that pothole on the approach, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the cyclists riding.
Headed that way today, thankfully not on the bike. Hopefully the Gibbon in the car doesn't surf.
The other point is that the cyclists here is moving at a fair old speed
And that roundabout is not a huge one
Any driver that thinks he can pass him is intending on going far too fast for the road conditions
In my opinion that driver wanted to be able to pass because he was ENTITLED to pass a lower form of life
I suspect the restorative justive will not work and he will do it again
I just hope I am wrong!
I know it's easy to say now, but I wouldn't have stopped in this instance. I had one the other week with a driver close passing me pointlessly. I then overtook them in traffic then they passed me again and tried to stop me, I just rode around them and left them stopped in the middle of the lane. He'd then seemingly calmed down enough as he drove off normally then. Once they get angry about something, logic just goes out of the window. If they keep following, pull on to a side road or on to the pavement.
Not sure how much of a choice it was to stop - the driver did wedge him into the kerb a bit... Not sure I'd want to get back in front of him after that.
I guess they meant use the pavement.
Not sure id want him behind either.
stopping to have a chat about it is a bad idea & pointless anyway, but where do you go to escape?
I agree with this.So many idiots out there WANTING a confrontation.If possible just get past them/away from them and let them simmer down.
Should have been given a jail sentence. What if the cyclist had been someone that wasn't able to dodge the punches? These driver thugs feel vindicated when they are let off with a fine. If a cyclist had swung punches at a pedestrian, it would have been in all the arsewipe news sites for days crying for a hanging of the cyclist (and all other cyclists for good measure).
I'm pleased this is available to see on video, that angry driver knew he'd messed up as soon as he swung his fists.. and now will be shamed by this behaviour, what a jumped up tosser. Fair Play to Mark.
In no way defending the actions of the driver, a short tempered entitled arse like this is not needed on our road network.
What triggered him? Marks road positioning, when I watch it Mark enters the r/bout from the right hand side of the straight ahead (and left turn) lane (to his right is a full width lane for vehicles turning right), through the r/bout he seems to move further right, the gap between him and the island is reduced and he almost covers the same bit of tarmac as the silver focus in front of him potentially closing down the space occupied by the arsehole behind (hopefully he was planning to turn right from the right hand lane rather than passing Mark on his exit). To me that wasn't riding primary or defensivly it was closer to a "racing line". I see this type of linee being taken by drivers regulary and it suddenly makes the right hand lane feel very claustrophobic
As someone who drives and rides through multiple roundabouts everytime I am out poor lane discipline on r/bouts is not great, pick your (correct) lane and stay in it, no matter what your mode of transport
That's not what I saw, the line he took was reasonable to defend his position going straight ahead. It prevented people going straight ahead overtaking him on the roundabout. There was enough room for those turning right to pass him if safe to do so.
Agreed. Can't see anything wrong with his positioning. It wouldn't have made any difference to the thuggish driver anyway. He should have been locked up.
"Almost" being the operative word. If there were lanes painted on the roundabout they would follow a line just off the Focus' left rear, and at no point does Mark cross that line. Nothing wrong with his positioning in my opinion, to be further left in such a situation can often be taken as an invitation by stupid drivers to try an overtake and left hook to reach the first exit.
Your first paragraph is bang on the money. However it doesn't matter how the victim was cycling the actions of the criminal are the only thing in the video clip worthy of censure, complaint and condemnation.
Completely agree. The driver's actions were appalling but Mark's road positioning and signalling was was terrible and potentially dangerous. The correct lane on the roundabout for straight ahead is the left lane and then a left signal before exiting. He could take up the primary position in that lane without causing inconvenience to anyone. Weaving from lane to lane in any vehicle is going to end badly at some time. I comment as a regular cyclist and driving instructor.
he is in the left lane. The centre of the left lane, but definitely the left lane. He should, perhaps,have signalled just before the turn off (but most drivers don't when going straight on, like he was). Nothing justifies the drivers actions
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/roundabouts.html
Signal left after passing thr previous exit, but to be fair it was likely obvious from road positioning that he was not going round the roundabout. No signal until reaching the previous exit, and lack of a left signal should not cause danger with other drivers, unless they are trying to pass him on his left.
Yes, that is true.
Oh, absolutely. Every time a driver does this to me on a roundabout, I find the logical response is to chase them down and engage in physical violence with them…
Nobody is suggesting otherwise tootsie, we rather we are talking about the first 26 secs or so of the clip, was it good road craft or not.
No amount of primar position is going to allow a rider to control or dominate 2 lanes of a rounsdabout. I believe his position should have been a bit to the left so as to be in control of the lane he is riding in. There is no rear view so we have no idea where the idiot was or where they were going, my suggestion may have led to him being cut off across the nose if the arsehole was also going straight on, but not if he had been heading right
This may or may not be true, but if the agressive driver was planning on turning right, the cyclist was not in his way, and if he was planning on going straight on, then he should not have been attempting to overtake on the roundabout anyway, especially with the silver focus in the right turn lane.
On approach to the roundabout the cyclist is in lane 1 (Left or straight) and does not signal left, so the driver should know he is going straight on.
Was it exemplary cycling? No, I agree he should have been slightly further left. But it was not terrible. I will take up a position to the right of centre on a lane which is left and straight on approach to a roundabout to ensure I do not get left hooked by some driver taking the first exit.
was nothing wrong with the positioning at all imo, how far is your bit to the left, an inch, 6 inches, half a mile ?
its ridiculous to be splitting hairs like this, there is nothing the cyclist did there, that was wrong, to use the correct legalese wording any competent and careful driver should not have had any issue with that at all.
and if you want a quick primer on why riding a bit more to the left on a roundabout is a bad idea, go revisit the driver ploughing into cyclist on a roundabout video from last week https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-30-january-2024-306463
Indeed. Of course the competent and careful driver will also be aware that cyclists may stay in the left-hand lane when they intend to continue across or around the roundabout (Rule 186), and other road users on the roundabout may not be signalling correctly or at all (Rule 185).
Video is pretty much the line I take around one roundabout to take the 3rd or 4th exit. Have to keep a very close eye on drivers in L2 though.
Well, yeah, but cyclists
Please watch the video again and look at the rear left corner of the Focus ahead. Just outside that is where the lane divider would be if there was one. Can you find a single frame of the video where Mark is directly behind the Focus rather than holding position to the left of it? I can't. Alleging that he is "weaving from lane to lane" is just ridiculous.
You comment should have ended at the first 'but', because then you try to justify the drivers actions. Someone used their car as weapon to force another road user into a kerb, then proceeds to swing punches at them, followed by criminal damage to their property. What the cyclist did or didn't do is irrelevant unless they were swinging punches at the driver.
He hasn't done anything wrong. If you think he has you need to revise the highway code.
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