Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Jeremy Vine's lucky escape as bike run over by reversing driver who turned onto cycle lane

"Unbelievable": The BBC and Channel 5 presenter said about the incident in central London this morning...

Jeremy Vine has shared footage of a terrifying and shocking incident in London this morning which left him desperately banging on the back of a van as the driver reversed over his bike having turned onto a stretch of cycling infrastructure.

The presenter and broadcaster, who works for the BBC and Channel 5 and documents his cycling travels around London through videos posted to his Twitter account, appeared to be unharmed in the incident, which happened near Euston.

Calling it "unbelievable", he shared the footage with his 788,000 followers, captioning the post: "This morning. About an hour ago. Illegal right turn, then watch. Unbelievable."

In the video, Vine can be seen cycling towards the Tavistock Square junction with Bedford Way when a van driver turns across his path onto the latter street.

Jeremy Vine video 13/09/2023 (Twitter)

However, the driver makes the turn too soon and turns onto a strip of segregated cycling infrastructure approaching the traffic lights.

As Vine calls out and honks his horn to the driver, the van stops, before the driver reverses back out of the infrastructure hitting Vine whose Brompton goes under the vehicle as he shouts out and bangs on the back door.

Jeremy Vine video 13/09/2023 (Twitter)
Jeremy Vine video 13/09/2023 (Twitter)

A passer by can be heard shouting 'stop' while another vehicle blares its horn at the driver in attempt to catch their attention.

At the end of the clip, the van driver moves forward, releasing Vine's bike from under it, as the scene unfolds next to a 'give way to oncoming cycles' sign. When the driver exits the vehicle he asks Vine: "Are you okay, sir" and wheels the bike to the side of the road.

Some have accused Vine of going through a red light at the start of the junction, however it appears to just be the effect of his 360-degree camera making the traffic light for drivers coming from the right of shot look like it is facing a different direction.

 Responding to one person saying it was red, Vine replied: "It's green, Monica. Don't drive. Please."

Tavistock Square (Google Maps)

As recently as Friday, Vine took to X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter, to appeal to motorists to stop making right turns across the path of cyclists, a manoeuvre he said was "making it dangerous to use a bicycle".

> "Stop this": Jeremy Vine appeals to motorists over manoeuvre "making it dangerous to use a bicycle"

Last month, he made the case for drivers being told not to overtake cyclists in major cities, adding that he would like to see motorists pull over if they see him behind them "because they know I'm faster".

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

Add new comment

125 comments

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to perce | 1 year ago
12 likes
perce wrote:

I remember general rubbish splutterer. They were quite a good band but never really capitalised on their early success.

I think some of the GPS band members re-formed as Creepy Obsession, didn't they? They were mainly famous for following other bands around, trying to disrupt their gigs, getting thrown out and then claiming it was the other bands who were obsessed with them.

Avatar
perce replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
7 likes

Yep, it's a sad story really - they all changed their names so much they forgot who each other were and faded into obscurity, apart from one member (probably the drummer) who still hangs around like some ghostly figure yearning for the past.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to perce | 1 year ago
3 likes
perce wrote:

I remember general rubbish splutterer. They were quite a good band but never really capitalised on their early success.

You're poking the bears today!  It's GENERAL RUBBISH SPLUTTERER.  Just like MF DOOM one of their quirks was demanding people adhere to their chosen capitalisation.

Unfortunately this was unpopular with journalists (who felt they were seeking controversy*) and meant that people thought they were shouting all the time.  This further worked against them as they were noted exponents of mumblecore and punk audiences (and Boris Johnson fans) felt let down.

* As opposed to Action Man Seeking Controversy - who were actually named after a personal ad they saw in the back of the Henley Gazette.

Avatar
brooksby replied to perce | 1 year ago
4 likes
perce wrote:

rubbish splutterer.

Didn't they split up into Plastic Recyclers and General Waste?  They tried to go in very different directions, but ended up on the same bill, IIRC...

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

I may be getting confused here but though Plastic Recyclers and General Waste were dancehall act?  Noted for producing all of their "versions" from a single record - "Rub-a-dub-ish Argument".  Now commonly found in the bargin bin in charity shops.

Pages

Latest Comments