Cyclist punched motorist in road rage attack

[Cab]

I cant see why the cyclist attacked the motorist

The news report and the police comment contained therein does not say that the cyclist attacked the motorist. Its a slant put on it by the journalist, without ever saying that such was the case.

 

[hackbike 666]

The news report and the police comment contained therein does not say that the cyclist attacked the motorist. Its a slant put on it by the journalist, without ever saying that such was the case.

hmmm I think I was like some papers journalism,poor wording.B)

 

[Norm]

In my experience cars move a lot more quickly than bicycles and tend to be hard and lethal if you are hit by one so cycling deliberately in front of one is errr....... unlikely in the normal course of cycling.

I've had cyclists appear in front of me, had one just the week before Christmas in full ninja mode at night.

I can't explain why, maybe they have the same "I'm 18 and impervious" attitude which puts so many young drivers into morgues but it does happen.

It pisses me off but not enough to stop, I figure a belief in karma and Darwinism will get them soon enough.

 

[Cab]

Its typical Cambridge Evening News b0110c4$. That paper has a track record of this kind of thing.

See, for example:
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_cambridge/displayarticle.asp?id=458840

 

[hackbike 666]

A cyclist had deliberately rammed his bike into her car causing damage. She looked in her mirror and saw the cyclist speed off back along Garlic Ro w. He was angry because he had to stop and cycle around her car."

Wtf?

 

[Crankarm]

I've had cyclists appear in front of me, had one just the week before Christmas in full ninja mode at night.

I can't explain why, maybe they have the same "I'm 18 and impervious" attitude which puts so many young drivers into morgues but it does happen.

It pisses me off but not enough to stop, I figure a belief in karma and Darwinism will get them soon enough.

You might be right there Norm. I think most drivers would have let it go after the initial shock of braking to avoid a cyclist and let them who ever they were go on their way, fearing a confrontation would be bad news.

Let's face it which car driver wants to get out and have a scrap with a cyclist in snow and ice in temps of -5C or less? They would have to be a real pyshco IMHO. Most drivers have been a model of patience this week.

Perhaps we need Columbo on the case ..........



http://uk.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTf2.../**http://www.tvacres.com/images/columbo1.jpg

 

[GrasB]

My impression of this was something slightly different... there's been history between them & the "cyclist" was actually someone looking to pick a fight with this guy & who happened to be on a bike at that time. The bike is an irrelevance to what transpired but it fits in with an agenda of the journalist, he could have been walking or in another car & something similar would have happened.

 

[JohnCKirk]

It's not directly related to this case, but here are a few blog posts on a similar subject:
http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/use-of-force-1.html
http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/use-of-force-2.html
http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/use-of-force-3.html

Part 1 shows a video (no sound) where a car driver is arguing with a cyclist. The cyclist lifts up his bike, then the driver punches him in the side of his head and pushes him off the road. Based on that, most people assumed that the driver was the aggressor and the cyclist was the victim. Part 2 gives the driver's version of events, which makes him seem a bit more sympathetic (if he's telling the truth). Part 3 gives the result of the court case (where the driver was accused of assault).

Based on that, I'm willing to give the driver the benefit of the doubt in this case. I've read several posts in this forum along the lines of "That driver overtook me with far too little space, so I caught him up at the traffic lights and banged on his window"; if the driver chased after the cyclist, I don't think that automatically means that he deserved to be punched again.

 

[boydj]

We don't know what led up to the start of the incident, but we are told that 'A police spokeswoman said: "We were called following reports that the cyclist cut out in front of the car which forced the driver to brake suddenly. The driver got out of the car and there was an altercation during which the driver was punched in the face by the cyclist.'

For me, a motorist getting out of the car is an aggressive move and is guaranteed to lead to an escalation if the cyclist can't or won't remove himself from the scene asap. So it is no surprise that punches were thrown. For the motorist to then virtually hunt the cyclist down demonstrates that road rage is in full control here - on the motorist's part.

But I don't think that defending yourself should extend to throwing a bike through a windscreen.

 

[Crankarm]

The Cop didn't appear to have been fired though just undergoing pyschiatric treatment. LoL. He was on 'personal' leave.

Similar to the incident in New York IIRC where a cop who was marshalling a Critical Mass stepped out from the kerb deliberately barging off a passing cyclist which was also filmed and put on youtube.

Anyway this is a bit of a distraction to the instant case, but it does show there are thugs every where ....... even bent cops in Toronto prepared to violently assault people. And we have our own cop who barged the old guy walking home through the anti-capitalist demonstration last summer. Anyway totally irrelevant to the instant thread.

If anything it shows just what hostility cyclists have to put up with the world over, well in the developed world, where the car is king.

 

[hackbike 666]

Up da comrades.

 

[gavintc]

For me, a motorist getting out of the car is an aggressive move .

Oh, really, come on, just think this one through,.

 

[snakehips]

All we seem to have is the motorist's view of the matter , taken up willingly by the police and the reporter.
What do we really know from this ?
Motorist takes exception to a cyclist's manouvre , gets out of car to confront cyclist , considers himself to have been hit , follows cyclist for a follow up confrontation.
It would be interesting to hear the cyclist's side of the story.

Snake

My Library

 

[D4VOW]

Very possibly you would. But a) that doesn't make it right - there's rarely a situation so bad that you can't make it worse by losing your rag, after all - and from the report, it sounds like the violence was initiated by the cyclist, right from the start.

I find that very hard to believe considering that for a punch to be thrown the car driver must have forced the cyclist to stop and got out of his own car, most likely initiating the violence only to bite off more than he could chew. I can't think of any other reason to get out of the car, I certainly wouldn't

 

[boydj]

Oh, really, come on, just think this one through,.

Care to elaborate?