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news
Palace of Westminster Image by Flickr user TrodelCyclist who chased Westminster terror suspect: "You have a cup of tea and biscuit and carry on"
A cyclist who chased after the Westminster terror suspect yesterday morning said, “You have a cup of tea and a biscuit and carry on” when he was asked his reaction to the incident.
29-year-old Salih Khater, who has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences, drove through a group of cyclists at Parliament Square before crashing into a barrier outside the Palace of Westminster.
> Updated: Cyclists injured in Westminster terror attack as driver crashes through them
Three cyclists were injured in the incident, with one treated at the scene and the other two taken to hospital and subsequently released.
Cyclist Robert Nicholson, who was on his way to work, witnessed what happened and chased after the car after it hit the group of cyclists.
Yesterday, he told Sky News: "Usually you get anything from 10 to 30 cyclists waiting – there were about 15 cyclists there this morning.
"You could kind of see just round the corner of Big Ben there was an ambulance with its lights on and siren blaring.
"All of a sudden, whipping round the corner – just from the traffic lights – was this small Ford Focus-type car and just rammed straight through the group of 10 to 15 cyclists that were stood there (and) probably hit the lady cyclists a couple of foot to my right."
At first he believed it was a road traffic collision or perhaps a motorist being pursued by the police.
He said: "My immediate reaction was I wasn't hit on the bike so I jumped off my bike and ran after him.
"He [the driver] obviously carried on, swerved into the lane for the Houses of Parliament, crashed into the barrier.
"And at that point, when armed police yelled 'clear out, get out the way' I realised it was a little more serious."
TV footage showed Mr Nicholson running after the car, and police officers at the barrier jumping out of the way of it.
"The police officers at the barrier were obviously quite shocked at that sort of sudden impact but very quickly responded," Mr Nicholson continued.
He said that one cyclist was left lying in the street after she had been struck "full on by the car directly. She'd kind of flown up onto the bonnet.
"Very luckily she had a helmet on, so that probably reduced any head injuries she had.
"She was lying stationary in the middle of the road.
"Very luckily because there was an ambulance just behind them, paramedics were there within seconds and able to respond to her."
Asked how the incident had affected him, he said he had already put it to one side.
"As a cyclist you probably get a little bit used to that anyway, of just the odd near miss and stuff like that happening in London,” he explained.
"And, also being English, you have a cup of tea and a biscuit and you carry on the next day,” he added.
"I'll just carry on cycling in, carry on walking in. I hope the other cyclists recover quickly and they start cycling in again."
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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33 comments
Embarrassingly enough, no. I assumed we were still on the Westminster case, given it’s in the Westminster thread.
Looks like drugs are an aggravating factor, which will make securing a conviction easier. Presumably it will also be clear that they actually intended to hit that particular person, given they’ve gone for murder.
Either way, I’m not holding my breath for any change in charges for drivers accidentally hitting cyclists.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45248516
Not much in the way of details, but a case of using the vehicle in an attempted murder.
Not worth getting excited about. They’re putting attempted murder because it’s under the banner of terrorism, given the location and the fact the targets were the police. They won’t struggle to convict on those charges now that the “T” word is involved.
There was a case a year or so ago when someone was charged for attempted murder for driving a car at someone in... Birkenhead or somewhere. That someone was a policeman. Surprise.
You haven't read the link, have you?
It's not murder if the sun was in his eyes.
FAKE NEWS
Quote "Usually you get anything from 10 to 30 cyclists waiting – there were about 15 cyclists there this morning."
As anyone who reads the Daily Mail can tell you cyclists don't wait at red lights so this must be fake news.
Not just the Police being targeted as a reason, think you're missing the point.
Is this going to be a game changer?
"Khater, a UK national originally from Sudan, is charged with one count of attempting to murder persons outside Parliament and a second count of attempting to murder police officers."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45236971
Was just wondering the same thing, however; report makes reference to location and police being targeted as reasons for the charges. Shame as was hoping this would be the tipping point.
Bridgwater or Bluewater?
Did you know that the roof and roof plant at Bluewater had to be painted the same blue? It was supposed to confuse the stupids into thinking that it still looked like a lake.
Definitely Bridgwater, home of the webbed-fingers gloves.
cI_HsKsvpAfwjY_nurWotNRAJ4J4bjkY-pF-_sDn_zg.jpg
The main problem is that wherever cars get banned there will doubtless also be a ban on bicycles, despite their lack of effectiveness as a terrorist weapon, due to the need to pander to motorists' infantile ideas of 'fairness'.
Bikes are quite effective as weapons.
One of the reasons why there are so many signs on railings telling people not to chain their bikes to them is that people used to make bike bombs and leave them chained to the railings in Whitehall.
I’m fairly sure the North Vietnamese did likewise, although not in Whitehall.
One of the reports I read yeaterday stated that no weapon had been found, I believe from the police, forgetting the blindingly obvious that the weapon was the vehicle.
They didn't forget - it's just another datum.
Anyone have stats on how many people terrorists have killed each year compared to how many cyclists (or, people not in a car) are killed by drivers?
I expect evidence-based policy should prioritise the safety of vulnerable road users from drivers over the risk from terrorists (in cars or otherwise).
Ban cars from city centres and if you want to get around said city use a bus or underground / metro system, or better still walk or cycle.
Ban all lorries / wagons during daytime and deliveries etc should be made overnight. In one mighty swoop you will nigh on eradicate cyclist fatalities.
Unfortunately councils up and down dale are use protected space orders to ban cycling, it's even against the remit but no-one is fighting against it in any meaningful way. Yet motorists can and will mow people down but it's those nasty cyclists that need curbing!
I think you'll find Cycling UK has mounted a campaign against this, including a legal challenge.
As I said, no meaningful fight against this, sorry but CUK, who I am a long standing member of, are toothless.
Agree with all the previous posts, it is hardly going to faze a cyclist who experiences near death happenings every day.
But on the possibly positive side, they are now talking about much wider pedestrianisation and banning of motor vehicles, so a small silver lining. Given that the motor vehicle is now the terrorists weapon of choice, we should all be agitating for banning cars from cities, purely on the grounds of preventing terrorist actions of course, and nothing to do with making life better for cyclists and the general public.
I wonder when the government are going to have a consultation on that?
This.
Surely The Heil is about to realise that dirty forrins in cars represent an existential threat to loafers in boaters and floral dresses. The next logical step in protecting round-the-clock Pimmstopia is to stop cars being driven anywhere near gastropubs and riverside beer gardens.
Pedestrianisation might just be a solution to float - as long as we neglect to mention any other positive side-effects: this is all about obstructing forrins in cars. If they get wind of cyclists being behind it, we'll get another 3 weeks of ancient Corbyn wreath pics.
Cars should indeed barred from city centres, they should be encouraged to inhabit out of town shopping centres, now if one of these so called terrorists happens to join in the cull of the stupids, I guess that that's life and Darwin should be applauded.
Terrorists have a long history of obeying such things as traffic laws. This would work.
Unless they manage to get their hands on KITT, they tend to struggle with indestructible barriers, as the dope who tried to drive at Parliament while everyone is on holiday found.
Don't be silly. It's not traffic laws that matter, but the laws of physics. If they can't physically get the car to the pedestrians its not going to work as a weapon.
Do you not remember this triumph of terrorist planning?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Glasgow_Airport_attack
No-one says doing this will end all terror attacks, but it will make it that much harder and reduce the body count (as it did in the Glasgow case)
(I take it you are also one of those who thinks gun laws can't work because criminals won't obey them?)
I'm more interested in getting the stupids* into one place so they can be culled without disturbing my city centre life too much.
* anyone who has a day out to an out of town shopping centre/parkas as a family activity is stupid
Isn't that what Bridgwater is for?
I mistakenly popped in to IKEA with the fam last Sunday, primarily to stock up on meatballs and salmon. Managed to end up in a perfect storm of football traffic plus early Sunday closing plus multi-storey exit being down to one lane plus an actual storm. 2 hours to get out of the car park. Gave up in the end and made the further mistake of going to get a "gourmet" burger. Which, to be fair, was reasonably tasty. Eaten in a loud open plan restaurant with loud music, cramped seats, and waiters with English as a second language. I guess it's what Future Shock feels like but we ended up driving home via the back roads of the New Forest with the windows down gulping down mouthfulls of fresh pine-scented air. And to think people actually choose to do that shopping thing as a leisure activity. Mindblowing...
But that's not quite the same. We have made the penalty for owning a gun worse than the penalty for a lot of offences such as burglary. Therefore it's not worth criminals having a gun when committing those offences. Unless you are suggesting making the penalty for driving in a pedestrianised area worse than the penalty for multiple murders, then I don't see it deterring terrorists.
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