Cyclist vs van driver roadrage Old Kent rd?

[Bicycle]

We could have an endless debate here on the basis of some of the evidence and no input from any of the parties involved.

It certainly looked like disgraceful behaviour from the Transit driver. The swing across into the nearside lane looked aggressive and the failed grabs and swings at the 'target' cyclist were very dangerous.

I thought the taxi driver did well to pull up, stay put and then only move off when it was safe.

In different circumstances this is the sort of thing that would come to court.

As it is we're in a world of If, Maybe and Should Be.

I am a defender of driving standards in the UK, which i think are largely very good. I think most drivers are skilled, courteous and thoughtful most of the time. Having said that, we've all seen spats like this and the huge majority of malefactors go unpunished.

There is an excellent saying in Serbia (which rhymes and scans nicely in their language):

Life's like that,
Bristly and coarse,
But it you shave the bristles off
It's not like anything at all.

That cyclist just came into contact with some of the bristliness and coarseness of life. He needs to move on - and I notice he did, rather quickly!

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

I'm sorry for trying to provide the little help that I thought MIGHT confirm the reg number as at least insured.

**** you for your attitude.

That's normal on here.

 

[stowie]

I hope the Youtube video owner does report this. I don't want to be sharing the road with idiots like this whether I am cycling or in my car.

And road-rage assaults can happen for virtually no provocation. I know - it happened once to me where a motorist ran me off the road after screaming and shouting at me - my contribution to the issue was simply to be on the road in front of him and behind a stationary traffic jam.

 

[Bicycle]

Which is of zero help, what we actually want to know is what the vehicle is. According to askmid it is a FORD TRANSIT 330SWB L/ROOF

This is an extraordinarily discourteous response. I'm not sure why this forum seems to elicit this sort of thing.

 

[Buddfox]

Of course this is speculation, but it looks (to me at least) that the van driver was irritated because he was being held up by the cyclist. The basis for this speculation is seeing the van driver pulling back into the left hand lane just as he becomes visible (I assume having been able to overtake the cyclist - at about 10 seconds in) and the open road in front of him which suggests he might have been able to proceed faster had the cyclist not been there (and we never see if the van was intending to turn left at the junction, as the road markings indicate he should have been, I don't think he's not got an indicator on). But who knows - whatever, it's still not acceptable to respond as he did.

 

[gaz]

I'm sorry for trying to provide the little help that I thought MIGHT confirm the reg number as at least insured.

**** you for your attitude.

I'm sorry that my response has been taken the wrong way, that is not the way it was intended.

and to your last comment, your attitude comes of just as bad as mine was percieved.

 

[mr_hippo]

Looking at the video reminds me of the Ferdinand?Evra incident in thr United - Liverpool match. Without knowing the previous history, it just seems to be one of those comedic collisions between two players but, as we know what happened in the previous match, we can speculate that it was a deliberate attempt to take Suarez out - it was not but, as a United supporter, I may be a bit biased!
The incident in the video may be cycling related or it may nor be - we do not know. I have taken the first 8 seconds off the clip and just used the next 21.3 seconds; first in normal speed, slowed it down to 34.8 seconds and finally to 101.2 seconds and am still at a loss as to why it happened.

It looks as if the first cyclist was the object of the driver's affection, the driver still had the red mist in his eyes when the second cyclist possibly said something to him.

 

[G-Zero]

I think you missed the sarcasm, how can a cyclist door anyone?

Assault with video to back it up and witnesses, whatever happened before is irrelevant and probably unprovable.

Yup.... Straight cough !

Totally missed the sarcasm

 

[marafi]

First the cyclist should of no went close to him in the first place while the driver is already there. This is what we see in the video. Also the cyclist was assaulted by the driver first it would seem. Sadly from the video we can never know the full story unless the driver had his view and the cyclist also gave their responses or their views. This is why i have a camera and worst of it too many incidents happen like this. Especially in East London.

 

[Headgardener]

My take after looking at the sl-mo of mr hippo's is that the dickhead WVM pulled across from the righthand lane and trapped the yellow topped cyclist against the railing. The cyclist looks as if he thumped the van to warn the WVM that he was there and WVM took umbrage at this and we saw the the outcome of that.

 

[growingvegetables]

Yup.... Straight cough !

Totally missed the sarcasm

No worries, mate. My attempt at humour was a bit limp - but yours made me laugh; thank you!

 

[col]

Col, so you think assault is sometimes justifiable and thus shouldn't be prosecuted?
Something made this driver go after someone, what ? we dont know, I was describing the fact that the film is misleading if the cyclist did something before filming started.

Do you accept that if something happened before, that might be prosecuted also, depending on evidence and on what happened?

 

[BentMikey]

As we all know from our experience on the roads, Col, often virtually nothing can make a driver go off on one. Why would you assume that the cyclist did something bad?

Your new goal for this week - make at least three different posts being nice about someone's cycling. Starting today.

 

[jugglingphil]

It's a shame the 2nd cyclist didn't stop, take keys out of van and cycle off (to nearest police station / canal).

I can't think of a just reason to be punched while cycling.

 

[Vikeonabike]

This doesn't even need the victim to come forward. The person who originally videod this could have gone to the police and compined an "affray" had taken place. To me it looked like a random attack on a road user. The OP may have feared that he would also have been attacked!