A Cycling & bikes forum. CycleBanter.com

Go Back   Home » CycleBanter.com forum » Regional Cycling » UK
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

“There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old January 18th 21, 01:12 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 542
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

“There are no winners” says a road.cc reader who was left with permanent scarring on his arm after a van driver deliberately knocked him off his bike in a hit and run incident – with the motorist receiving a six-month ban from driving and a hefty fine just in time for Christmas. In this guest blog post John, the cyclist involved, recounts the incident and its aftermath, which he also filmed in this video.

I’m presenting this story here in the hope that the message eventually gets out to drivers that cyclists are dangerous, that they carry cameras and are not afraid to submit footage to the authorities, and that sometimes the authorities actually do take action and that the consequences can be costly.

This incident occurred in July 2018 and concluded with a court appearance and guilty plea by the driver last week.

I feel awful for the guy, no licence, possibly leading to loss of his job and a considerable fine issued by the magistrates at a time when finding a new job and spare cash is not exactly easy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m satisfied that the incident was handled by the police and that due process has now been served.

For what it’s worth, and I appreciate that some may accuse me of letting the side down, I did ask the barrister for the prosecution at court that if possible I would be happy without a driving ban being imposed, she thought he would be lucky not to receive a custodial sentence. All for a few moments of uncontrolled anger and stupidity.

It happened on my afternoon commute home and came quite out of the blue. At the time I only carried a rear facing Fly6 but the back facing video pretty much speaks for itself.

There was no previous interaction with the driver, I was consistently riding secondary position and there is no issue with visibility. The road here is quite wide enough for safe overtaking and is a 30mph zone despite being designated as an A road, I’ve ridden this same route pretty much daily for over 20 years.

The incident should have been no more than your standard No-vertake, approaching a pedestrian crossing at red with cars waiting for the lights to change.

Initially the van starts with a decent wide overtake but then starts pulling in towards me, pushing me towards the curb (sic) and the side road, which was not an option due to a car coming from the left.

The van got to within a few inches of my bar end and was still angling into the curb so the rear panel got a single open handed slap, which you can hear on the video. We were both going pretty slow at that point due to the stationary traffic at the lights ahead and the situation was not particularly threatening.

The van stopped and as I passed I muttered “Bit close, Matey”, again you can hear this on the video, no expletives, no verbal interaction with the driver, I didn’t even give him a glance.

As I go ahead of the van, you can see how close to the curb (sic) it is. My line is just to the right of the points on the zig zag lines, an old motorcyclist habit to avoid white lines and the van door/wing mirror is well inside that line with the van still angling somewhat into the kerb.

Thinking no more of it and with the lights having turned green I moved off following the cars ahead - at which point the van comes up alongside me and is then deliberately driven into me, catching the bar end and causing me to fall towards the side of the van and into the road where I picked up some reasonably photogenic road rash to my elbow and knee.

A little up the road, the van came to a stop before accelerating away at speed. The passenger of a following car came to my assistance and provided a witness statement that I recorded on my phone.

Police were pretty good about it, came to my house for a statement a few days later and took a copy of the video. Not super prompt, but they had been dealing with a fatal RTC on the other side of town that same afternoon so I was small potatoes in the grand scheme of people having a bad day on that particular day.

The police interviewed the registered keeper of the van and he admitted being the driver that day, claiming that there was a verbal altercation but backtracking when he was shown the video.

The legal process ground on, Covid came and delayed everything but eventually a court date was set.

The driver initially pleaded Not Guilty which meant I had to attend St Albans Magistrates' Court which I was not particularly looking forward to - but on the day he changed his plea and I ended up spending a rather dull afternoon in the witness room without ever having to actually go into the courtroom.

I wouldn't really hold that against him particularly. The law seems to be more of a game and victims, witnesses and accused are the playing pieces. I expect his lawyer recommended that he plead not guilty up to the day just in case the witnesses decided not to turn up, but then change his plea once we did and still get the benefit of doing so in the sentencing. Maybe they also made a deal with the prosecution over the two dismissed charges?

The defendant pleaded guilty to the following charge:

Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road/in a public place without due care and attention

The following two charges had no evidence offered and were dismissed:

Driver of a vehicle fail to stop after a road accident
Driver of a vehicle involved in a road accident fail to report that accident

The sentence was as follows:

Fined £180
Court costs £620

Disqualified for holding or obtaining a driving licence for 6 months. Discretionary disqualification. Driving record endorsed. Section 34(2) Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

Thanks to: PC Alex Wheeler - Hertfordshire Constabulary

https://road.cc/content/blog/there-a...cyclist-279663
Ads
  #2  
Old January 18th 21, 01:32 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
JNugent[_13_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 250
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On 18/01/2021 12:12, wrote:
“There are no winners” says a road.cc reader who was left with permanent scarring on his arm after a van driver deliberately knocked him off his bike in a hit and run incident – with the motorist receiving a six-month ban from driving and a hefty fine just in time for Christmas. In this guest blog post John, the cyclist involved, recounts the incident and its aftermath, which he also filmed in this video.

I’m presenting this story here in the hope that the message eventually gets out to drivers that cyclists are dangerous, that they carry cameras and are not afraid to submit footage to the authorities, and that sometimes the authorities actually do take action and that the consequences can be costly.

This incident occurred in July 2018 and concluded with a court appearance and guilty plea by the driver last week.

I feel awful for the guy, no licence, possibly leading to loss of his job and a considerable fine issued by the magistrates at a time when finding a new job and spare cash is not exactly easy.


That's very magnanimous of him, but *if* the van driver deliberately
knocked him off his bike (as is asserted above), then a six month
disqualification sounds like a remarkably light penalty.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m satisfied that the incident was handled by the police and that due process has now been served.

For what it’s worth, and I appreciate that some may accuse me of letting the side down, I did ask the barrister for the prosecution at court that if possible I would be happy without a driving ban being imposed, she thought he would be lucky not to receive a custodial sentence. All for a few moments of uncontrolled anger and stupidity.

It happened on my afternoon commute home and came quite out of the blue. At the time I only carried a rear facing Fly6 but the back facing video pretty much speaks for itself.

There was no previous interaction with the driver, I was consistently riding secondary position and there is no issue with visibility. The road here is quite wide enough for safe overtaking and is a 30mph zone despite being designated as an A road, I’ve ridden this same route pretty much daily for over 20 years.

The incident should have been no more than your standard No-vertake, approaching a pedestrian crossing at red with cars waiting for the lights to change.

Initially the van starts with a decent wide overtake but then starts pulling in towards me, pushing me towards the curb (sic) and the side road, which was not an option due to a car coming from the left.

The van got to within a few inches of my bar end and was still angling into the curb so the rear panel got a single open handed slap, which you can hear on the video. We were both going pretty slow at that point due to the stationary traffic at the lights ahead and the situation was not particularly threatening.

The van stopped and as I passed I muttered “Bit close, Matey”, again you can hear this on the video, no expletives, no verbal interaction with the driver, I didn’t even give him a glance.

As I go ahead of the van, you can see how close to the curb (sic) it is. My line is just to the right of the points on the zig zag lines, an old motorcyclist habit to avoid white lines and the van door/wing mirror is well inside that line with the van still angling somewhat into the kerb.

Thinking no more of it and with the lights having turned green I moved off following the cars ahead - at which point the van comes up alongside me and is then deliberately driven into me, catching the bar end and causing me to fall towards the side of the van and into the road where I picked up some reasonably photogenic road rash to my elbow and knee.

A little up the road, the van came to a stop before accelerating away at speed. The passenger of a following car came to my assistance and provided a witness statement that I recorded on my phone.

Police were pretty good about it, came to my house for a statement a few days later and took a copy of the video. Not super prompt, but they had been dealing with a fatal RTC on the other side of town that same afternoon so I was small potatoes in the grand scheme of people having a bad day on that particular day.

The police interviewed the registered keeper of the van and he admitted being the driver that day, claiming that there was a verbal altercation but backtracking when he was shown the video.

The legal process ground on, Covid came and delayed everything but eventually a court date was set.

The driver initially pleaded Not Guilty which meant I had to attend St Albans Magistrates' Court which I was not particularly looking forward to - but on the day he changed his plea and I ended up spending a rather dull afternoon in the witness room without ever having to actually go into the courtroom.

I wouldn't really hold that against him particularly. The law seems to be more of a game and victims, witnesses and accused are the playing pieces. I expect his lawyer recommended that he plead not guilty up to the day just in case the witnesses decided not to turn up, but then change his plea once we did and still get the benefit of doing so in the sentencing. Maybe they also made a deal with the prosecution over the two dismissed charges?

The defendant pleaded guilty to the following charge:

Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road/in a public place without due care and attention


OK

The following two charges had no evidence offered and were dismissed:

Driver of a vehicle fail to stop after a road accident
Driver of a vehicle involved in a road accident fail to report that accident


Dismissed (because effectively withdrawn)? OK.

The sentence was as follows:

Fined £180
Court costs £620


But... there's nothing there to justify an assertion that the collision
was caused deliberately (as is claimed at the top of the report).

DWDCAA is specifically not a charge of deliberate damage or injury. And
it rarely leads to a disqualification on the basis of one instance. This
must surely have been a totting up matter, with the endorsement points
reaching twelve? For a deliberate collision one would expect a charge of
dangerous driving.

Disqualified for holding or obtaining a driving licence for 6 months. Discretionary disqualification. Driving record endorsed. Section 34(2) Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

Thanks to: PC Alex Wheeler - Hertfordshire Constabulary

https://road.cc/content/blog/there-a...cyclist-279663

  #3  
Old January 18th 21, 10:18 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Mike Collins
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 817
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On Monday, 18 January 2021 at 12:30:07 UTC, JNugent wrote:
On 18/01/2021 12:12, wrote:
“There are no winners” says a road.cc reader who was left with permanent scarring on his arm after a van driver deliberately knocked him off his bike in a hit and run incident – with the motorist receiving a six-month ban from driving and a hefty fine just in time for Christmas. In this guest blog post John, the cyclist involved, recounts the incident and its aftermath, which he also filmed in this video.

I’m presenting this story here in the hope that the message eventually gets out to drivers that cyclists are dangerous, that they carry cameras and are not afraid to submit footage to the authorities, and that sometimes the authorities actually do take action and that the consequences can be costly.

This incident occurred in July 2018 and concluded with a court appearance and guilty plea by the driver last week.

I feel awful for the guy, no licence, possibly leading to loss of his job and a considerable fine issued by the magistrates at a time when finding a new job and spare cash is not exactly easy.

That's very magnanimous of him, but *if* the van driver deliberately
knocked him off his bike (as is asserted above), then a six month
disqualification sounds like a remarkably light penalty.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m satisfied that the incident was handled by the police and that due process has now been served.

For what it’s worth, and I appreciate that some may accuse me of letting the side down, I did ask the barrister for the prosecution at court that if possible I would be happy without a driving ban being imposed, she thought he would be lucky not to receive a custodial sentence. All for a few moments of uncontrolled anger and stupidity.

It happened on my afternoon commute home and came quite out of the blue.. At the time I only carried a rear facing Fly6 but the back facing video pretty much speaks for itself.

There was no previous interaction with the driver, I was consistently riding secondary position and there is no issue with visibility. The road here is quite wide enough for safe overtaking and is a 30mph zone despite being designated as an A road, I’ve ridden this same route pretty much daily for over 20 years.

The incident should have been no more than your standard No-vertake, approaching a pedestrian crossing at red with cars waiting for the lights to change.

Initially the van starts with a decent wide overtake but then starts pulling in towards me, pushing me towards the curb (sic) and the side road, which was not an option due to a car coming from the left.

The van got to within a few inches of my bar end and was still angling into the curb so the rear panel got a single open handed slap, which you can hear on the video. We were both going pretty slow at that point due to the stationary traffic at the lights ahead and the situation was not particularly threatening.

The van stopped and as I passed I muttered “Bit close, Matey”, again you can hear this on the video, no expletives, no verbal interaction with the driver, I didn’t even give him a glance.

As I go ahead of the van, you can see how close to the curb (sic) it is.. My line is just to the right of the points on the zig zag lines, an old motorcyclist habit to avoid white lines and the van door/wing mirror is well inside that line with the van still angling somewhat into the kerb.

Thinking no more of it and with the lights having turned green I moved off following the cars ahead - at which point the van comes up alongside me and is then deliberately driven into me, catching the bar end and causing me to fall towards the side of the van and into the road where I picked up some reasonably photogenic road rash to my elbow and knee.

A little up the road, the van came to a stop before accelerating away at speed. The passenger of a following car came to my assistance and provided a witness statement that I recorded on my phone.

Police were pretty good about it, came to my house for a statement a few days later and took a copy of the video. Not super prompt, but they had been dealing with a fatal RTC on the other side of town that same afternoon so I was small potatoes in the grand scheme of people having a bad day on that particular day.

The police interviewed the registered keeper of the van and he admitted being the driver that day, claiming that there was a verbal altercation but backtracking when he was shown the video.

The legal process ground on, Covid came and delayed everything but eventually a court date was set.

The driver initially pleaded Not Guilty which meant I had to attend St Albans Magistrates' Court which I was not particularly looking forward to - but on the day he changed his plea and I ended up spending a rather dull afternoon in the witness room without ever having to actually go into the courtroom.

I wouldn't really hold that against him particularly. The law seems to be more of a game and victims, witnesses and accused are the playing pieces.. I expect his lawyer recommended that he plead not guilty up to the day just in case the witnesses decided not to turn up, but then change his plea once we did and still get the benefit of doing so in the sentencing. Maybe they also made a deal with the prosecution over the two dismissed charges?

The defendant pleaded guilty to the following charge:

Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road/in a public place without due care and attention

OK
The following two charges had no evidence offered and were dismissed:

Driver of a vehicle fail to stop after a road accident
Driver of a vehicle involved in a road accident fail to report that accident

Dismissed (because effectively withdrawn)? OK.
The sentence was as follows:

Fined £180
Court costs £620

But... there's nothing there to justify an assertion that the collision
was caused deliberately (as is claimed at the top of the report).


In which case the driver is clearly incompetent and should have his driving privileges revoked until he receives extensive retraining. 500 hours with a court appointed instructor at his own expense would seem appropriate.
  #4  
Old January 18th 21, 11:18 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
JNugent[_13_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 250
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On 18/01/2021 21:18, Mike Collins wrote:

On Monday, 18 January 2021 at 12:30:07 UTC, JNugent wrote:
On 18/01/2021 12:12, wrote:


“There are no winners” says a road.cc reader who was left with permanent scarring on his arm after a van driver deliberately knocked him off his bike in a hit and run incident – with the motorist receiving a six-month ban from driving and a hefty fine just in time for Christmas. In this guest blog post John, the cyclist involved, recounts the incident and its aftermath, which he also filmed in this video.

I’m presenting this story here in the hope that the message eventually gets out to drivers that cyclists are dangerous, that they carry cameras and are not afraid to submit footage to the authorities, and that sometimes the authorities actually do take action and that the consequences can be costly.

This incident occurred in July 2018 and concluded with a court appearance and guilty plea by the driver last week.

I feel awful for the guy, no licence, possibly leading to loss of his job and a considerable fine issued by the magistrates at a time when finding a new job and spare cash is not exactly easy.


That's very magnanimous of him, but *if* the van driver deliberately
knocked him off his bike (as is asserted above), then a six month
disqualification sounds like a remarkably light penalty.


Don’t get me wrong, I’m satisfied that the incident was handled by the police and that due process has now been served.

For what it’s worth, and I appreciate that some may accuse me of letting the side down, I did ask the barrister for the prosecution at court that if possible I would be happy without a driving ban being imposed, she thought he would be lucky not to receive a custodial sentence. All for a few moments of uncontrolled anger and stupidity.

It happened on my afternoon commute home and came quite out of the blue. At the time I only carried a rear facing Fly6 but the back facing video pretty much speaks for itself.

There was no previous interaction with the driver, I was consistently riding secondary position and there is no issue with visibility. The road here is quite wide enough for safe overtaking and is a 30mph zone despite being designated as an A road, I’ve ridden this same route pretty much daily for over 20 years.

The incident should have been no more than your standard No-vertake, approaching a pedestrian crossing at red with cars waiting for the lights to change.

Initially the van starts with a decent wide overtake but then starts pulling in towards me, pushing me towards the curb (sic) and the side road, which was not an option due to a car coming from the left.

The van got to within a few inches of my bar end and was still angling into the curb so the rear panel got a single open handed slap, which you can hear on the video. We were both going pretty slow at that point due to the stationary traffic at the lights ahead and the situation was not particularly threatening.

The van stopped and as I passed I muttered “Bit close, Matey”, again you can hear this on the video, no expletives, no verbal interaction with the driver, I didn’t even give him a glance.

As I go ahead of the van, you can see how close to the curb (sic) it is. My line is just to the right of the points on the zig zag lines, an old motorcyclist habit to avoid white lines and the van door/wing mirror is well inside that line with the van still angling somewhat into the kerb.

Thinking no more of it and with the lights having turned green I moved off following the cars ahead - at which point the van comes up alongside me and is then deliberately driven into me, catching the bar end and causing me to fall towards the side of the van and into the road where I picked up some reasonably photogenic road rash to my elbow and knee.

A little up the road, the van came to a stop before accelerating away at speed. The passenger of a following car came to my assistance and provided a witness statement that I recorded on my phone.

Police were pretty good about it, came to my house for a statement a few days later and took a copy of the video. Not super prompt, but they had been dealing with a fatal RTC on the other side of town that same afternoon so I was small potatoes in the grand scheme of people having a bad day on that particular day.

The police interviewed the registered keeper of the van and he admitted being the driver that day, claiming that there was a verbal altercation but backtracking when he was shown the video.

The legal process ground on, Covid came and delayed everything but eventually a court date was set.

The driver initially pleaded Not Guilty which meant I had to attend St Albans Magistrates' Court which I was not particularly looking forward to - but on the day he changed his plea and I ended up spending a rather dull afternoon in the witness room without ever having to actually go into the courtroom.

I wouldn't really hold that against him particularly. The law seems to be more of a game and victims, witnesses and accused are the playing pieces. I expect his lawyer recommended that he plead not guilty up to the day just in case the witnesses decided not to turn up, but then change his plea once we did and still get the benefit of doing so in the sentencing. Maybe they also made a deal with the prosecution over the two dismissed charges?

The defendant pleaded guilty to the following charge:

Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road/in a public place without due care and attention

OK
The following two charges had no evidence offered and were dismissed:

Driver of a vehicle fail to stop after a road accident
Driver of a vehicle involved in a road accident fail to report that accident

Dismissed (because effectively withdrawn)? OK.
The sentence was as follows:

Fined £180
Court costs £620

But... there's nothing there to justify an assertion that the collision
was caused deliberately (as is claimed at the top of the report).

In which case the driver is clearly incompetent and should have his driving privileges revoked until he receives extensive retraining. 500 hours with a court appointed instructor at his own expense would seem appropriate.


Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the law is not designed to routinely
and totally wreck peoples' lives because of a small error.

Six months' disqualification is the normal penalty for the accumulation
of twelve penalty points, and this looks like a case of that.
  #5  
Old January 19th 21, 02:52 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Mike Collins
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 817
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On Monday, 18 January 2021 at 22:15:41 UTC, JNugent wrote:
On 18/01/2021 21:18, Mike Collins wrote:

On Monday, 18 January 2021 at 12:30:07 UTC, JNugent wrote:
On 18/01/2021 12:12, wrote:


“There are no winners” says a road.cc reader who was left with permanent scarring on his arm after a van driver deliberately knocked him off his bike in a hit and run incident – with the motorist receiving a six-month ban from driving and a hefty fine just in time for Christmas. In this guest blog post John, the cyclist involved, recounts the incident and its aftermath, which he also filmed in this video.

I’m presenting this story here in the hope that the message eventually gets out to drivers that cyclists are dangerous, that they carry cameras and are not afraid to submit footage to the authorities, and that sometimes the authorities actually do take action and that the consequences can be costly.

This incident occurred in July 2018 and concluded with a court appearance and guilty plea by the driver last week.

I feel awful for the guy, no licence, possibly leading to loss of his job and a considerable fine issued by the magistrates at a time when finding a new job and spare cash is not exactly easy.


That's very magnanimous of him, but *if* the van driver deliberately
knocked him off his bike (as is asserted above), then a six month
disqualification sounds like a remarkably light penalty.


Don’t get me wrong, I’m satisfied that the incident was handled by the police and that due process has now been served.

For what it’s worth, and I appreciate that some may accuse me of letting the side down, I did ask the barrister for the prosecution at court that if possible I would be happy without a driving ban being imposed, she thought he would be lucky not to receive a custodial sentence. All for a few moments of uncontrolled anger and stupidity.

It happened on my afternoon commute home and came quite out of the blue. At the time I only carried a rear facing Fly6 but the back facing video pretty much speaks for itself.

There was no previous interaction with the driver, I was consistently riding secondary position and there is no issue with visibility. The road here is quite wide enough for safe overtaking and is a 30mph zone despite being designated as an A road, I’ve ridden this same route pretty much daily for over 20 years.

The incident should have been no more than your standard No-vertake, approaching a pedestrian crossing at red with cars waiting for the lights to change.

Initially the van starts with a decent wide overtake but then starts pulling in towards me, pushing me towards the curb (sic) and the side road, which was not an option due to a car coming from the left.

The van got to within a few inches of my bar end and was still angling into the curb so the rear panel got a single open handed slap, which you can hear on the video. We were both going pretty slow at that point due to the stationary traffic at the lights ahead and the situation was not particularly threatening.

The van stopped and as I passed I muttered “Bit close, Matey”, again you can hear this on the video, no expletives, no verbal interaction with the driver, I didn’t even give him a glance.

As I go ahead of the van, you can see how close to the curb (sic) it is. My line is just to the right of the points on the zig zag lines, an old motorcyclist habit to avoid white lines and the van door/wing mirror is well inside that line with the van still angling somewhat into the kerb.

Thinking no more of it and with the lights having turned green I moved off following the cars ahead - at which point the van comes up alongside me and is then deliberately driven into me, catching the bar end and causing me to fall towards the side of the van and into the road where I picked up some reasonably photogenic road rash to my elbow and knee.

A little up the road, the van came to a stop before accelerating away at speed. The passenger of a following car came to my assistance and provided a witness statement that I recorded on my phone.

Police were pretty good about it, came to my house for a statement a few days later and took a copy of the video. Not super prompt, but they had been dealing with a fatal RTC on the other side of town that same afternoon so I was small potatoes in the grand scheme of people having a bad day on that particular day.

The police interviewed the registered keeper of the van and he admitted being the driver that day, claiming that there was a verbal altercation but backtracking when he was shown the video.

The legal process ground on, Covid came and delayed everything but eventually a court date was set.

The driver initially pleaded Not Guilty which meant I had to attend St Albans Magistrates' Court which I was not particularly looking forward to - but on the day he changed his plea and I ended up spending a rather dull afternoon in the witness room without ever having to actually go into the courtroom.

I wouldn't really hold that against him particularly. The law seems to be more of a game and victims, witnesses and accused are the playing pieces. I expect his lawyer recommended that he plead not guilty up to the day just in case the witnesses decided not to turn up, but then change his plea once we did and still get the benefit of doing so in the sentencing. Maybe they also made a deal with the prosecution over the two dismissed charges?

The defendant pleaded guilty to the following charge:

Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road/in a public place without due care and attention
OK
The following two charges had no evidence offered and were dismissed:

Driver of a vehicle fail to stop after a road accident
Driver of a vehicle involved in a road accident fail to report that accident
Dismissed (because effectively withdrawn)? OK.
The sentence was as follows:

Fined £180
Court costs £620
But... there's nothing there to justify an assertion that the collision
was caused deliberately (as is claimed at the top of the report).

In which case the driver is clearly incompetent and should have his driving privileges revoked until he receives extensive retraining. 500 hours with a court appointed instructor at his own expense would seem appropriate.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the law is not designed to routinely
and totally wreck peoples' lives because of a small error.

Six months' disqualification is the normal penalty for the accumulation
of twelve penalty points, and this looks like a case of that.


'Small errors' whilst driving routinely wreck peoples lives.
Why do we allow fallible humans to operate such dangerous machinery on roads designed for pedestrians, equestrians and cyclists?
Either the driver did it deliberately in which case it is a life driving ban or it was accidental in which case he needs retraining and must prove to the court he is competent to drive.

  #6  
Old January 19th 21, 12:45 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
JNugent[_13_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 250
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On 19/01/2021 01:52, Mike Collins wrote:
On Monday, 18 January 2021 at 22:15:41 UTC, JNugent wrote:
On 18/01/2021 21:18, Mike Collins wrote:

On Monday, 18 January 2021 at 12:30:07 UTC, JNugent wrote:
On 18/01/2021 12:12, wrote:


“There are no winners” says a road.cc reader who was left with permanent scarring on his arm after a van driver deliberately knocked him off his bike in a hit and run incident – with the motorist receiving a six-month ban from driving and a hefty fine just in time for Christmas. In this guest blog post John, the cyclist involved, recounts the incident and its aftermath, which he also filmed in this video.

I’m presenting this story here in the hope that the message eventually gets out to drivers that cyclists are dangerous, that they carry cameras and are not afraid to submit footage to the authorities, and that sometimes the authorities actually do take action and that the consequences can be costly.

This incident occurred in July 2018 and concluded with a court appearance and guilty plea by the driver last week.

I feel awful for the guy, no licence, possibly leading to loss of his job and a considerable fine issued by the magistrates at a time when finding a new job and spare cash is not exactly easy.


That's very magnanimous of him, but *if* the van driver deliberately
knocked him off his bike (as is asserted above), then a six month
disqualification sounds like a remarkably light penalty.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m satisfied that the incident was handled by the police and that due process has now been served.

For what it’s worth, and I appreciate that some may accuse me of letting the side down, I did ask the barrister for the prosecution at court that if possible I would be happy without a driving ban being imposed, she thought he would be lucky not to receive a custodial sentence. All for a few moments of uncontrolled anger and stupidity.

It happened on my afternoon commute home and came quite out of the blue. At the time I only carried a rear facing Fly6 but the back facing video pretty much speaks for itself.

There was no previous interaction with the driver, I was consistently riding secondary position and there is no issue with visibility. The road here is quite wide enough for safe overtaking and is a 30mph zone despite being designated as an A road, I’ve ridden this same route pretty much daily for over 20 years.

The incident should have been no more than your standard No-vertake, approaching a pedestrian crossing at red with cars waiting for the lights to change.

Initially the van starts with a decent wide overtake but then starts pulling in towards me, pushing me towards the curb (sic) and the side road, which was not an option due to a car coming from the left.

The van got to within a few inches of my bar end and was still angling into the curb so the rear panel got a single open handed slap, which you can hear on the video. We were both going pretty slow at that point due to the stationary traffic at the lights ahead and the situation was not particularly threatening.

The van stopped and as I passed I muttered “Bit close, Matey”, again you can hear this on the video, no expletives, no verbal interaction with the driver, I didn’t even give him a glance.

As I go ahead of the van, you can see how close to the curb (sic) it is. My line is just to the right of the points on the zig zag lines, an old motorcyclist habit to avoid white lines and the van door/wing mirror is well inside that line with the van still angling somewhat into the kerb.

Thinking no more of it and with the lights having turned green I moved off following the cars ahead - at which point the van comes up alongside me and is then deliberately driven into me, catching the bar end and causing me to fall towards the side of the van and into the road where I picked up some reasonably photogenic road rash to my elbow and knee.

A little up the road, the van came to a stop before accelerating away at speed. The passenger of a following car came to my assistance and provided a witness statement that I recorded on my phone.

Police were pretty good about it, came to my house for a statement a few days later and took a copy of the video. Not super prompt, but they had been dealing with a fatal RTC on the other side of town that same afternoon so I was small potatoes in the grand scheme of people having a bad day on that particular day.

The police interviewed the registered keeper of the van and he admitted being the driver that day, claiming that there was a verbal altercation but backtracking when he was shown the video.

The legal process ground on, Covid came and delayed everything but eventually a court date was set.

The driver initially pleaded Not Guilty which meant I had to attend St Albans Magistrates' Court which I was not particularly looking forward to - but on the day he changed his plea and I ended up spending a rather dull afternoon in the witness room without ever having to actually go into the courtroom.

I wouldn't really hold that against him particularly. The law seems to be more of a game and victims, witnesses and accused are the playing pieces. I expect his lawyer recommended that he plead not guilty up to the day just in case the witnesses decided not to turn up, but then change his plea once we did and still get the benefit of doing so in the sentencing. Maybe they also made a deal with the prosecution over the two dismissed charges?

The defendant pleaded guilty to the following charge:

Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road/in a public place without due care and attention
OK
The following two charges had no evidence offered and were dismissed:

Driver of a vehicle fail to stop after a road accident
Driver of a vehicle involved in a road accident fail to report that accident
Dismissed (because effectively withdrawn)? OK.
The sentence was as follows:

Fined £180
Court costs £620
But... there's nothing there to justify an assertion that the collision
was caused deliberately (as is claimed at the top of the report).

In which case the driver is clearly incompetent and should have his driving privileges revoked until he receives extensive retraining. 500 hours with a court appointed instructor at his own expense would seem appropriate.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the law is not designed to routinely
and totally wreck peoples' lives because of a small error.

Six months' disqualification is the normal penalty for the accumulation
of twelve penalty points, and this looks like a case of that.


'Small errors' whilst driving routinely wreck peoples lives.
Why do we allow fallible humans to operate such dangerous machinery on roads designed for pedestrians, equestrians and cyclists?
Either the driver did it deliberately in which case it is a life driving ban or it was accidental in which case he needs retraining and must prove to the court he is competent to drive.


That may be how things are done round your way.

This is Planet Earth.
  #7  
Old January 19th 21, 02:37 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
TMS320
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,875
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On 19/01/2021 11:45, JNugent wrote:
On 19/01/2021 01:52, Mike Collins wrote:

'Small errors' whilst driving routinely wreck peoples lives.
Why do we allow fallible humans to operate such dangerous machinery on
roads designed for pedestrians, equestrians and cyclists?
Either the driver did it deliberately in which case it is a life
driving ban or it was accidental in which case he needs retraining and
must prove to the court he is competent to drive.


When the opinion of a driving examiner driving examiner is enough to
decide that a licence may or may not be issued, it is crazy that once
the licence is obtained one of Her Majesty's courts is the only
establishment that can take it away.

That may be how things are done round your way.


The way things are done is not necessarily the right way of doing things.

This is Planet Earth.


Well, we know you are just visiting.
  #8  
Old January 19th 21, 03:46 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 542
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)


When the opinion of a driving examiner driving examiner is enough to
decide that a licence may or may not be issued, it is crazy that once
the licence is obtained one of Her Majesty's courts is the only
establishment that can take it away.


QUOTE:
You must surrender your licence to DVLA if your doctor tells you that you need to stop driving for 3 months or more because of your medical condition.
  #9  
Old January 19th 21, 04:09 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
JNugent[_13_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 250
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On 19/01/2021 13:37, TMS320 wrote:

On 19/01/2021 11:45, JNugent wrote:
On 19/01/2021 01:52, Mike Collins wrote:

'Small errors' whilst driving routinely wreck peoples lives.
Why do we allow fallible humans to operate such dangerous machinery
on roads designed for pedestrians, equestrians and cyclists?
Either the driver did it deliberately in which case it is a life
driving ban or it was accidental in which case he needs retraining
and must prove to the court he is competent to drive.


When the opinion of a driving examiner driving examiner is enough to
decide that a licence may or may not be issued, it is crazy that once
the licence is obtained one of Her Majesty's courts is the only
establishment that can take it away.


Why do you insist that that is "crazy"?

All sorts of qualification are essentially awarded on the assessment of
one examiner (or should that be "examiner examiner"?), from a cycling
proficiency certificate to a PhD, taking in GCSE and A-levels along the way.

Cancelling such a qualification should be done only in the most
exceptional - and for the most part, unimaginable - of circumstances.

That may be how things are done round your way.


The way things are done is not necessarily the right way of doing things.

This is Planet Earth.


Well, we know you are just visiting.


It's you and Collins who are from some other planet.
  #10  
Old January 19th 21, 04:12 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
JNugent[_13_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 250
Default “There are no winners” says injured cyclist after driver convicted (+ video)

On 19/01/2021 14:46, wrote:

When the opinion of a driving examiner driving examiner is enough to
decide that a licence may or may not be issued, it is crazy that once
the licence is obtained one of Her Majesty's courts is the only
establishment that can take it away.


QUOTE:
You must surrender your licence to DVLA if your doctor tells you that you need to stop driving for 3 months or more because of your medical condition.


Of course, if you, TMS and Collins had your way, the local blochleiter,
obergefreiter or gauleiter would have that authority, to be wielded at whim.
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Tears in court as injured charity cyclist tells drink driver 'Iforgive you - DRIVER JAILED Simon Mason[_6_] UK 20 October 29th 20 06:43 PM
Driver convicted of knocking down and killing cyclist Paul James Simon Mason[_6_] UK 0 September 8th 20 05:25 PM
Driver who left cyclist with 'catastrophic' injuries in Camden Roadhit and run convicted of dangerous driving Simon Mason[_6_] UK 0 February 12th 20 11:06 AM
Manchester bus driver convicted of assaulting 65-year-old cyclist Simon Mason UK 14 November 19th 11 06:39 PM
Yet another cyclist injured by a hit and run driver. Doug[_3_] UK 3 May 12th 11 07:07 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:56 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright 2004-2024 CycleBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.