Car used as a weapon against cyclist

A CYCLIST who was chased up the pavement by a car, hit three times and smashed into a wall is appealing to find the driver who left him for dead.

Mark Weats (44), of Clipstone, is lucky to be alive following the horrific incident and now wants the culprit brought to justice. 

The dad-of-three was cycling home along Mansfield Road, in Clipstone, when a silver or light coloured car mounted the curb and drove at him. Mark was left unconscious after being hit from behind three times and smashed into a wall. He thinks the attack happened because his bike went over a pot hole and sent a pebble into the car’s wing mirror. 

Witnesses say there was a female passenger in the car filming the attack on her phone. 

Wife Cheri said: “The car went up the kerb and chased him along the pavement 

“He could have died, his eye socket was nearly pulled out. All he can remember is his bike wheel going under the car. 

“He received extensive injuries on his body and face. It’s the emotional side of it which is most difficult, he’s still not sleeping properly because it is mentally draining.

In the courts

British justice, where wearing an offensive T-shirt will get you a longer prison sentence than a road rage driver who assaults an 81-year-old woman.

A thug has been jailed for beating up an elderly woman who told him to watch his language when he swore at her for driving too slowly. Road rage driver Usman Ali Yasin, 30, left Patricia Pearson, 81, with horrific injuries following the attack in June this year. She suffered cuts to her forehead, lips and cheek and told police the attack had left her feeling 'vulnerable'. 

Yasin claimed that the pensioner attacked him and told officers he had been acting in self-defence. He was jailed for 16 weeks yesterday after a trial at Burton Magistrates Court found him guilty of common assault. 

Elsewhere

A man who wore a T-shirt with offensive comments about the murders of Pc Fiona Bone and Pc Nicola Hughes on it just hours after they died has been sentenced to eight months in prison. 

Barry Thew, 39, who has a lengthy criminal record, wore a T-shirt with ‘One less pig: Perfect justice’ hand-written on it the same day the two women police officers were gunned down. 

Thew, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, admitted a Section 4A Public Order Offence (displaying writing or other visible representation with intention of causing harassment, alarm or distress) and was sentenced at Minshull Street Crown Court today. 

Another instance of the British judiciary’s enthusiasm for imprisoning people for expressing offensive opinions is the jailing of Matthew Woods. Nineteen years old, and doing three months for making "grossly offensive" comments about an abducted child. On his own Facebook page.

In the Courts

photo: The Star

The court heard Beckett, of High Street Mews, Mosborough, was “tailgating” other drivers when he came behind Mr Cunliffe, 60, a keen cyclist who was riding his new £2,500 Protec bike at Tinker’s Corner, Sheffield, on March 6 last year. 

Beckett was alleged to have “cut up” the cyclist as he went round a corner and an altercation ensued. Beckett drove on, then got out of his car and stopped the cyclist in the middle of the road before punching him repeatedly. 

The judge added that Beckett had not shown a “shred of remorse” and he clearly suffered from anger management problems. “The only person who doesn’t see it is you,” he said. “You think the whole world is against you.” 

The judge said reports showed he had an “aggressive and provocative” character and found it difficult not to be the person in control. 

No surprise to learn that this driver was a former police officer or that after all his fierce rhetoric the judge then feebly let him walk free from court.

Meanwhile in another court

A 'chancer' who killed four members of the same family when he shunted their car off the road and into a reservoir while rushing to work was jailed for four years yesterday. 

Mechanic Gordon Dyche, 24, had recently completed a driving ban when he tried to overtake two cars in a row on a winding country road because he was worried he would lose pay if he was late. 

Dyche, who had a history of minor driving offences, had completed a three month ban for driving without insurance just three weeks before the accident on the B4518 in April last year. 

So what kind of driving ban do you get for having a history of repeated motoring offences which finally culminates in killing four other road users? You guessed correctly. An insultingly small one. He was banned from driving for four years.

the latest road rage helmet cam film

A VIOLENT thug threatens to floor a cyclist in a terrifying road rage attack captured by his helmet camera.

The footage shows the fuming yob grab the cyclist around the neck before threatening to punch him.

Road rage van driver chased emergency ambulance

A furious van driver trapped a dying heart attack patient inside an ambulance after it clipped his wing mirror because he'd refused to move to let it through.

Dale Barker, 46, had pursued the emergency vehicle for more than a mile to Bradford Royal Infirmary and pulled up so close to the rear doors that paramedics could not open them to get the patient out.

Bradford Crown Court heard that the patient, a 42-year-old man, later died. Electrician Barker, of Bradford, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving last September. During the pursuit, which went on for 1.6 miles, Barker was also said to have followed the ambulance through a red light.

The Honorary Recorder of Bradford, Judge James Stewart QC, told Barker that he had made a stupid mistake. 'I accept that what you did was a momentary lapse,' the judge told him. 'You reacted angrily to the ambulance having struck your wing mirror.'

Barker was made the subject of a 12-month community order, including a requirement to do 150 hours' unpaid work. He was also banned from driving for a year.

Are the Metropolitan Police institutionally anti-cyclist?

You might well draw that conclusion from the scandalous response of the Met to a violent assault on a cyclist.

But then people who report a stolen bike to the Met also aren’t overjoyed by the response.

And let’s not forget the case of the black cab driver who attacked Jared Kelly

The incident was recorded on Westminster council's CCTV cameras but was subsequently deleted, while the police say they have no details of one man who came to Mr Kelly's aid and who offered to be a witness.

Despite the best efforts of the Met and the CPS the cyclist was cleared.

Jenny Jones is a very cogent critic of the Metropolitan Police’s reluctance to enforce road traffic laws in the capital.

Historically, the Met has long incubated petrolhead’s policing.

Incidentally when women were finally allowed to join the Metropolitan Police, this was bitterly resented by the boys in blue. The Met didn’t believe that women should be involved in dealing with real crime so had to find something for these unwanted women to do. This was at the time when only the very rich owned cars, and when cars had running boards. The rich in London were annoyed because street urchins used to have fun jumping on to running boards and hitching a free ride, so the task of the first WPCs was allocated as cracking down on this serious anti-social behaviour which upset drivers.

Not everybody knows that.

Clear remorse

the defendant showed 'clear remorse'

A road rage driver who throttled a cyclist in rush-hour traffic was snared by a video camera on the victim's helmet.

Fuming Michael Stewart, 47, jumped out of his black BMW and grabbed the biker - unaware he was being filmed.

Stewart - of Daven Road, Congleton - pleaded guilty to common assault and driving without due care and attention.

Stewart was ordered to pay a £200 fine and £200 court costs. His licence was endorsed with five penalty points.

He was also given a six-week community order with a four-week evening curfew.

Contrast these two cases

A RENISHAW man has been jailed for six months for threatening a man with a sledgehammer in a road rage incident.

Joshua Denman, aged 25, of Field Avenue, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon.

Denman threatened his victim with a sledgehammer and pushed him to the ground.

A very different result to this case:

he came up to me shouted something abusive about cyclists and pushed me hard so that I fell into the other side of the road and into the path of an oncoming car. I fell onto my right elbow and hip and saw the oncoming car braking hard and stopping around 18 inches from me.

The driver of this car was good enough to stop and leave her details and the police confirmed to me that she had provided a statement indicating that she had seen the assault on me and had to brake hard to avoid hitting me.

The Thames Valley Police investigated including spending 2 ½ hours with me taking a very detailed statement. I showed them where my right elbow was skinned and informed them of the bruising to my right hip. They suggested I went to a doctor which I did the following day. It is clear he did not consider my injuries insignificant and referred me for a hip X-ray.

And the result?

I have this evening received a telephone call from Thames Valley police informing me that a motorist who assaulted me and a friend last week is to be dealt with by way of a police caution.

Car thugs attack cyclist in Ealing

“it all started when a silver car went through red lights and over a zebra crossing:

'' .. the cyclist collided with the side of the car, he knocked on the passenger window and pointed at the traffic light obviously indicating that they were still red and the car should have stopped.

''Immediately, 3 men got out of the car and started aggressively shouting at him and then pushing him, there were 2 white men and one black and the black man headbutted the cyclist, the other 2 then pushed the cyclist on to the corner of Ealing Green and carried on pushing and shoving him, one of the men picked up the cyclists bike and threw it near a tree.

“I shouted out to the men "Oi leave him alone there are 3 of you and only one of him" which made them all turn around and start shouting at me instead.

''The cyclist picked up his bike and left at this point. Then the men all came towards me (the distance to the bus from where they were all standing was approx 5 metres) the largest man was particularly abusive and angry and he shouted "he went into my Missus' car!"

Ealing, of course, is where a murderous thug attacked a police constable and a PCSO with a knife. As Cycalogical points out there was an interesting aspect to that incident which almost the entire media failed to mention.

Police arrest cyclist who kicked sacred object

POLICE are appealing for witnesses and information after a vehicle was damaged in Yeovil.

The incident occurred at around 7 am on Monday, November 29. The driver of a blue Peugeot was travelling alongside a cyclist when it is alleged his vehicle was kicked causing damage.

A man has been arrested in connection with this incident and has been released on bail pending further enquiries.

Road rage in Wanstead

A MOTORIST drove into a group of residents who had confronted him after he sounded his horn continually early in the morning.

An off-duty police officer suffered serious leg injuries after a hit and run incident in Overton Drive, Wanstead.

‘Inhumane’ damage to car by cyclist

According to this driver a cyclist went completely ape for no reason at all. Yeah, right…

When she crossed the roundabout and was in heavy traffic on the other side, he was between her stationary car and the pavement, and she said he cycled in front of her to try to cycle up the middle of the road.

But he fell off, and when Mrs Powell got out of her car to see if he was OK, she says he started shouting at her.

"He picked up his bike, lifted it above his head and threw it down on my car twice."

Mrs Powell watched in shock as the scene unfolded in front of her, and then the man cycled away.

She has been left with a cracked windscreen, smashed front headlight and damaged bumper.

"It was inhumane," she said. "You just can't do these things."

She called the police and was advised that if she saw the man again she should take his photo.

Impatient van driver ran down cyclist on one-way street

A van driver who deliberately ran down a cyclist in a road rage incident has been found guilty of dangerous driving.

Motor mechanic Clive Gillatt, 37, who had been angry at being stuck behind the rider on his bike, swerved to hit him.

Road rage attack on Bath cyclist

A cyclist from Bath was attacked after a row with a motorist over his driving. The attack followed an incident in which the cyclist and a friend on another bike accused the driver of cutting them up on a road in Neston, near Corsham.

The cyclists had been travelling through Neston towards Westwells when, they said, a man driving a red saloon car cut one of them up. A police spokesman said: "An altercation ensued which resulted in the cyclist falling from his bike and then being assaulted by the driver."

Cyclist in Kent shot with air weapon by occupant of white van

A cyclist has received medical treatment after she was shot in the arm by an air weapon.

The woman was cycling on Hastings Road in Pembury near Tunbridge Wells, when she was hit by a small object believed to have come from a small white van at 4.45pm last Wednesday (June 16).

The cyclist said the small white van, possibly a Ford Escort van, was driving through the village away from Hastings Road towards the A21 southbound.

Motorcycling news

A cyclist suffered a broken wrist after a motorcyclist kicked him off his bike.

Police said the victim was cycling along Reepham Road in Briston with a friend when two motorbikes drove past.

One of the riders kicked him and he fell off.

Hatred of cyclists

Is cyclophobia on the increase? It's starting to look that way.

A cyclist is in hospital after a passenger in a passing vehicle is believed to have leaned out and deliberately pushed him off his bike.

Dyfed-Powys Police are appealing for witnesses to the alleged attack at Hundred House, near Llandrindod Wells, on Saturday at about 1545 BST.

It is believed the man was taking part in a time trial on the A481 when he received a broken hip and collar bone.

and

A CYCLIST has described the terrifying moment a motorist drove deliberately into him.

The 47-year-old man from Shoebury, who did not want to be named, was injured after the car hit him as he rode across the junction of Burges Road and Thorpe Hall Avenue, in Thorpe Bay.

He was cycling home from work at about 3.30pm, and said the driver had shouted at him prior to knocking him off his bike when they passed Thorpe Greenways infant and junior schools.

The driver had been following behind him as far as the junction of Burges Road and Thorpe Hall Avenue, where the driver caught the man’s bike with his car.

The cyclist added: “He turned in the road and just came straight at me. He was shouting and screaming at me – he was really going ballistic.

“That is the trouble with being on a bike – it is probably once a week someone gets too close, talking on a phone or not taking notice.”

Only once a week? I’m moving to Shoebury, which is plainly the safest place in Britain to cycle!

SUV driver targeted cyclists in San Francisco

Bill Chidley on Michael Bryant’s killing of Darcy Allan Sheppard

A very thoughtful piece by Bill Chidley on this notorious incident in Canada in which an angry driver killed a cyclist. The driver subsequently turned out to be the former attorney general of Ontario, which is where the killing took place. The Ontario prosecutor had now decided – crikey, what a surprise – that there is no case to answer.

Bill Chidley runs the Moving Target bike messenger blog, which has always featured in my links. I skip Bill when he’s on about the tribal rites of bike messengers but I always snap to attention when he writes about lorry drivers and cycling fatalities. And as far as I know, Moving Target is the only other blog apart from this one which has ever been rude about the London Cycling Campaign. I often wondered why he was nicknamed ‘Buffalo’ Bill but now that the Guardian has published his photograph I understand…

As a cyclist, I am deeply disturbed that Bryant has been involved in what looks to me like a motorised assault, and is facing no charges whatsoever as a result.

A violent lorry driver with an uncontrollable temper

Cox, a lorry driver, drove at Anthony Wearn, 38, running him over and causing "tremendous pain".

Cox, who admitted dangerous driving and criminal damage in Havant, Hants, was also banned from driving for 15 months.