motorists' assaults on cyclists

Dear all - I'm a journalist at the Independent on Sunday researching a
story about assaults on cyclists by motorists (from scooters to cars to
buses to lorries) in the UK.
I'm keen to hear from anyone who has personally suffered a physical
assault from a motorist or been deliberately struck/rammed by a vehicle
while cycling in the last 3 years. I'm trying to guage how much of a
problem this may be. I'm also interested to know whether a complaint to
the police or bus operator etc was made, and with what result.
I cannot guarantee following up each response (I've had nearly 30 via a
CTC bulletin already), but will be grateful for any accounts you may
have. If you do NOT want your account to be used for my story, please
specify.
Either respond on this group or my work email is:

Many thanks in advance.
Severin Carrell

severin wrote:
I'm keen to hear from anyone who has personally suffered a physical
assault from a motorist or been deliberately struck/rammed by a vehicle
while cycling in the last 3 years.

I don't quite fit those criteria, but I had this nearly happen. It was
hard to gauge the driver's intentions - he was probably just trying to
scare me. I posted here about it; Here's a link to my message on google
groups:
http://tinyurl.com/c2klp

-Chris

On 5 May 2005 06:24:14 -0700, "severin"
wrote:

I'm keen to hear from anyone who has personally suffered a physical
assault from a motorist or been deliberately struck/rammed by a vehicle
while cycling in the last 3 years.

I sincerely hope you don't find too many!

I have been run off the road by a clueless idiot (Plod extremely
supportive) and harassed both verbally and through use of the horn by
drivers, but not - so far - deliberately assaulted.

My worst problems seem to come from a very tiny minority of drivers
who consider that their right to get to the back of the next traffic
jam in the shortest possible time is greater than my right to
negotiate any particular feature in safety. Pinch points spring to
mind here, and using the road instead of a "cyclepath" (i.e. overgrown
slippery pavement with paint).

Don't be too harsh on the poor dears, it's not their fault. They have
been told by people who are experts in persuasion that if they just
spend a few tens of times the global average annual income on the
latest shiny toy, they will soon experience the joys of driving around
traffic-free mountain passes on the way to have fantastic sex with an
improbably attractive member of the gender of their choice. When it
turns out that come Monday they are still sitting alone in the rain in
the same traffic jam listening to the same guff from Chris Moyles, who
can blame them for feeling angry and frustrated?

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

On Thu, 05 May 2005 14:49:07 +0100, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
wrote:



Don't be too harsh on the poor dears, it's not their fault. They have
been told by people who are experts in persuasion that if they just
spend a few tens of times the global average annual income on the
latest shiny toy, they will soon experience the joys of driving around
traffic-free mountain passes on the way to have fantastic sex with an
improbably attractive member of the gender of their choice. When it
turns out that come Monday they are still sitting alone in the rain in
the same traffic jam listening to the same guff from Chris Moyles, who
can blame them for feeling angry and frustrated?

I was with you right up to the final sentence. I'm sorry but if these
people listen to Chris Moyles, they have only themselves to blame.

On Thu, 05 May 2005 14:59:02 +0100, audrey
wrote:

I was with you right up to the final sentence. I'm sorry but if these
people listen to Chris Moyles, they have only themselves to blame.


Come the Revolution, he's be first against the wall.

Oh alright, not first, we have Ainsley Harriot to contend with.



"Bob"

--

Email address is spam trapped.
To reply directly remove the beverage.

On Thu, 05 May 2005 14:01:26 GMT, Call me Bob
wrote:

On Thu, 05 May 2005 14:59:02 +0100, audrey
wrote:

I was with you right up to the final sentence. I'm sorry but if these
people listen to Chris Moyles, they have only themselves to blame.


Come the Revolution, he's be first against the wall.

Oh alright, not first, we have Ainsley Harriot to contend with.


Ahem. I think not. Come the glorious day, Nicky Campbell will be
first.

"audrey" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 05 May 2005 14:01:26 GMT, Call me Bob
wrote:

On Thu, 05 May 2005 14:59:02 +0100, audrey
wrote:

I was with you right up to the final sentence. I'm sorry but if these
people listen to Chris Moyles, they have only themselves to blame.


Come the Revolution, he's be first against the wall.

Oh alright, not first, we have Ainsley Harriot to contend with.


Ahem. I think not. Come the glorious day, Nicky Campbell will be
first.


The Woolly-haired ****** is first.

Cheers, helen s

I think we're all forgetting:

o The Royal Family
o Tony Blair
o Whoever is responsible for the Toucan adverts during "CSI"
o The Evil Squirrels
o John Doe
o Julie Burchill
o Giles Coren, and
o Anyone who beats me in races

--
Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
Better hide the pork scratchings...

On Thu, 5 May 2005 15:31:18 +0100, Dave Larrington wrote:
I think we're all forgetting:

o The Royal Family
o Tony Blair
o Whoever is responsible for the Toucan adverts during "CSI"
o The Evil Squirrels
o John Doe
o Julie Burchill
o Giles Coren, and
o Anyone who beats me in races

Good God, man, that's my list, except for the last one (because
everyone in the country'd have to go), and I'd swap 2 and 6.
Oh, and the squirrels. And I don't knwo who Giles Coren is,
or John Doe. But 1, 2, 3 and 6 definitely.

--
Trevor Barton

I think we're all forgetting:

o The Royal Family

NOOOooooo! They're the only thing standing between us and presidential
elections.

I also like the way no one can kill our head of state - The King is dead!
Long live the King! - all the way up until the assasin becomes king & has
to commit suicide. I'm just hoping any Al Qaeda assassin is more closely
related to our royal family than I am. As I'm British instead of a random
foreigner I guess I should be alright.


--
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