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news
Cyclist accused of smashing car windscreen with bike lock during road rage clash (credit: David Ross)Cyclist accused of smashing car windscreen with bike lock, “turning it into a weapon”, in alleged road rage clash with driver
The father of a motorist involved in a road rage incident in London last week has raised concerns that bike locks can be “turned into weapons”, after footage was posted online of a cyclist appearing to use his lock to smash a car windscreen, before swinging it towards the driver, during a heated confrontation.
The incident, which has been reported to the Met Police, took place on Rotherhithe Street, near Elephant and Castle tube station in south London, on Friday 21 March at around 4.25pm.
In a short clip, filmed by an onlooker and posted by the driver’s father, David Ross, to social media, the cyclist can be seen wielding a bike lock above his head as the motorist makes his way around the vehicle and the cyclist’s bike, which can be seen lying on the road.
The cyclist then proceeds to hit the car’s rear windscreen with the lock, appearing to smash it, before attempting to hit the driver, 26-year-old Regan Ross, using the lock.
Onlookers can also be heard shouting for him to “stop”, asking him “what are you doing?”, while at the end of the video the motorist can be seen approaching a member of the public, appearing to ask them if they had captured the incident on their phone.
Any retweets to help @metpoliceuk find this dangerous man who attacked my son and his car with his bike lock would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. The incident took place last night at Elephant & Castle. pic.twitter.com/Wkh9q6bGwj
— David Ross (@davidross72) March 22, 2025
Due to the edited nature of the clip, it is unclear what caused the incident, but the driver’s father David has claimed that the cyclist “must have gone into the back” of his son’s car, a collision he says was captured on a bus driver’s dashcam.
“He was commuting home and as he pulled up to stop, the cyclist, who I presume obviously didn’t see him, must have gone into the back of him. The bus driver saw that happen and has the dashcam footage,” Mr Ross told the Standard.
“The man then goes into the side of my son’s car and says, ‘what’s going on?’ He has a bit of road rage on him at the moment and then he starts having a go at my son and the rest you can see on the video. He starts smashing the windscreen.”
Mr Ross also told the newspaper that he is “bloody furious” about the cyclist’s actions, raising concerns about the potential for bike locks to be used as weapons in similar road rage incidents.
“I’m concerned that people can carry these things and turn it into a weapon,” he said.
“My son’s lived in London since he was 18, so he’s got used to the daily grind but we as parents are bloody furious, but he’s made of tough stuff. He’s more upset about not currently having a car.”
He added that he handed the footage to the Metropolitan Police, who say they are aware of the incident.
“Police were called to an altercation between a driver and a cyclist on the junction of Newington Butts and Walworth road, Elephant and Castle at 16:25hrs on Friday, 21 March,” a Met spokesperson said.
“It is reported a cyclist hit the driver’s car from behind, and then proceeded to remove a bike tool from his bike and smash the car windscreen.
“We are aware of reports circulating of the altercation. We remain in contact with the victim.
“Anyone who witnessed the incident, or has any information or footage is asked to call 101 or post on X @MetCC quoting CAD 3618/22Mar.”
> Police make arrest after sickening footage of cyclist slammed to ground by driver goes viral
While the Met are yet to take any action regarding last week’s altercation at Elephant and Castle, last September we reported that, in the wake of a similar viral road rage incident, a 37-year-old man was arrested in Edinburgh, after a video shared to social media showed the moment a cyclist was thrown to the ground by a driver who slammed the victim’s head against the road.
The video, which has been viewed more than 27 million times, shows a cyclist stood in front of a vehicle as its passenger remonstrates with him in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
A male driver is then seen getting out of the vehicle, before walking up to the cyclist and grabbing both hands around his neck before slamming the rider off his bike and hitting his head against the road. Afterwards, the passenger and driver returned to the vehicle, which had a learner plate in the front windscreen, while the cyclist was seen holding his head and lying motionless in the road.
Police Scotland later confirmed that a 37-year-old man had been “arrested and charged with the alleged assault of a 34-year-old male cyclist”.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
Latest Comments
- stonojnr 4 sec ago
fwiw in that area, yes absolutely its normal, its like a lowland heath sandy area, most of the b roads have alot of sand at times,, it just blows...
- ROOTminus1 1 hour 47 min ago
I'm glad the article went into more detail and cleared things up, the headline had me worried that some autonomous building had run rampant and...
- mark1a 2 hours 5 min ago
Still here, just showing a few signs of wear and tear. Hopefully still serviceable for some years to come.
- Secret_squirrel 2 hours 35 min ago
Has he fully recovered though, and will he ever?...
- Rendel Harris 2 hours 50 min ago
How can you know that you are "equally fearful" as "any female cyclist"? There is no possible way of quantifying such emotions and female cyclists...
- chrisonabike 3 hours 22 min ago
I think it would be fairer to blame the moon - as in "my client is a loony".
- Bungle_52 3 hours 45 min ago
Nice idea but Gloucestershire Constabulary are not interested as exemplified by this prvious NMOTD. Not only was there NFA for the close pass in...
- hawkinspeter 5 hours 17 min ago
I think black boxes are great for early detection of cognitive decline and/or sight problems. Someone's driving is going to become much less smooth...
- Bigtwin 5 hours 53 min ago
It's a fashion. https://guildford-dragon.com/shalford-driver-who-smashed-shalford-war-me...
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73 comments
I pointed out the use of incorrect language to the BBC's senior transport correspondent Tom Edwards.
I even pointed out that the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking was using the correct language, not the same as his, and suggested to him that he challenge their writing.
He blocked me.
(I was not abusive or trolling, he simply disagreed with me and did not put up any usefull argument to defend himself or justify the contradictory language like when its a cyclIST that hits a pedestrian.)
Comments are disappointingly tribalist.
I probably shouldn't have been surprised... We're really no better than the motorists and their hate-spewing, are we?
Well, you doubtless know yourself best. As for the comments below, I see no "hate spewing" against drivers or cars in general, just a suspicion as to whether we are being told the full story or not. If the comments really were like those one finds against cyclists on virtually any story involving a driver/cyclist confrontation on a motoring website, or indeed just general social media, they would be saying shame the cyclist didn't stove the driver's head in, cars shouldn't be allowed on the road at all, why don't drivers grow up and get a bicycle, got to be the driver's fault, it always is… they don't say that and they are not the same as motorists and their "hate spewing", not at all.
Not tribalist but trying to demonstrate the absurdity of the parental intervention and the reporting.
We don't know what happened, Dave Ross doesn't know, the bus driver and his dash cam don't know, the bystanders that rush to bring out their phones rather than trying to dissipate the anger and down play the situation don't know.
@LOSD Do you know?
The only people that do actually know are the 2 parties that are dancing around the car, one of them appears to have told his dad what happened and his dad has made public assertions based on hearsay.
I wonder what would happen if the cyclist comes out with his own camera footage that indicates a period of woeful driving and threatening behaviour from Tough Stuff Ross.
There are at least 3 versions of events, both of the parties recollections and the truth. Hence my desire to hear the full story.
"Made of tough stuff" - Why is his dad still wiping his arse then?
Why hasn't little "tough stuff" "26-year-old Regan Ross," done the legwork to find out who this cycling threat to world peace might be? Sounds more like a pussy to me. Grow up and grow some Regan Ross!
I must also observe the level of presumption that has been noted by others:
“He was commuting home and as he pulled up to stop, [on a red route?] the cyclist, who I presume [why presume?] obviously [so now you are sure?] didn’t see him, must [again certainty?] have gone into the back of him. The bus driver saw that happen [but who knows what happended previously] and has the dashcam footage,”
Did the bus driver's dash cam get the presumptious, obvious, must have happened, poor overtake of cherub Regan who is only in front because he crammed the cyclist into the space behind the bus rather than allowing him to pull out. And when the cyclist decided to remonstrate daddy's angel Regan slammed his anchors on brake testing the cyclist and ending up having a cyclist in his boot.
I mean why else would you stop on a red route adjacent to a bus unless you are a complete tool and looking to intimidate other road users. Little precious Regan does appear to be driving a BMW. I wonder who it is registered to, daddikins?
All that said and as much I love the idea of twatting Regan's wheels, from what we can see the cyclist might be bang to rights unless they have some strong evidence to "support" their actions.
Because there's stationary traffic in front of you?
Was there?
If there was, why would he have pulled over so far to the LHS, was he partially in the bus stop blocking the bus? Whereas he would have/ should have been the other side of the white line not this side of it, in a nice tidy queue.
Unless of course he had pulled across to baulk the cyclist.
But hey we are surmising here and I said before only the 2 of them know what happened and it's very likely those two stories once recounted will dfiffer.
As you say, we don't know - I was just saying there are other legitimate reasons to stop on a red route.
Contrary to the article, I think this actually happened on the London Road approach to E&C (the background architecture matches) - https://maps.app.goo.gl/XathnMCaJ8PBQfudA. Perhaps someone pulled across the cycle filter lane without checking...
Yes it is indeed London Road approaching the Elephant and Castle gyratory. No idea where the report has got "Rotherhithe Street" from; Rotherhithe Street, as the name suggests, runs along the Thames in Rotherhithe, several miles away (London's longest street, trivia fans!) and there is no street of that name around Elephant as far as I'm aware.
It's not even just that - even the Met (quoted above) reported it as "junction of Newington Butts and Walworth Rd"! Perhaps struggling to reconcile this particular incident to their vast database of road rage altercations near Elephant & Castle!
The police said "“It is reported a cyclist hit the driver’s car from behind..."
Interesting how they use the word "cyclist" rather than cycle/bicycle.
I'm assuming it would not have been the same format if it was the other way round?
How often do we hear things like: “It is reported a car hit the cyclist from behind..."
While we may not get to see the footage from the bus showing what led up to the incident, presumably the police will provide some details about it once they have done their investigation or taken it to court.
Whilst not condoning the cyclists actions, I look forward to the driver's dad eating his words if his son drove dangerously.
I hate to get all "wing mirror"-y, but I was under the impression that the big area of glass at the front of a car is the windscreen. Not the big area of glass at the back.
Front windscreen, rear windscreen, both do a job of screening you from the wind. Although that does of course then beg the question as to why the side windows aren't called side windscreens...where's swldxr when you need him?
If the rear windscreen is screening you from the wind you either have a problem with your other windscreen(s) or your driving, surely? (Of course it can certainly shield you from the noise of the air zipping by or the weather in general, but it's not a "weathershield" in English).
What about when you're stopped and there's a tailwind? Or indeed you're driving at 30 mph and there is a 60 mph tailwind?
Or indeed if you're trying to outrun a hurricane... but I'd still hope that I'd be moderately shielded by the seat back and by looking towards the front windscreen. Although I understand that is currently not always seen as a necessity.
It's relatively easy to outrun a hurricane; it's even quite often achievable cycling for a reasonably fit person. They normally move at a speed of 10-15 mph, occasionally up to 40mph. Easily escaped in a car, unless there are traffic lights on red (because, as we know, drivers always stop at those).
Of course, if you don't set off in time, fail to fill up with fuel or check the tyres and washer fluid for all the windscreens beforehand, you could get caught up in the system and then the breeze picks up somewhat.
Its a rear window not a rear windscreen.
It's a DLO to those in the trade.
I'm open to persuasion on this one. What is the big area of glass at the back called?
Never mind that. More importantly, since when does a bike lock qualify as a 'tool'?
(I'd actually call it rear windscreen too)
Then you'd be wrong
A rear window. jeesuz, how can anyone not know this?
Ninja rocks are much more effective, and subtle ( so I'm informed)
Depends on whether you happen to have any spare spark plugs around. As I understand it. Allegedly.
I'm concerned that people can drive two-ton lumps of metal around and turn them into weapons but no sign that that's stopping any time soon. Not condoning any violence but also not making any judgements until the full facts are known, perfectly possible that the driver deliberately brake checked the cyclist or otherwise caused the collision, despite the compelling evidence provided by...um... the driver's dad who wasn't there…
Has he considered that pretty much anything that can be picked up can be turned into a weapon?
I'd love to know why the dad is talking to the media, saying what "must" have happened, rather than the person involved…
Plausible deniability. He can assert all sorts of things that definitely, obviously, maybe could have happened; without having to make it as convincing as the person there would have to be about it, and without being held accountable for what he said.
But it absolutely definitely might have happened along the lines of what he said; so it can't be his son's fault. Obviously.
I know I wouldn't half be getting a ribbing off my mates if I let my old man do the talking for me like that! I half expected to see him saying, "Now my son says he didn't do anything wrong, and if there's one thing my son doesn't do, he doesn't tell lies…"
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