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news
B4060 (via StreetView)Cyclists say they were deliberately hit by beeping, swearing hit and run driver
Two Gloucestershire cyclists say they were deliberately rammed off the road by an angry driver who failed to stop. “They had obviously taken great offence to seeing two cyclists,” said Nick Stack, after suffering a broken collarbone and a head injury.
Bristol Live reports that Stack was riding with a friend along the B4060 Sodbury Road near Wickwar just after 4.30pm on Tuesday when the two men heard a motorist repeatedly beeping their horn behind them.
Stack said he’d cycled the road hundreds of times before and that it is, “suitably wide enough for any vehicle to pass easily” – albeit drivers will often need to wait for a gap in oncoming traffic.
"I thought, 'I'm not doing anything wrong',” he said. "We weren't in the middle of the road. We were riding single file, almost in the gutters, and they came alongside shouting obscenities out of the window.
"I ignored them but the truck or van was coming across, not giving us any room."
As the vehicle passed, a male passenger hurled abuse and called them ‘wankers’.
"They deliberately moved across to run us off the road,” said Stack. “They were pretty much driving on the grass verge. The trailer that was on the back hit me and wiped me out."
Stack’s friend, who was riding behind, then went over the top of him.
"They slowed slightly then just drove off. I was in a lot of pain and cars stopped, and a witness tended to me with first aid and put my arm in a sling. My head was cut but my helmet took the brunt and split."
Emergency services arrived on the scene and the two men were taken to Southmead Hospital.
"I've been riding for many years and people beep or drive closely, but other people are courteous and give you a wide birth.
"I always give a little nod or wave to say thank you. On this occasion they had obviously taken great offence to seeing two cyclists.
"At the end of the day, we were just out doing something we enjoy. Those people had no regard for me as a human or a father."
A witness told Stack the motorist had been "driving erratically" through Wickwar.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police appealed for witnesses or dashcam footage.
The spokesperson confirmed: "We were called at approximately 4.50pm on Tuesday, July 28, following a collision involving two cyclists and a vehicle towing a trailer in Sodbury Road, Wickwar.
"The two cyclists were taken to hospital. The vehicle was not at the scene by the time officers arrived."
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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33 comments
And the police demonstrating prejudice in their report of the incident. A collision between a vehicle and cyclists, the driver was not present....is a fucking hit and run you wankers! A criminal act that should be reported as such. If a cyclist had hit a pedestrian and rode off, the story would be in the idiotic mail etc. with baying for law changes and the cyclist to be thrown in jail. It is this attitude to cyclists that fuels the moron mentality to believe it is only a minor infraction to bully, harass or injure cyclists.
"I thought, 'I'm not doing anything wrong',” he said.
( and indeed they weren't )
But this is rather a sad state of affairs - that even if hypothetically a cyclist were doing something "wrong" - either really, or just perceived to be - that it would somehow then bring into play a tariff of punishments from certain motorists. Vehicles are not there for the purpose of knocking lessons into other people, and vehicle-drivers are not the self-appointed dispensers of such punishments.
I'm thankful that most cyclists have not been run into by a vehicle as in this news item. But I bet pretty much every cyclist has received an aggressive reving; a chop across the bows; a nudge from a bumper; an incoming lurch. These certain motorists are using their 2-tonne vehicles as a weapon to intimidate other people. And the world seems desensitised to it, like it's not an actual threat if it's done using a car as opposed to say a brick.
And if each and every case were reported to the police, and if they did anything about it, then this would probably be just about the most prevalent violent crime there is - surely greater than muggings and non-vehicular threats and assaults
Yet we often just put up with it like it comes with the territory. World is screwed up.
Ok slightly off topic but I was looking through Wickwar on Google Maps streetview and came across what I assume was a close pass by the Maps car going through a thin light controlled section of road. The cyclist is heading to a little layby to let him through and is literally in the gutter but the car is alongside him before then and no way was it 1.5 meters. (The 'footage' starts here but go back one and it changes to a different time or day.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5957114,-2.400398,3a,75y,93.46h,83.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOdpapjND08C2ZaQ9E-eXGg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
As an aside slightly down look behind at the arse who parked up in that stretch on double yellows and across the pavement.
very sorry to hear of the trauma these cyclists have been subjected to. Wishing them a speedy recovery.
I hope the perpetrators are caught, and are charged with criminal offences. Motoring offences are not sufficient for wilful attacks like this
Another story of hyped up drivers taking out their frustrations on cyclists; tell me again how the continual anti-cycling drivel from middle-aged, porky white men isn't having an effect?
These cyclists did nothing wrong, couldn't have done anything to annoy the driver, but were still run off the road. Hopefully the witnesses will have enough info to identify and convict the driver of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, not just dangerous driving.
Yet another story that demonstrates the need for a camera on your bike.
While not the be all and end all, at least in cases like this there would be evidence to help bring the shits to book.
No, its a case for fitting cameras & sensors to vehicles. Cyclists filming incidents and reporting them to BiB adds a higher risks of retaliation as they are percieved as quasi-police. Make the collection of incriminating evidence impersonal and automated to emasculate these fools
Not a chance, and useless anyway. They will always be 'not working' if they incriminate the driver.
Plenty of cars already have cameras in them, including ones that the drivers actually buy and fit themselves.
The idea of the camera is so the victim has the evidence, not the perpetrator.
The only cameras in cars are the dashcams which are retro fitted, and always point to the front or rear, and parking cameras, which are usually fitted to the front, rear and door mirrors. What could make phone users think twice would be if there was a camera in the inside of the vehicle, pointing at the driver, as is fitted to many HGVs. If this became law it would have to be unable to be switched off. This could be a reality in the near future, if our data protection laws are relaxed or rewritten.
Or if blackbox insurance policies required it, then motorists might accept it as the trade-off for lower premiums. Win-win
The perpetrator won't know who complained unless it gets to court and they see each other. Even then, seems unlikely they would recognise them on the road.
A camera works for 1 to 2 hours max, what should we do on the longer rides? I go out for 6 to 10 hours, there's no camera which can record for that long.
I've a Fly 12 CE, and I get around 8 hours video only.
Alternatively, with an action cam, carry a spare battery, and a usb charger / power bank, and charge on the hoof. Action cam batteries are small and lightweight.
Or, just carry a USB power bank and charge while recording.
Or, if you want to spend the cash, get a hub dynamo so you can power your camera and lights in one go.
Or just a spare camera?
I toyed with the idea of a Schmidt front hub when I specced my new winter bike last year, but decided against it as I didn't think it would get the use. My friend fits them, and also fits a USB charger into the headset cap, for customers, usually on tourers. It's a great idea if you need to charge something on a ride.
I have a motorcycle dashcam on my commuting bike, 128Gb memory card and a 12000mAh power pack, it will record for 12+ hours.
How much does that weight and how much space is it taking up ?
Cycliq has decent battery life. I regulary do 4 hour + rides with them.
I've got a GoPro Hero 7 black, and have 4 batteries which I take out with me on rides. Coupled with a 64gb card, it sees me through all but the longest of rides. I keep the batteries dry by storing them in a small Noakes xs dry bags, 100% waterproof. Having owned a number of different cameras I find this to be the best option. I also take a compact rechargeable power pack in my pocket, its about the size of a mobile phone, but only a few mm thick, and can be used to charge my camera, or my Garmin, on the go if I am on a really long ride.
Do you have a special case to allow you to access the go pro USB slot whilst riding and filming?
Well being as he was taken out by the trailer, no guarantee it would have caught anything anyway.
I think you're forgetting the law about trailers displaying the same number plate as on the towing vehicle. In Lancashire, they have abandoned this law as well. An illegal camp of 'travellers' in Scorton near Garstang in May and June, on their way to an illegal gathering in Appleby, was ignored by the police despite photographic evidence that the vehicles and caravans all had different plates.
Nope, just stating that unless he had a rear cam, the Van's plate would have been probably been obscured by said trailer and then the side of the trailer would have take him out before the rear plate would have been in view of the camera. Yes his colleague might have got it before he crashed into his colleague but probably not.
If cyclists ever get forced to wear registration, we should insist that all vehicles have theirs displayed prominiently on all four sides AND the roof.
I run a Fly 12 CE on the front and a Fly 6 on the seat post.
The only angles I don't cover are the immediate left and right - but then if you get broadsided it's pretty obvious who is at fault.
I was hit and almost killed in the arse end of no-where in August 2018. I have total memory loss of the accident, I couldn't even tell you the colour of the car that hit me.
I was lucky as there were paramedics a few cars behind me, who (I found out later) got my heart restarted a couple of times.
In my case, the driver couldn't really flee the scene (not saying he would have) as apparently I was imbedded in his windscreen and there were plenty of witnesses; but if he had of, there was no evidence of the car that hit me, and as it was out in the sticks, no CCTV either.
Since my accident, I've got the cameras - and I won't ride without them.
We have to protect ourselves however we can, even if it's providing posthumous evidence.
Sorry to hear that.
I do run a handlebar cam (go pro I won filling out a post conference survey) which caught a non stopping driver who took me out on an island within a week of fitting it. I was lucky that he caught my front wheel which twisted the camera straight onto his reg plate otherwise it wouldn't have caught anything. Also lucky it was only bruised or cracked ribs and no damage to the bike.
I now also wear a helmet cam after a side swipe attempt and an attempted passenger push which wasn't captured properly The front camera. Of course I still submitted to wm police but as they only tell you anything if it goes to court, I have heard nothing back even after chasing.
Front and rear facing camera for the win... rear camera gets not only the licence plate but potentially also an identifiable pic of the driver.
I've been trialling the cam plus powerbank option, seems to work quite well. It takes a bit longer to set up but not a material amount in the context of the overall prep time for an 8hr ride. Batter(ies) sit can sit in a mini backpack or seat bag. On GoPro you can use the time-lapse feature to get the whole ride into a smaller memory space. You dont get sound but it's perfectly good to see all you need for any incident
It would be interesting if the police will accept time lapse though.
I think velo-drone probably means filming at 25 fps instead of 50 fps type of time-lapse. Slower frame rates are likely to miss what you need, and 50% reduction in storage is already pretty good. When I last looked into this, I abandoned it because you lose the appreciation of the speed of the vehicle and I hadn't worked out how to order the software to play it at 25 fps rather than 50. Presumably there is a way to do this, but it would be a pity if this required some form of further video editing
Pikeys, AKA The Untouchables.
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