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news
Van driver assaults cyclist in Bristol (Twitter, BBC West)Road rage van driver who assaulted cyclist, knocking him unconscious, handed suspended sentence
A van driver who chased a cyclist before knocking him unconscious in a vicious road rage attack was handed a suspended prison sentence yesterday.
30-year-old Jack Rawlins, who had a previous caution for a similar attack on a cyclist, turned his vehicle around and followed the victim after the cyclist – who had been indicating to the approaching van driver to give him more space on a narrow residential road – was clipped by his van’s wing mirror during a head-on close pass in Bedminster, Bristol in February.
A clip of the incident, captured on the cyclist’s helmet camera and shared online by BBC West, shows Rawlins deliberately driving towards the cyclist on the nearby Weymouth Road a few minutes later, knocking him from his bike.
The painter and decorator, along with a passenger, then got out of the van and punched the victim in the face, knocking him unconscious, before driving off.
The cyclist was left with concussion and severe bruising to his ribs in the assault, and has suffered headaches and breathing problems in the months since the attack.
Rawlins was tracked down through his employer, whose contact details were printed on the van used in the attack, and later admitted to dangerous driving and assault in Bristol Crown Court.
The 30-year-old, who received anger management training as a teenager, told police that he chased the victim to “teach him a lesson” for “punching” his wing mirror.
Yesterday in court, Rawlins was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work, pay £920 in costs and compensation, and undertake an anger management course.
“This is your opportunity to address your anger and find different ways of dealing with it,” Judge Moira Macmillan told him.
Speaking after the sentencing, the victim told the BBC that he continues to cycle, but said that he is now more anxious on the roads and that his wife suffers panic attacks if he returns home late.
The 56-year-old business analyst also noted the dangers of motorists “othering” and dehumanising cyclists on the roads.
“There is a big problem of ‘othering’ of cyclists, they are seen as less than human,” he said.
“If something happens to someone’s car or something, it is seen as more important than the health and wellbeing of the cyclist, which I think is really worrying.
“Any kind of infraction of the Highway Code from cyclists is met with rage from people who may do plenty of things outside the Highway Code as well, but because it’s a cyclist they see that differently.”
> Road rage driver assaults teenage cyclist after clipping him with wing mirror
Two weeks ago, road.cc reported on a similar incident which saw a teenage cyclist allegedly assaulted by a motorist after clipping his wing mirror on a narrow country road.
After hitting the cyclist, the driver – a man reported to be in his 50s – turned his Mercedes around and confronted the youngster.
The motorist then dragged him from his bike and threw him to the ground, before tossing the bike into a nearby ditch and driving away. The teenager allegedly suffered bruising in the apparent road rage-induced assault.
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
- giff77 2 sec ago
I would have expected the organisers when doing their recon to have flagged issues to the road authorities and to have hazards that were concerning...
- OldRidgeback 10 min 11 sec ago
If he'd been able to get hold of one of the rarer five speeds, it would've had a better choice of ratios. You can see it's got proper brakes, a big...
- David9694 20 min 18 sec ago
But whAT aboUT thE disable d? (Foreground left - pretty faded)
- belugabob 28 min 29 sec ago
If that's their bag...
- Rendel Harris 1 hour 28 min ago
On the other hand presumably those hoops are pretty sturdy so they could prove just the ticket for securing one's machine with a U-lock or chain...
- Rendel Harris 4 hours 40 min ago
Wasn't her quote something like "Any man who takes the bus after the age of twenty-five [maybe thirty?] is a failure?...
- andystow 7 hours 30 min ago
Based on my experience with the Hunt wheels, I might do a review on their durability in three or four years.
- Destroyer666 11 hours 57 min ago
"...the beeswax-based covering magically shuns off whatever might be lurking in the corners. Even after multiple rides, when the bars rattled about...
- David9694 13 hours 19 min ago
t-boned
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51 comments
A climate change activist who tied himself to a goalpost at a Premier League football match has been handed a six-week prison sentence.
Seems perfectly reasonable that he ends up in gaol and the oppressed motorist is free to help old ladies across the street.
there are a whole bundle of laws that exist around peoples behaviour near to and in football grounds brought in the 80s and since, that make them alot easier to prosecute for trivial discretions than motorists.
Not disagreeing with the prosecution or ease thereof, simply the disparity in sentencing.
well theyve been using aggravated trespass in that case, which I dont believe can be given a suspended sentence, but remember a suspended sentence is still considered a custodial sentence equivalent to time spent in prison, its just the courts consider it a better path to rehabilitation.
aggravated trespass is normally just a fine, however the individual concerned is a repeat offender (I know what you're going to say) but the football match wasnt their first offence I would guess within a period the court considered relevant to then impose a jail term for this latest transgression
and its not even the only case against them this year as I believe they were due back in court this week (not that would have influenced the sentencing for the football match) for aggravated trespass for the track invasion at Silverstone during the F1 British GP.
On the whole I'm not an advocate of custodial sentences as I would prefer not to spend the tens of thousands of pounds per year it costs to keep someone locked up. However I do see the neccessity of custodial sentences in order to protect the public from pschos like this one. Not a one off "moment of madness", as he had previous. He probably gave some sob story about needing to provide for his family. They would be better off without him. He needs to be behind bars.
Hmmm - looks like his van is out of MOT.
I wonder how an interested person could report an expired MOT van?
Apparently you have to report it as a traffic offence to Avon & Somerset police. Apparently.
I would need to see it out and about though, wouldn't I?
I would need to see it out and about though, wouldn't I?
More side-splitting mirth-inducing comments! You may argue that Lancashire Constabulary is a special case, and other forces cannot compete with Champion Bad Cops UK, but this was first reported over 3 months ago
Apparently it is an offence for it to be anywhere except on a garage forecourt awaiting an MOT test or on his private property. Allegedly.
try this https://www.gov.uk/report-no-mot
I wonder how an interested person could report an expired MOT van?
Report to which authority? If the local police are anything like Lancashire they're completely uninterested in vehicles which haven't had MOT, insurance or VED for over 2 years and which are regularly seen and reported on local roads
You'll be interested to know that I reported a huge SUV/pickup thing that has been parked on my street for three weeks with no MOT to Avon & Somerset police. Got an email back the next day informing me that "there was nothing of interest for them at this time" so they will be taking no further action...
Tyre Extinguishers missed that one when they were in the area last week !
https://www.gov.uk/report-no-mot
https://www.gov.uk/report-no-mot
Not a great addition to the collective knowledge bank! It just tells you report the vehicle to the police. You can see below that Lancashire Constabulary and Avon and Somerset Police immediately consign such reports to the bin- LC is rather more efficient as they don't even consider responding. There are dozens of these around Garstang alone, as a result of active police tolerance. I'm using KT18 ZFC (parks completely onto the pavement as part of the 'Garstang school's out!' almost complete blockage of the main road) just for variety, even though the period without MOT is only 4 months (worthy of a Good Citizenship Award in Lancashire), but I have shown PJ07 NFP below and MV57 GXO is usually parked on the main road at the top of the hill behind the blue Garstang Community Academy sign, at the Old Garstang Police Station
Someone needs to get their money back from his previous anger management course.
How the fuck is that deserving of a suspended sentence, especially when the thug has been cautioned before for a hate attack. This is why c**ts like this feel they can get away with intimidation and bullying. I sincerely hope he either meets a tree at speed, or a cyclist that also happens to be a top MMA fighter. This guy will only learn when he gets a severe beating. If I happen to be in Bristol and see his van about, I shall be giving him a free windscreen wash with my D-Lock.
Cyclists should definitely have number plates so they can be identified!!!
At this rate I think dental records or DNA will suffice
Did he get a driving ban?
If not , why not ?
It's a mandatory minimum 12 month ban with retest and min 3pts, for dangerous driving if convicted.
I also think this is a much better thumbnail for the video than the frame the BBC chose...
The business listing on google was getting hammered with bad reviews yesterday, it's been removed from google today.
The perp has the same surname as the business owners and resides on the same street as the business is registered. So, it's a fair probability that this 30 year old manchild is living with mum and dad. Whether they were just borrowing the van or they work for them is another matter, but disappointing that no driving ban has been mentioned in the reporting.
So with the possibility this individual could still be behind the wheel, this is the area you need to be vigilant around if cycling in Bristol...
https://goo.gl/maps/p8YTM36Hg3bFznjP9
Definitely not the best advert for Bristol Property Maintenance...
google reviews are dreadful for this company , makes you wonder how they get any buisness at all !!
They haven't removed it from Yell.
Wow, is it possible to fake the date of a Yell review? I'd expected a few recent poor reviews, but these two from way back are quite shocking...
Perhaps someone living in Bristol might be tempted to pop round with a few friends for an, ahem, 'educational' visit.
Imagine that was a cyclist who turned their bike round and chased a pedestrian down, before cycling into them, and punching them unconscious.
Do you think the outcome would have been :-
I know what I think
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