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news
The tweet that led to a driver getting sacked.pngDriver fired after tweeting about hitting cyclist
A motorist who tweeted that she had hit a cyclist on her way to work has been sacked, despite the rider involved not making a complaint.
On March 22, a Twitter user with the handle @_hxrleyquinn posted: "I just knocked a cyclist off his bike with my wing mirror I was driving like 10mph I didn't stop coz he got up?"
Twitter's cycling community reacted strongly, urging police forces to track down the tweeter and have a word.
The user subsequently changed her Twitter handle and deleted the tweet, but not before her name and employer had been identified from her own tweets, and complaints made to her employer.
Yesterday Surrey Roads Police tweeted:
Update re Tweeter who had tweeted she had knocked a cyclist off on route to work. No cyclist has come forward to us to report any incident..
— Surrey Roads Police (@SurreyRoadCops) April 22, 2015
The author of the Tweet attended Staines Police station and has been warned about her behaviour. She informs us as a result of her tweet...
— Surrey Roads Police (@SurreyRoadCops) April 22, 2015
She has lost her job. Hopefully this acts as a reminder to all. Posting such comments as she did on [social media] can have an impact on you or others
— Surrey Roads Police (@SurreyRoadCops) April 22, 2015
The lady admitted she had clipped the cyclist but says he didn't fall off as she had said in her tweet & the cyclist allegedly waved her off
— Surrey Roads Police (@SurreyRoadCops) April 22, 2015
However, as with some previous similar cases, no rider has come forward to complain.
Surrey Roads Police added:
We will take action against those who make such claims on SM and it is brought to our attention and proven an offence has taken place.
— Surrey Roads Police (@SurreyRoadCops) April 22, 2015
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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16 comments
Stupid woman....Fuck her.
I don't think employers are keen to be associated with people that are KNOWN to break the law.
I can't see how someone posting a stupid tweet justifies them losing their job. I cannot see that the tweet indicates she was boasting or particularly proud of what happened; there are no salient facts; did the cyclist make a mistake or did she make a mistake? The cyclist has not complained.
I guess my point is that Orwell's 1984 arrived (around 1985 actually). There can be a fine line between justice and injustice; in this case, on the information provided, she seems to have been harshly treated.
The organisation I work for is very clear about our use of Social Media, if we bring the organisation into disrepute, then we can expect to suffer as a result. The disciplinary process includes the option to terminate employment.
Come on surrey police, about time you thought before speaking. At least wwe know what their priorities are..
Come on surrey police, about time you thought before speaking. At least wwe know what their priorities are..
Come on surrey police, about time you thought before speaking. At least wwe know what their priorities are..
Come on surrey police, about time you thought before speaking. At least wwe know what their priorities are..
"She has lost her job. Hopefully this acts as a reminder to all. Posting such comments as she did on SM can have an impact on you or others"
Have Surrey Police missed the point of the "impact" here? Is the moral of the story "keep quiet if you knock a cyclist off their bike"?
Should the focus not be on trying to not hit cyclists and then drive off?!
Yes as above ..."Posting such comments as she did on SM can have an impact on you or others"..... Are the Police warning people not to post & that this was her mistake rather than hitting the cyclist. I personally would not want to discourage such postings otherwise how would she have been identified so readily.
An admission of guilt is no longer grounds for a prosecution/conviction?
I note that the police "reminder to all" is not to "drive carefully because you might hurt someone" but just to not tweet about it when you do hit someone.
"The lady admitted she had clipped the cyclist but says he didn't fall off as she had said in her tweet & the cyclist allegedly waved her off"
So has she been charged with something relating to not reporting an accident ? Was the "waving off" with a fist or a small number of digits?
It seems when you here these sort of things that her only "mistake" in the eyes of many has been to post on SM about the incident.
What I find worrying is that the rider possibly sees this as a minor incident that goes with the territory when riding a bike and that is a bad position for the country to get into
Emma Way II
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/400x/52417433.jpg