Family nearly killed today

[TwickenhamCyclist]

Hi all
Just had a pretty nasty experience – in the car – I know this is a cycling forum, but I feel I need to share it.

Driving along M4 out of town this morning – with my partner and our three little girls in the car – heading towards M25. Traffic not too heavy, doing close to 70mph in inside lane, Get to junction for Heathrow, I’m in the left lane with little traffic in front. Car about 100m behinds us in middle lane, going at the same speed with a white van and trailer right, and I mean right, up his behind. Lots of traffic joining M4 from Heathrow junction so I move out to middle lane. Van and trailer takes inside lane and underetakes middle lane driver at speed and starts approaching us as traffic joins from left. He nearly undertakes us but doesn’t quite make it as joining traffic blocks him – he breaks a little and moves to middle lane literally inches behind us and starts flashing his lights. By now we have cars joining motorway on left, cars overtaking on right and WMV right up us – I had nowhere to go as cars now in front of us in middle lane as well – very worried about how close he was so I put on my hazard lights – this seemed to really infuriate him – he then went to overtake – very close – straddles middle and outside lanes, forcing outside lane traffic to break heavily and draws up level with us – he was literally standing up in the cab and gesticulating/shouting/going crazy and then violently swerved left into us, clipping our wing mirror – I managed to break and swerve to the left and luckily inside lane car spotted what was happening and swerved into hard shoulder. WVM then carried on intimidating cars in front of us.
It all seemed to be in slow motion and I’s still shocked that we survived it

I can’t emphasize enough that he knew what he was doing and deliberately drove into a car that he could see had a family of five in it.

Have just tried to report it to police - Twickenham station – but they say we have to report it to Heathrow police – who are shut until the morning.

This tosser tried to kill my family today and I know that due to lack of police witnesses no action will be taken againdt his driving – he did however cause minimal damage to our wing mirror – it will cost a few pounds to repaint the scrapes, glass wasn’t broken , so perhaps they might look into it – this is not a dig at the police but it really gets me that someone can attempt to kill me and my family and I can do nothing about it.

It was a white van, with a trailer, at 11.30am reg no: X802 ANU

I’d love to be able to trace the driver just to have a little word with him and perhaps show him a few pictures of the little girls he attempted to kill this morning – little chance of any action being taken, bit I already feel better having written it down

 

[Renard]

I would love to be given 10 minutes with this individual and it wouldn't be so I could lecture him on road safety!

 

[Keith Oates]

Very frightening, TwickenhamCyclist, I hope you follow up with the Heathrow Police and seeing you have the number they could just do something about it. Geting them to have a quiet work with him would also be nice to arrange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MERV]

People are idiots.I always keep this in mind.I saw an incident yesterday on my early morning commute between two cars.I hope you are okay mate.

 

[magnatom]

!

I absolutely hate tailgaters, probably more than I hate any other type of bad driving. I believe the advice if someone does that to you it to slow down so that there is a large gap between you and the car in front, allowing you time (and hopefully them time) to react to what is ahead. Of course that will also slow them down which defeats their purpose.

If I had the cash I'd love to have two cameras in the car (forward and rear). Of course would the police do anything about it....?

Of course, as this happened on the motorway there might be CCTV footage, so report as soon as you can.



Merv,

Just wondering, why have you removed your videos?

 

[MERV]

Merv,

Just wondering, why have you removed your videos?

Closed my account.

They wern't doing the job I hoped they would do.

People seem to think i've been riding for five minutes and don't know f-all.

Im tired of it.Not worth the bother and aggravation.

I have had more serious things to worry about in my life so I really didn't need this.

 

[User482]

Yes, the closer someone drives behind me, the more I slow down.

I was stuck in heavy traffic going north on the M6 on Friday - I stayed on the inside lane for the duration and managed to finish up ahead of the tosser in the BMW who was cutting everyone up, flashing his lights etc. No doubt he'll not learn from his experience.

 

[domtyler]

There are a number of ways of dealing with people like this, all of which require a larger and heavier vehicle than his or some kind of firearm. Failing that, slow down, get out of his way, let him by and note the registration plate, later reporting to the police, who will quietly file it under "Do fuck all about it".

 

[LLB]

Had this yesterday evening riding through Stroud on my m/cycle with my 15 y/o daughter on the back.

Road was empty and had just ridden from Cirencester. Passing through Chalford, I ride through a T junction as an old white Mazda emerges from it on the nearside, and the chavy looking knob driver deliberately rolls out onto the road towards me as I pass him (car had 4 people in it).

I carry on the still empty and mostly straight road dead on the 40mph limit, and he starts to tailgate me very close (within 5ft of the bike). after about 1/2 mile I roll off the throttle to about 35mph and he is still right there, so I roll off again to 30mph.

He backs off a bit but makes no attempt to pass me and drops right back , so I wind back on to 40mph and he starts to tailgate again

He sees a gap and overtakes me accelerating up to about 60mph off into the distance, and then gets stuck in traffic about 1/4 mile further on before turning into a petrol station by the time I catch him up

Flipping hate tailgaters. Especially when on a bike as it is instant death if you get a puncture, mechanical failure, pothole etc etc

 

[bryce]

What an eejit, don't know how I would have reacted if someone had tried that. Definitely worth reporting to the police.

I'm like User482, if someone 'tailgates' me, I'll slow down and also feather the brake pedal. They're usually so far up my bumper that they normally react to the brakelights and back off.

 

[magnatom]

Closed my account.

They wern't doing the job I hoped they would do.

People seem to think i've been riding for five minutes and don't know f-all.

Im tired of it.Not worth the bother and aggravation.

I have had more serious things to worry about in my life so I really didn't need this.

Thats a shame Merv. I really don't think anyone here was getting at you. I think all we want to point out was that your riding works for you as you have a lot of experience. That experience allows you to see trouble before it happens and you can act accordingly.

However, what we did want to point out was that that form of cycling was not recommended for newbie cyclists who don't have your experience and foresight.

Of course it's your choice and if you found it a hassle, then fair enough. Anyway, you don't get anywhere near as much flack as I get!

 

[MERV]

Merv,

Just wondering, why have you removed your videos?

Ironically I have an absolute classic film clip from yesterday.
I was not going to tape but I thought Sunday/Weekend drivers im bound to get something and I wasn't disappointed.


No doubt it was my fault yet again.

I will post it later when it is edited.

However, what we did want to point out was that that form of cycling was not recommended for newbie cyclists who don't have your experience and foresight.

Ok I know it isn't perfect but I thought it was generally how a lot of newbie cyclists cycle.As I said a balance between the two is much better.

 

[fossyant]

Any company decals on the van - complain to the employers - it's taken very seriously in large companies.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Ideally with tailgaters, you want to have a more powerful car than the tailgater - which is rarely a problem as the most frequent tailgaters, in my experience, are White Van Men.

What I do is gradually reduce speed, then accelerate rapidly away. If they do it again, repeat. I don't think I've ever had to do it more than twice before they realise that they will make faster progress by staying a decent distance behind me.

Ben

 

[domd1979]

Tends to be my reaction, though more recently I try to refrain since its got me into hairy situations a couple of times. The worst one (though probably not in the same league as that TwickenhamCyclist encountered) was on the M6 near Stoke. Basically some knob in a Renault people carrier came hurtling up behind me in the outside lane, I was overtaking stuff, but not fast enough for him. Cue full beam headlamps and foglights (it was night time), so I thought "f**k you" and slowed down alongside a truck. Renault man clearly got the message I wasn't amused so he cut across traffic in the middle and inside lane into the hard shoulder, floored it up the hard shoulder, cut back across the motorway, then started to brake waiting for me to catch up. Realising it might turn nasty, I retreated to the inside lane behind a truck, he continued to slow down. At this point not far off J15 so I did a disappearing act off the motorway. It really doesn't take much to upset knobs like this to the point of road rage. Equally I find it really difficult to just sit there and do absolutely nothing in response to tailgating.

Other incident that had potential to get hairy was driving back home in Brum, some tw*t in an MG tailgating, after reacting to that he started to follow me. As I was close to home, I ended up having to keep making random turns, taking a different route rather than let him follow me home. Fortunately he got bored - good job for him, as I was going in the direction of a cop shop.

Also had a WVM experience a couple of year back, after I stuck to 40mph through a 40mph limit through some roadworks on the A38 near Lichfield. After leaving the limit, WVM who'd been glued to my bumper came after me. At the A5127 roundabout at Wall, he tried to cut across me leaving the roundabout but I saw what he was doing and out-accelerated him. But then he overtook and did an emergency stop in front of me before storming off at great speed to the next roundabout and he sat there to wait for me (obvious as there was no traffic). Again I managed to pull off a last minute disappearing act (into Shenstone) to lose him. But, another incident where my only "crime" was sticking to the speed limit.

It's scary to think that we encounter these loons when in cars, let alone cycling.

Yes, the closer someone drives behind me, the more I slow down.

I was stuck in heavy traffic going north on the M6 on Friday - I stayed on the inside lane for the duration and managed to finish up ahead of the tosser in the BMW who was cutting everyone up, flashing his lights etc. No doubt he'll not learn from his experience.