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news
Shaldon Road, Bristol (Google Street View)20-year-old female cyclist followed and assaulted by road rage driver after gesturing for him to give her space
Police in Bristol have launched an appeal for witnesses after a female cyclist was assaulted by a motorist, who followed her before attacking her and kicking her bike after she gestured for the driver to give her space on the road, in a shocking road race incident.
According to Avon and Somerset Police, the 20-year-old cyclist was riding on Bristol’s Shaldon Road, at about 11.20am on Wednesday 10 April, when she attempted to warn the driver of a black Land Rover Discovery that he was driving too closely to her.
The cyclist’s gesture, however, appears to have incensed the motorist – a man in his late 50s or early 60s – who then followed the 20-year-old before getting out of his car and assaulting her.
> Police appeal over "serious assault" that saw cyclist pushed from bike by car passenger
The man also kicked the cyclist’s bike and shouted obscenities at her during the alarming road rage attack.
The motorist eventually drove off after three women came to the victim’s aid.
As part of their appeal for witnesses and footage of the incident, Avon and Somerset Police have described the attacker as white, 6ft tall, bald, and with a greying goatee beard. He was also wearing jeans and a t-shirt at the time of the assault.
Anyone who has any information has been asked to contact Avon and Somerset Police by calling 101 and providing the reference number: 5224099814.
Unfortunately, similar attacks on female cyclists in the UK are nothing new. In December, we reported that a passing motorist verbally abused and repeatedly swerved his vehicle at a female cyclist in an unprovoked attack in Pendle, Lancashire.
“The road in that location is both fast and wide and it’s very unlikely a passing motorist would even be slightly inconvenienced by the presence of a cyclist – not that this would be a valid excuse,” the cyclist’s husband, who was riding with her on the day of the alleged assault but had dropped back after experiencing a mechanical issue when the attack took place, told road.cc.
“Yet the driver pulled alongside my wife and leaned over the passenger seat of his car and began verbally abusing her for being a cyclist. Once he’d finished doing so, he then used his vehicle to swerve at her, forcing her towards the kerb, multiple times.
“My opinion is that this is not simply a public order offence, but under CPS guidelines would constitute assault with a vehicle.”
However, despite the severity of the incident, an error made by police staff at the time the incident was reported – which saw a control room operator mistakenly close the cyclists’ initial report, delaying the investigation – led to the driver escaping punishment for actions described by the cyclist’s husband as “beyond abusive”.
Last October, a West Midlands-based mum-of-two, who was cycling to school with her children, was assaulted by a driver who was apparently frustrated that he had been unable to overtake them on a road lined with parked cars, with the motorist telling the children that he was going to “beat up” their mother before attempting to damage her bike.
And in January, the shocking extent to which women cycling in London face a constant barrage of verbal and physical abuse, sexual harassment, and intimidation from motorists and other road users was laid bare in a revealing report from the London Cycling Campaign, which found that nine out of ten women who ride their bikes in the capital have experienced abuse, with over one in five claiming that such experiences forced them, at least temporarily, to give up cycling.
The report, titled ‘What Stops Women Cycling in London?’, was based on a survey of over 1,000 women who cycle in London, 77 per cent of whom say they experience harassment and intimidation at least once a month.
According to the report, “get off the road” was by far the most common form of verbal abuse aimed at women cycling, while taunts of “bitch” and “slut”, unsolicited photos and sexual comments, groping or slapping when stopped at traffic lights, and accusations of poor parenting when cycling with children were also appallingly prevalent.
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.
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19 comments
I hope someone got the reg plate of the vehicle and has given that to the cops. Threatening behaviour foolowed by assault. the driver could be looking at jail time. I hope the young woman isn't too put off riding by this encounter with a complete t***3r.
Cunts in land rovers. 10 a penny unfortunately.
I thought that but I am also pleased that the landrover/Range Rover brigade are not as prevalent as Audi's 😱
Yep, small victories eh.
Marginal gains.
"the motorist – a man in his late 50s or early 60s"
What a fucking surprise. 🙄
Gammon.
How incisive. Really contributing to the debate there. You forgot about bald. We all know that bald people are fascists.
Is there a fascist bingo card similar to the cyclist bingo card? Might help with identifying them. Bit more challenging if there a cycling fascists.
Identifying cycling fascists is easy - it's anyone who quotes The Rules with a straight face.
Shocking story, can't believe these morons live amongst us. Unless there is part of the story missing like she smashed his windows with a baseball bat I'm struggling to see what provoked someone to get so angry to chase and then beat up someone on a bike.
I remember reading the outcome of a Court case a few years ago, where the arm of a cyclist had knocked the door mirror of a driver's car, which was stationary in traffic.
The driver pursued the cyclist and deliberately knocked him down. The driver then reversed over the body of the cyclist three times, to make sure he was dead, and then drove away.
The driver was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Shirley, you mean a 'road rage' incident or were they racing ?
Surely you mean surely 🤣, joking aside , another apparently unprovoked attack on a cyclist , what sort of world do we live in !
One promoted by both of our main shyster parties where the motorist is claimed to be far more im[portant than anyone else.
Both Sunak and Starmer should hang their heads in shame.
Utter wankers, the pair of them.
Sure. This is all Starmer's fault.
Since May 1997, the number of Road Traffic Police Officers has dropped by about 80%; there are now just 1/5th of the numbers.
55% of the number of RT Police Officers were lost during the last Labour Government.
I am not expecting any change in roads policing or road safety with the next Labour Government.
Conservative, Labour and Libdems are all pursuing the votes of motorists, which now make up the majority of voters (sad but true fact).
That's a good point but 100% of voters are pedestrians, why aren't they supporting us. 100% of voters have to live on this planet but no one seems interested in climate change apart from the Greens. I think this faith in supporting drivers is misplaced. It seems to me it is based on the result of one by election where a tory candidate managed to win a seat after supporting the removal of a new ULEZ zone. The real reason for the result was that the opposition vote was split allowing the tory candidate in, the majority of votes went to the other candidates who, as far as I know, did not support the removal. It was a result of NON tactical voting in a first past the post system.
The Uxbridge and South Ruislip results
Danny Beales - Labour Party - 13,470
Steve Tuckwell - Conservative Party - 13,965
Blaise Baquiche - Liberal Democrats - 526
Sarah Green - Green party - 893
Laurence Fox - Reclaim Party - 714
Piers Corbyn - Let London Live - 101
Cameron Bell - Independent - 91
Count Binface - Count Binface Party - 190
Richard Hewison - Rejoin EU - 105
Rebecca Jane - UKIP - 61
Enomfon Ntefon - Christian People's Alliance - 78
Leo Phaure - Independent - 186
77 Joseph - Independent - 8
Kingsley Hamilton - Independent - 208
Ed Gemmell - Climate Party - 49
Steve Gardner - Social Democratic Party - 248
Howling Hope - Official Monster Raving Loony Party - 32
Ah... Binface split the alternative vote there.
On "pedestrians" - we all do *some* walking but by distance and probably time *between* places we are likely drivers, bus / train users etc.
While shoes are ways of signalling status (like choice of car) getting around by walking generally isn't seen as prestigious. (Driving isn't necessarily either, it's more a matter of those who don't / can't lowering their status). We don't pay "pavement tax"*, nor have walking licences. What you don't pay for / aspire to...
Meanwhile...
* Of course if we pay tax, we're paying "road tax", "pavement tax" etc...