Cycling UK Forum

Out with a group of club mates today. 6 or 7 of us riding 2 abreast on a wide country road with hardly any traffic. Guy in a van overtakes, then immediately turned left down a farm track, causing us all to brake sharply to avoid him and each other. Luckily, no collisions. Me and another member of the group, followed him down the farm track and found him, changing into his overalls. When confronted about his driving, he said “So what” and shrugged. In his eyes, because he had not actually caused a crash he had done nothing wrong. We took a photo of him and his van and left to continue our ride.

This was just north of Bottesford, so I’ve reported the incident to Leics Police. So we’ll see if they do anything.

Unfortunately, I did not put my camera on for today’s ride, so no video evidence.

The photo is me talking to him, and his van, taken by my mate.

Thanks for reporting him, its appreciated. The chances are its probably not the first time that he's placed other road users in danger...
..Also fair play for doing the right thing and containing your anger.. if I had that happen to me and I was surrounded by my mates, I'm not 100% sure I'd keep mine, especially as weasel man driver appears to be half my size....

Note the juxtaposition :-
Bloke wearing hi-viz - presumably to keep himself safe in work environment - endangers others on the road.

cycle tramp wrote:Thanks for reporting him, its appreciated. The chances are its probably not the first time that he's placed other road users in danger...
..Also fair play for doing the right thing and containing your anger.. if I had that happen to me and I was surrounded by my mates, I'm not 100% sure I'd keep mine, especially as weasel man driver appears to be half my size....

+1 to all of that..

You have plenty of real witnesses no need for a camera.

cycle tramp wrote:The chances are its probably not the first time that he's placed other road users in danger...

You are almost certainly right and there are clues, the personalised number plate and the alloy wheels on a work van, really? His job as [inappropriate word removed] shoveller has clearly given him a complex and disdain for other road users is how it materialises. Pretty sure that family and friends would claim he wouldn't hurt a fly, doting father etc, etc but clearly he has no morality or thought of care for anyone outside of his bubble.

Sadly he's not the only one and Dick Dastardly driving has become all too common.

Perhaps he was in a mood cos his favourite excuse to slob on the sofa or prop up the bar sporting fixture had been cancelled. Poor lamb.
I think that’s an Irish reg plate. Does the tax status show up on the police system, I wonder?

peetee wrote:Perhaps he was in a mood cos his favourite excuse to slob on the sofa or prop up the bar sporting fixture had been cancelled. Poor lamb.
I think that’s an Irish reg plate. Does the tax status show up on the police system, I wonder?

Yes, I checked it. Taxed and insured until October 2020. Also gives details of MOTs and what failures it’s had.

cycle tramp wrote:Thanks for reporting him, its appreciated. The chances are its probably not the first time that he's placed other road users in danger...
..Also fair play for doing the right thing and containing your anger.. if I had that happen to me and I was surrounded by my mates, I'm not 100% sure I'd keep mine, especially as weasel man driver appears to be half my size....

I was absolutely seething inside, but it soon became apparent that nothing we said to him would make any difference. But we got his reg no and he admitted that it was him driving, so enough to give an accurate report.

I had a close pass recently, caught up the driver at the lights (how often does that happen?) and looked in at her window, she opened the window and before I opened my mouth started shouting 'that wasn't close, you don't know how to cycle, I used to cycle in London!' I did get in something about learning to drive properly before she wound the window back up!

Slowroad wrote:I had a close pass recently, caught up the driver at the lights (how often does that happen?) and looked in at her window, she opened the window and before I opened my mouth started shouting 'that wasn't close, you don't know how to cycle, I used to cycle in London!' I did get in something about learning to drive properly before she wound the window back up!

A clear admittance of guilt! She obviously knew she was too close and thought she'd get in her quip before you could start to rant.

But oh dear, you were so close i broke your mirror has IME been more effective than a rant - not that i condone such behaviour of course.

There are two types of bad driver: the ignorant driver who either doesn't understand what a cyclist needs, or how bad their driving is, or the consequences of an accident. Sometimes if they are prepared to listen, they can be educated. sometimes.

Then there is the psycho nutter %$£&* who almost certainly knows what the consequences are for you, but doesn't care, probably knows that their driving is rubbish and or homicidal, but doesn't care, and thinks everyone except themselves is inferior and should clear out of the way. This type it is best not to further antagonise because you're the one who loses. Collect data on this species, but talking to them is like talking to a brickwall crossed with an alligator. Alligators are primitive animals, kissing cousins of the dinosaurs. They have only limited brains:

They are instinctual living machines. An alligator's brain weighs only 8 or 9 grams and would take up only one-half of a tablespoon. This lack of brain power means there is no such thing as a "nice alligator." If it's hungry, an alligator will eat anything that moves.

The old brain — including the brain stem, medulla, pons, reticular formation, thalamus, cerebellum, amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus — regulates basic survival functions, such as breathing, moving, resting, feeding, emotions, and memory.

The psychotic self entitled driver also lacks the higher brain parts that sets apart the human from other creatures like the fruit flies or cockroaches. Their sense of reason is limited to "if I knock this cyclist over, will it delay me right now" They have no capacity to think something like "if I knock this Paediatrics doctor off their bike today, they might not be able to save my children's life tomorrow"

To which one can add:
Driver 3
Because of health, lifestyle or complacency is unfit to be behind the wheel.

Barks wrote:You have plenty of real witnesses no need for a camera.

Maybe not considered independent.

IME the van driver simply acted in an incompetent way that didn’t properly comprehend what was going on around him. The likely hood is that it wasn’t malicious driving but more the me first and (an I’ll informed) ‘I’m not doing any harm’ attitude. It’s usual for not very smart, guilty and embarrassed people to defend their corner but just sometimes friendly words from a position of strength do change behaviours or make folk think. If this was a ‘works’ Van then a word to an employer might have some effect too.