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news
Road rage driver tries to ram cyclist off bike (screenshot Kionne Potter)Shocking footage of road rage driver repeatedly trying to ram cyclist off bike
On December 15th last year, road.cc reader Kionne Potter went on his usual one-hour lunchtime training loop, the footage he sent us today shows the shocking road rage attack that followed from a driver who repeatedly tried to ram the West Midlands cyclist from his bike.
The motorist involved admitted driving without due care and received three penalty points and a £100 fine after West Mercia Police downgraded the report from assault to dangerous driving, and then once more to driving without due care, saying there was insufficient evidence for a more severe prosecution.
In his own words, Kionne reacted to the unnecessary dangerous close pass on the A491 Kidderminster Road in Hagley, instinctively throwing an arm up in frustration.
"The motorist then slowed down and as I approached him he wound down his window and shouted abuse at me and instructed me to ‘get off my f***ing bike now’.
"He continued this abuse throughout the incident but you cannot hear most of it. He then deliberately prevented me from getting back into the lane I needed to be in, if I increased my speed so did he and if I slowed down he did also. He made four or five attempts to hit me which I had to avoid and then he tried to pin me into the gutter whilst still shouting ‘get off your f***ing bike now’.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
"When I got in front of him he then tried to hit me from behind, you can hear the car rev hard and hear wheelspin from the hard acceleration, he then made one last swipe to the left before driving off.
"I tried really hard to get away from him but he did everything he could to prevent me escaping. Although the camera got some decent footage it still missed a lot that happened, and because the GoPro Hero 8 is so good at image stabilisation it smooths out a lot of my evasive manoeuvres so it looks a lot less dramatic than it was."
The driver was apologetic once the police were involved, citing relationship problems for his uncharacteristic behaviour, and after the report was twice downgraded by West Mercia Police, he was fined and given penalty points.
road.cc has contacted West Mercia Police for a further comment on the footage.
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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Apologies if this has already been shared but I came across this heartwarming story on the Beeb over Christmas....
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98 comments
I'm not sure what the answer is but I'm pretty sure giving in to bullies is not the way to go. I suspect many Ukranians will agree with me on this one.
There a big difference in getting cut off by a car while riding a bike and to what happening in Ukreane But the point is a car wil always win agents a cyclist You have it on camera just let the driver go and send the footage to the police No need to get hurt or killed because of someones bad driving.
Well I'm sorry to tell you that bullies do win and quite often. Since you brought up Ukraine the UK government has sanctioned a few Russians, but only after giving them 30 days notice - so the bullies win. At the other end of the scale the DWP has sanctioned 50000 universal credit claimants - so again bullies win. Here's a thought experiment, imagine standing up to a bully in a small car, you rant rave etc and then the bully in the small car knocks you off, because they're a bully - you loose. Bullies by definition always pick fights they can win. So my opinion hasn't changed stop and let them sod off.
Of course I agree in principle with what you say but unfortunately it doesn't survive contact with reality.
Sort of. In my experience "Bullies by definition always pick fights they think they can win - or more often where they don't think there will be any resistance". Or more succinctly: "They don't want a fight - they want a win".
The problem is deciding whether it's a) the kind that is "trying it on" and will back down if the threat doesn't work or b) the kind that won't. You also need to be very sure that you can handle any resulting conflict. That means a brutally honest look at yourself and your abilities, and continual practice. If you're on a bike and they're in a car in one sense it doesn't matter. Escalating confrontation will always be a high-risk strategy because of the power inbalance. If it goes badly your grieving relatives will also have a hard time getting any conviction and even if that happens the sentence is unlikely to feel like justice.
Quite agree in the case of Putin and cronies this isn't a good analogy. They possess the resources to beat almost anyone. I've heard analysts say that the regime has painted itself into a corner / burnt their own boats in this case. So no backing down, it's deliver some kind of conquest or fall from power.
Since you bring up Ukraine. What do you think would have happened if sanctions had been used after Crimea? Letting bullies get away with it encourages them to continue.
Caltrops are an effective means of mediation too. Especially at low speed. The springs from old clothes pegs can be a useful tool. Doubles up as a cycle tool and can be used to pick out crud from those hard to reach places.
I don't think stopping to have that fight they're trying to force would be good advice for everyone.
I'd say get off the road, cycle away on the pavement and get as far away from the road and them as possible.
Road CC - you should collate all these incidents and send them to Dominic Raab - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice for judicial review
https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/secretary-of-state-for-justice
Raab? isn't he still trying to figure out where Dover is and what Dover does?
Driving without due care? that was dangerous driving all day long; having said that, I would never try to pass someone that is brake checking.. just dangerous and certain to elevate the road rage.
He wasn't brake-checking me, he was trying to get me to stop. Nothing good would have come from me stopping.
That's nothing! A couple of years ago I was rammed from behind for arguing about a close pass in front of 20+ witnesses. I had no video camera. The police lost my statement and then three months later when they took another, decided the best policy was to get him to write me a letter of apology and buy me a new coat. Here's a picture of him stood over me screaming abuse after he had hit me. The Audi is his, the ladies are protecting me.
its quite simple at this point if the police won't do anything there are other people that will, the police are corrupt here in Canada as well, i've stopped waiting for them and decided to "figure things out myself"
don't interact with them then, you have their license plate, pretty easy to figure out where they live and work...
The UK "justice" system is a complete and utter joke.
Custoldial sentence and a lengthy ban should be minimum for this.
That driver will 100% do this again, until someone is seriously injured or killed.
how to prove deliberate proximity intent; apply contents of water bottle through open drivers-side window.
Should have been a section 59 all day long. Unbelievable, the Police ar shambolic. He must be a mate of a copper.
1) What's the relationship of this guy to the police / CPS? I think we should be told...
2) What additional evidence would be required for "sufficient evidence"? (Presumably a dead cyclist with car-sized tyre tracks across them - although on thinking that doesn't always do it either).
There is something seriously wrong in the UK justice system. In todays Newark Advertiser
A man has been found guilty on two counts of fishing illegally, including netting two critically endangered species.
Graca, 50, was proved guilty in his absence and ordered to pay a total penalty of £861 — a fine of £660, costs of £135 and a victim surcharge of £66.
It's the feudal contruct dating back to the Normans.
Illegal fishing is an attack on the landed gentry's wealth - so attracts a serious punishment.
Hurting a cylist (read serf) is not seen as a serious crime - so attracts a derisory punishment.
its certainly a frustrating outcome, as you are left to feel someones actually tried several times to use their car to injure you, for no reason other than you ride a bike and raised an arm to them, and theyve got a punishment nothing more serious than someone who had maybe a momentary minor lapse of concentration and went slightly over the speed limit.
but I dont see a jury convicting the driver for dangerous driving for that footage alone, and careless driving does account for aggressive driving as a factor, so dont get too hung up on the name of the resultant charge making it sound less than it is, its easily capable of handing out lots of points and large fines if necessary, and thats the letdown really it should have been in the 4-6 points with a bigger fine at the very least IMO.
the thing that strikes me most about encounters like this though, is the driver close passes you, you react understandably by raising an arm or hand it doesnt matter which as it in no way gives license for what happens next. But that triggers the driver in to his anger outburst, which means they were looking in their rear mirror waiting for your reaction, which means the close pass was a deliberate act to try and start a confrontation with you, basically the guy is looking for a fight and using a car to fight you with.
But that part never gets tackled by the police, or the prosecution, or society as a whole, even though its clearly not normal behaviour.
3 points and £100 fine means it was dealt with as a fixed penalty. It should have been sent to court to be dealt with where a the points/fine could have been higher (although that is by no means certain of course!).
Excatly this. This has happened to me a few times. Car aggressivly passes you, usually with excessive revving then cutting in early, then you can clearly see them looking in the mirror for a reaction. That is pre-meditated so should be classed as an assualt. Probably difficult to prove though.
It mentioned that the cyclist raised their arm after the pass, and the driver had stopped to argue/abuse them. Ideally you'd not ever want to be in front of a driver who is annoyed, but then again you just want to get away...
"Shut up and get to the back of the bus, Rosa. You'll only make the white folks hate us even more."
Give your fucking head a wobble.
Yes, actually, you wouldn't remember, being a new name hereabouts, but there used to be this complete arsehole calling himself Nigel Garage on this forum who would whine like a baby about how poor little Tories were the only group it was acceptable to attack and how they were "the most unfairly and viciously vilified group in the country." God he was a whingy little git, glad he's not around any more.
I think incomplete back then, given their subsequent development of the role.
When Boris's new press officer said of him "He's not a complete clown" I sent a polite query asking if that meant he'd had his appendix out. No answer as yet...
Not sure about that but wasn't there some chap who was sanctioned for something (racist / anti-semitic if I recall rightly) who then popped back up with a name like "YouAreAllCyberBullies"?
Still, all for robust good humour!
EDIT: or at least that's the story this website tells - there may be something darker afoot though. I better check for the real truth (alternative facts) on Infowars / RT International etc.
Good grief Loophole, you still here? I expect you have friends that constantly look at their watches when you visit.
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