AndyB
New Member
- Location
- Heathrow / Staines
Hi all!
I only ever seem de-lurk and put the effort in when something dodgy happens to me. Things have been nice recently, I have been riding camera free and enjoying not having it for the past month. However that was destined to end.....
Tonight I had a raging Discovery driver jump out ahead of me and punch me in the shoulder as I took evasive action to avoid him. I was doing a decent 22+mph at the time so I really hope it hurt him much more than it hurt me... I have a bruised shoulder but nothing too major. I was very impressed at how solid the old bike is under those circumstances, I don't go down easily, but it could so easily have been a lot worse had I not kept my balance.
Then a completely non stereotypical van driver stopped to see if I was ok and said that he would be happy to be a witness. This was after multiple car drivers ignored my requests for help.
It's hard to keep your wits together when stuff happens like that and I failed to get the number plate due to speaking to the van driver before I had a chance to write it down. I had also ditched the helmet cam for the past month because it's nice not to wear it sometimes. I don't like to feel I am dependent on it. But then I always miss the bloody interesting stuff.
I had tried to be non-confrontational and non-aggressive but still think I increasingly pissed him off by deploying the old smiling, "cheery wave" "thumbs up" "blow kiss" response tactic to his angry shouts of abuse.
The lead up to this was me sprinting off from the lights with a nice tail wind. Tearing along at 30mph, comfortably keeping up with the traffic in front of me, primary position, only about 2metres or so from the car I was following. The short commute means I can really put the hammer down as i head home.
Range rover is now tailgating me, trying to come alongside, but failing as I'm in the centre behind a car doing 30.
Eventually after 15 or 20 seconds the legs are empty and the power tails off.
I move to the left as I slow and he comes past.
He shouts something as he passes so I gave a little wave.
He shouts something else so I do a thumbs up and big smile.
He then went into that eratic phase where they really want slow to stop and jump out but realise you will just go sailing past so they start up again.
He shouted something else so I gave the thumbs up,smile and waved.
Then he drives further ahead up the road where it bends to the right.
He stops in the left lane, gets out with door open blocking the road and stands in the oncoming right hand lane.
In purely self preservation mode I have visions of that copper taking the rider down in the New York Critical Mass... I now want to pass this nutter and be out of his way as quickly as possible so I stomp hard on the pedals and aim for the gap between him and the opposite pavement, completely on the wrong side of the road... wham his fist smacks into my shoulder as I barge through the shrinking gap at 22+mph.
I think, "WTF, woo that's sort of gone a bit far... wow I'm still on the bike"
I stop a good 10-15metres away and wait to see what his next move is. I don't want him driving anywhere remotely near to me at this point and I don't particularly want to get into any sort of dialogue either.
He seemed to have calmed a little at this point and simply shouted "Be a cock all of your life!" as he drove past me and away... I suspect that was his personal motto. I stared at the plate tying to memorise it as he passed but was slightly shocked at being actually punched by this random person.
I asked "did you see that?" to a couple of drivers who did the staring ahead thing as they drove past. I was about to ride off when a van stopped and asked if I was ok. He saw the whole thing and said he wondered what the hell was happening.
He left me his name and number and said he would be happy to be a witness.
I had a rough registration number in my head but nothing that pops up on the askmid or dvla sites. I lots most of the number before I got a chance to write it down or put it into my phone.
However there is a CCTV camera mounted low on the traffic lights at which we were stopped at the start of the incident. We should have passed in full view of that.
I have reported it to the police over the phone and have an incident number. They called back and took extra details. They were very helpful, sympathetic and nice on the phone and said they should be able to get the cctv footage if there is any nearby. They also took the witness details and said they would be in touch shortly to let me know how they will be proceeding.
Sort of wish I had been using the helmet camera, but think maybe I should review the sarcastic wave/smile tactic when dealing with raging nutters driving heavy pieces of machinery?
Hopefully the cctv was working and turns something up.
I'm going to take some photos of the bruise while it lasts just in case they manage to track this guy down.
I'm also gonna put the helmet cam back on charge tonight....
Andy B
I only ever seem de-lurk and put the effort in when something dodgy happens to me. Things have been nice recently, I have been riding camera free and enjoying not having it for the past month. However that was destined to end.....
Tonight I had a raging Discovery driver jump out ahead of me and punch me in the shoulder as I took evasive action to avoid him. I was doing a decent 22+mph at the time so I really hope it hurt him much more than it hurt me... I have a bruised shoulder but nothing too major. I was very impressed at how solid the old bike is under those circumstances, I don't go down easily, but it could so easily have been a lot worse had I not kept my balance.
Then a completely non stereotypical van driver stopped to see if I was ok and said that he would be happy to be a witness. This was after multiple car drivers ignored my requests for help.
It's hard to keep your wits together when stuff happens like that and I failed to get the number plate due to speaking to the van driver before I had a chance to write it down. I had also ditched the helmet cam for the past month because it's nice not to wear it sometimes. I don't like to feel I am dependent on it. But then I always miss the bloody interesting stuff.
I had tried to be non-confrontational and non-aggressive but still think I increasingly pissed him off by deploying the old smiling, "cheery wave" "thumbs up" "blow kiss" response tactic to his angry shouts of abuse.
The lead up to this was me sprinting off from the lights with a nice tail wind. Tearing along at 30mph, comfortably keeping up with the traffic in front of me, primary position, only about 2metres or so from the car I was following. The short commute means I can really put the hammer down as i head home.
Range rover is now tailgating me, trying to come alongside, but failing as I'm in the centre behind a car doing 30.
Eventually after 15 or 20 seconds the legs are empty and the power tails off.
I move to the left as I slow and he comes past.
He shouts something as he passes so I gave a little wave.
He shouts something else so I do a thumbs up and big smile.
He then went into that eratic phase where they really want slow to stop and jump out but realise you will just go sailing past so they start up again.
He shouted something else so I gave the thumbs up,smile and waved.
Then he drives further ahead up the road where it bends to the right.
He stops in the left lane, gets out with door open blocking the road and stands in the oncoming right hand lane.
In purely self preservation mode I have visions of that copper taking the rider down in the New York Critical Mass... I now want to pass this nutter and be out of his way as quickly as possible so I stomp hard on the pedals and aim for the gap between him and the opposite pavement, completely on the wrong side of the road... wham his fist smacks into my shoulder as I barge through the shrinking gap at 22+mph.
I think, "WTF, woo that's sort of gone a bit far... wow I'm still on the bike"
I stop a good 10-15metres away and wait to see what his next move is. I don't want him driving anywhere remotely near to me at this point and I don't particularly want to get into any sort of dialogue either.
He seemed to have calmed a little at this point and simply shouted "Be a cock all of your life!" as he drove past me and away... I suspect that was his personal motto. I stared at the plate tying to memorise it as he passed but was slightly shocked at being actually punched by this random person.
I asked "did you see that?" to a couple of drivers who did the staring ahead thing as they drove past. I was about to ride off when a van stopped and asked if I was ok. He saw the whole thing and said he wondered what the hell was happening.
He left me his name and number and said he would be happy to be a witness.
I had a rough registration number in my head but nothing that pops up on the askmid or dvla sites. I lots most of the number before I got a chance to write it down or put it into my phone.
However there is a CCTV camera mounted low on the traffic lights at which we were stopped at the start of the incident. We should have passed in full view of that.
I have reported it to the police over the phone and have an incident number. They called back and took extra details. They were very helpful, sympathetic and nice on the phone and said they should be able to get the cctv footage if there is any nearby. They also took the witness details and said they would be in touch shortly to let me know how they will be proceeding.
Sort of wish I had been using the helmet camera, but think maybe I should review the sarcastic wave/smile tactic when dealing with raging nutters driving heavy pieces of machinery?
Hopefully the cctv was working and turns something up.
I'm going to take some photos of the bruise while it lasts just in case they manage to track this guy down.
I'm also gonna put the helmet cam back on charge tonight....
Andy B
