A white van driver in London had what a cyclist who posted helmet camera footage of a road rage incident to YouTube described as “a bad day” after losing his job and being convicted of assault following.
The video of the incident, which took place in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, was posted to YouTube and Reddit, as well as to the road.cc forum, by Evo Lucas.
The driver beeps his horn as he attempts to overtake the rider, then stops his van and gets out, accusing the cyclist of hitting his van and and appearing to headbutt him. Several passers-by come over to try and calm the driver down.
At the end of the video, he reports the outcome of the episode: “Incident reported to Metropolitan Police and to his employer. The video is also sent to his employer who immediately terminate his employment.
“He is eventually charged with assault. At court he initially pleads not guilty. On learning about the ‘cctv’ evidence he changes his plea to guilty.
“12 month suspended sentence & £500 fine.
“I also received a profuse apology in court post verdict,” he added.
We contacted Evo Lucas for some background to the video, which was filmed late last year with the case going to court recently.
He told road.cc: "I can't say the driver's attitude surprised me much but his actions did. The fact he was endangering me by trying to squeeze past on a narrow street, with parked cars and oncoming traffic really angered me. Turns out he was bottling enough anger for the both of us.
"The fact he directed his vehicle at me was what made me take it further with the police and directly to his employer.
"I looked up the company's details and found the MD was a keen trail rider, after making contact I sent him and his management team the video, whilst informing the MD the police will be involved.
"The MD gave the driver a chance to explain but he made up a load of rubbish (he wasn't aware of the camera) which resulted in him being unemployed within 24 hours of the incident.
"I asked the MD what course of action would he consider 'best to be avoided' and he said a viral video with his company name all over it. I assured him that could be avoided."
That swift action by the company in terminating the driver's employment is the reason its name on the vehicle has been obscured in the video.
Turning to the court case, he said: "At court his lawyer was not aware of the CCTV and changed his plea. I received two apologies post verdict, one in the court and one outside.
"He had no need to apologise me except to make amends. Since court I carry no ill feeling towards the driver but it has hardened my camera stance as without it he would no doubt still feel he could act in this way with impunity," he added.
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47 comments
May he be plagued by piles the size of beachballs for the rest of his days.
A shame he couldn't be charged with theft of oxygen as well.
So will the last-moment guilty plea get him a reduced sentence?
Seems to be an illustration of the problem with that concept.
If the evidence against you is so overwhelming that you might as well plead guilty, then you get a shorter sentence than you would if it were a less clear-cut case that you happened to lose.
This surely logically means the definitively guilty will, on average, get shorter sentences than the wrongly convicted, no?
The plea bargain (whereby you get a lesser punishment for acknowledging guilt) is an essential part of our justice system, as without it the courts would be clogged with pointless not guilty plea cases.
Scary.
No way I would have ridden off in advance of the van after that though, I'd be concerned about being rammed from behind!
After an altercation, I'd advise to stop at the side of the road for a few minutes, both to get the heartrate back to normal and let the dangerous driver get some way away!
And yes, I have a camera as well...
Sound advice.
I agree. Had a few of these (no head butts yet!) and always let them drive off first.
One further thought that crossed my mind was that if a person walked up to another and headbutted them, it is a serious assault (more so than a punch if I recall correctly). Because the victim is on a bike, it appears to have been somehow downgraded. Something that our courts need to take a little more seriously in my opinion.
That driver behaved like an animal. A large proportion of these incidents seem to be in London - if I lived there I wouldn't cycle without a helmet camera. Frightening stuff.
Imagine if this wasn't caught on headcam...
You'd have a bloke crying "not guilty!" and no justice would be served. This freak would still be terrorizing the streets off the back of his lie.
This guy has serious anger issues. The van is no where to be seen when turning. I'm normally not a fan of these helmet cams as i think the cyclist are sometimes looking for an incident to record but this is different. Glad he got convicted, good work by police, court and employer to get this man what he deserved.
Who would want to employ an angry thick twunt like that?
Twunt?
Is that a cross between a twat and a cunt?
A man who clearly does not have the appropriate temperament to drive a car let alone try and earn a living from doing so. I hope during his lay off he learns a bit more about the highway code or finds at alternative means of employment
Call me devils advocate, but that helmet cam looks right left right....the van would be coming from the left.
Did the bike pull out on him?
That said, plainly he didn't hit the van as it appears from behind him.
Err, rider looks right-left-right and turns right, van comes up behind him quite a while after that, trying to overtake into oncoming traffic, idiot. No devil's advocacy needed
I've paused the video as the rider looks left, and there is no van visible from what I can make out.... please correct me if I'm wrong..... it's possible the van was following the rider along the road he is seen to emerge from. Either way it's dangerous driving by the van driver, as well as assault.
The van was behind me from just before the corner.
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