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news
Video: Passenger gets out of car to confront cyclist for riding in primary position (includes swearing)
A cyclist in Surrey has filmed the moment a passenger got out of a car to confront her because she was riding in primary position – however, police have said they will not be investigating the incident.
The rider, named Katherine, filmed the incident on her way home from work in Esher on the evening of Thursday 4 November.
She told road.cc: “I reported the incident to the police, who recently contacted me to let me know they would not be investigating the incident further, meaning the men in the video will not receive any communication from the police, as confirmed by the officer I spoke to.
“While I find that extremely frustrating, considering the stress and anxiety the men put me through, I would at least like to share the video so other cyclists in the Surrey area may be a bit more wary should they come across these men,” she added.
There’s one specific aspect of the video that underlines how some road users single out cyclists for abuse – namely, that even if there had been no-one on a bike on the road in question, the vehicle and its occupants would not have got through the junction any quicker, due to the Audi in front of them.
Would the passenger have got out of the car to give the driver of that vehicle a piece of his mind? Somehow we doubt it, and Katherine agreed.
“Exactly, had they succeeded in overtaking me on that road, they would still have been stuck behind the other car,” she said.
"The police officer told me the car I reported is registered in Walton on Thames, so the odds of coming across them are reasonably high, considering I have a few colleagues travelling from that area to Esher.
“However, the officer insisted the ongoing risk to me is low so they would not be speaking to these men.
“So now, these men have gone on thinking what they did is acceptable and will probably do the same or worse to another cyclist. But ‘the police don't operate under what if statements’, or so I was told.”
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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68 comments
Katherine, you were completely in the right in your cycling and it's very disappointing that the police took no action. I hope this intimidation and threatening behaviour doesn't put you off.
Hi, Katherine here. Thank you for your kind words! I am now making sure to leave work when it's still "light" outside, if only to improve video quality.
It is very disappointing about the police; their attitudes towards the more vulnerable road users leaves a lot to be desired.
This case does take the shine off Surrey Police's reputation, and is rather disappointing. The lack of action would be entirely normal for Lancashire, except that they would not have responded at all and thereby would not have declared they wouldn't be taking any action. It is now well over 3 months since the nutter driver of BMW PK14 HLW close passed me then threatened to 'fucking flatten' me and to knock me off my bike- all on immaculate video. It would have continued on the usual path of no response at all if I hadn't continually harassed them after reporting the aggression online and by phone. It's 2 1/2 months since the first officer asked me to set up an appointment for providing a statement. Then it went completely silent despite my repeated reminders. Then that officer became suddenly 'not on operational duties' and the case ended up with another PC who interviewed aforementioned nutter but then claimed to have been transferred to another area, unspecified. I offered to cycle out to 'another area', within reason, but there has been no response beyond a non-specific request to 'discuss the case' at some unspecified date in the future- the enire incident is on video so there's nothing much to discuss. This has clearly been a 'go very slow' and is now probably moving to a 'there's nothing we can do' dodge. They don't like stating that in an email and prefer a meeting which can't be recorded and which they can later say was 'misunderstood'. I have written saying that 'we're not going to do anything' can be more efficiently written down if that is LC's intent. We shall see
I admire your perseverence. Good luck.
Worth a read and also the blog articles which contain the detail:
https://road.cc/content/news/50682-persistence-pays-cycling-lawyer-motorist-who-threatened-kill-him-convicted
I think you must have previously fallen for Road CC's unwarranted fawning over Surrey when in fact this inaction is no surprise whatsoever to cyclists living here.
A very threatening situation for the woman, and I'm surprised that the police have taken no action; maybe if she'd been driving a car they would have?
AAAAAAAAAGH; return of the giant full screen advertisments!
No action on aggressive and physical intimidation of a lone female by 2 males.
Shame on you Surrey Police
Interesting that some forces like to threaten prosecution to lone riders who swear when they come close to death, but this action, which constitutes verbal abuse, nothing
And maybe now Road CC will stop their stupid love-in with Surrey Police and realise that they're as bad as the rest at taking action when given evidence by cyclists.
You're quite right, this isn't a Road Traffic matter, it's a public order offence. Lone female threatened by 2 males at night time and the police do nothing!
This is a crime and should been recorded as such and investigated.
The fact that the officer didn't think that it was unlikely to happen again has nothing to do with it. It's how the victim feels about the situation.
This is indicative about how trivially many (not all) police officers see the intimidation of women. This closes off the public space to access by women. it's facking negligence.
Hello, Lone female here. It was recorded to the best of my knowledge, just not to be continued as an investigation. The officer repeated multiple times that they have been told by their higher-ups not to investigate on "what-ifs". So basically, until these men actually injure a cyclist, they won't do anything. Which is why I wanted to share the video; if you're in the area, be extra careful of this car and these muppets.
I genuinely wonder if certain Police forces make a balanced judgement based on financial budget between actively pursuing road safety or training liaison Officers to break bad news to relatives waiting for someone to come home.
At the very least those guys need some words of advice and put on notice about their future behaviour.
That's terrible. It wasn't a what if, it actually happened. It was intimidation and harassment, pure and simple. I'm really sorry you had to experience that
Hmm. I wonder what the views of Surrey Police are on violence against women, I think the gender of the cyclist is probably relevant here.
Surrey Police response is not one which will build the confidence of women in going out alone.
I would imagine a tweet to Surrey RPU might get a different response (or a more fairminded reason why they can't take action in this instance). Even words of advice at this stage would be better than nothing.
Thanks to the parked cars on the other side of the road she'd have had to cycle inches away from the kerb...in order for the car to close pass her by inches...FFS, why aren't the Police having a word here?
Tbh, a bit like the some of the Vine posts, if she had cycled more to the left, the driver would have had to close pass to get by. If they couldn't get by in the two bits of non parking, they weren't getting through elsewhere.
He also didn't seem to notice that they would have only been two yards further ahead at the spot they decided they were so much in a rush in, they had to get out and confront the cyclist and waste THEIR precious time.
Exactly what I was thinking. The same Surrey police who put this tweet out (23 June 2021) in response to a similar incident ...
Dear Meg,
We’ve DM’d you.
Yours sincerely,
The Police x
— Roads Policing Unit (RPU) - Surrey Police - UK (@SurreyRoadCops)
Oh well, or perhaps it's a different Surrey police force. The mind boggles.
Different Police officers and locations within Surrrey more like.
Err, same force.
Same force, different unit, doesn't mean that these events get treated the same way.
And? The twitter guy works for one unit. The Police involveed here might work for another. Mark Hodgson (and Steve Hudson) did great work promoting submitting video evidence and talking on close passes and dangerous driving around vulnerable users. Unfortunately other people on trhe force are not as strident. Same here.
Are you the same person who left the comment below on this article https://road.cc/content/news/aggressive-driver-meltdown-after-close-pass-cyclists-286251 about a totally psychotic driver who was screaming and swearing like a banshee at cyclists and followed them into town to continue attacking them? Why, it's almost as if you're a stinking hypocrite!
Your attempts to defend your stupid comments get weaker by the day. It's sad. You really do need to seek help.
Trendy Rendy.
Lost the argument, so resorts to ad homs.
Thanks, Rendy - you've certainly showed us all the extent of your reasoning powers.
.
I guess now you are simply a sock puppet account or a pathetic attempt at being a wum.
Lost the argument - I would ask you to justify that but previous posting are that you post and run away. Then come back a few days later to snipe from the sidelines in another thread.
Do you have anything at all to say on the actual point of the thread?
Sad isn't it - one is reminded of the kids who hang around behind the school bully pretending they're hard.
'
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