Sunday 7 February 2010

Incidents of cyclophobia

I sorta think there’s a link between this and this and this:

The cyclist

was travelling from Burnley towards Accrington on the evening of July 3, when Harrison pulled alongside him, sounded his horn and began to shout loudly.

During the incident Harrison came into contact with the victim’s handlebars, forced him to veer on the grass verge, waved a clenched fist towards DI Melvin and shouted: “Get off the road. I will run you off the road. I will kill you. Get off the road.”

He also sounded his horn repeatedly, threw stones and drove straight at the victim from about 10 yards in front of him.

Harrison did not know his victim was a detective inspector and
behaved as he did because his victim was a cyclist.

Although some cycling commentators are outraged this yob wasn’t locked up, I’m inclined to agree with the commentator on BikeBiz who suggested that the most appropriate penalty for the driver would be lots of cycling.

I also agree with all those cyclists who observed that if the cyclist hadn’t been a fellow cop the police would not have taken the complaint seriously, and the CPS would not have instigated a prosecution.