Collision and then deliberately hit by car

[Tonyf33]

So I'm riding back from Hitchin 30mph road https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Nighti ... 8.9,,0,5.4, sees a women driver trying to pull out from the left onto the main road and as traffic is busy (so cars behind couldn't overtake anyway) I gently slow and stop to let her across/in. She misses the first chance and then gets a gap about 5-6 seconds later. In the meantime chap behind me is on the horn so I shout back I'm letting her through, he then runs right up to the back of me and hits (not very hard) the rear mudguard denting it onto the tyre.
I then turn around & tell him he's just struck me and after him mouthing some more words tries to steer around me looking to escape in my opinion so I block him by turning the bike sideways on with me behind it. He stops then all of a sudden he drives straight at me striking the left crank pushing me and the bike backwards a bit.

I lose my cool at this point and punch a dent in his bonnet & kick his bumper.
Then he gets out starts giving it your on a bike, you can't let people out, your holding up traffic, are you (another word for) inebriated to which i ask him is he (he's a muslim so says he doesn't drink)..blah blah blah. I tell him he has just assaulted me by driving into me the second time after I blocked you from trying to drive away.
Gives it 'I've got my 'elderly' grandmother & child in the car', 'I'm pulling into the garage not escaping', that the garage was 20-30 metres away why was 5 seconds out of his life enough to provoke him to deliberately drive into someone especially since he had vulnerable family in the car also!! .

I call the police and tell them what happened, he (plod) says it is just an RTC and you can exchange insurers if you like and that he has had some words with the driver. So i said he has deliberately driven into me after trying to drive away, he says people aren't so patient these days when I say i 'held him up' for about 5-6 seconds, that when he arrived I was the agressor because I was waving my arms around, yeah because some toe-rag having driven into you on purpose then tries to blame you on the basis that I'm a bike that shouldn't allow cars out &/or I'm inebriated>etc isn't going to provoke emotions idiot.

I've got a scratch and some of his paint on my crank and a minor scratch to the paint on the non drive chainstay and no harm to the mudguard really.
I've got the reg of the car but can't be buttocked to do anything else because it'll go no-where considering the don't give a flying one attitude of plod and at the moment I've got better things to worry about.
Comment away, bad or otherwise.

[Mark1978]

No good deed goes unpunished.

The difference is if you were driving a car and let someone out. He wouldn't have given it a second thought.

[AlanD]

Name and shame!
Let us all know who it was.

[661-Pete]

This isn't going to be helpful at this stage, sorry, but you need witnesses. Good, reliable, impartial witnesses. The driver may have behaved like a total **** but, as far as the police are concerned, it's still 'your word against his'. You say the road was busy, did no-one come forward? I'm not surprised, most onlookers adopt the 'not my problem, don't want to get involved' attitude.

To put it another way, if anyone on this forum were to witness a collision, would you come forward and offer a statement? To the insurers? To the police? I have done so at least twice in recent years. I feel it is one's 'public duty as a citizen' or whatever the right phrase is (and whatever that means)....

But other people can't be ****ed...

[reohn2]

Sorry to hear about it Tony,you've my sympathies
I can't see it going anywhere,but one thing's for sure though,a strict liability law would've solved the problem there and then if not avoided it happening altogether.

[Tonyf33]

I've amended my potty mouth, sorry everyone.
There were plenty of witnesses, two guys were standing on the corner of the street but by the time I had managed to phone the police and they arrive they were gone, I was more bothered about the idiot getting away more so after he'd rammed me.
After I was knocked off last February and the driver drove off there was no way I was letting him just drive off.

[stoobs]

Make sure you get an incident number from the police. Make sure you get his insurance details, then make a claim for damages and injuries. With a well-written description, it is in the interest of the insurers to settle rather than to involve a lengthy claims process and solicitors.

PM if you want more details.

[Tonyf33]

I've sustained no injuries aside froma bruised toe from kicking the car in anger and the damages are so minimal ot isn't worth the hassle. As I had dented the vehicles bonnet with my fist which I admitted to the officer he suggested to the driver and myself that no details need be exchanged. I was reluctantly satisfied with that . If i hadn't of lost my rag and hit back l would have taken it further, given it was pretty clear the officer wasn't going to do anything formal with regard to the driving standard and that he (the officer) had conflicting stories (no poop sherlock) then at the end of the day there is no value in me pursuing for a scratch on the crank and a minor scatch on the frame.

[[XAP]Bob]

I've sustained no injuries aside froma bruised toe from kicking the car in anger and the damages are so minimal ot isn't worth the hassle. As I had dented the vehicles bonnet with my fist which I admitted to the officer he suggested to the driver and myself that no details need be exchanged. I was reluctantly satisfied with that . If i hadn't of lost my rag and hit back l would have taken it further, given it was pretty clear the officer wasn't going to do anything formal with regard to the driving standard and that he (the officer) had conflicting stories (no poop sherlock) then at the end of the day there is no value in me pursuing for a scratch on the crank and a minor scatch on the frame.

The value is in you hitting him in the premiums...

[Geriatrix]

The value is in you hitting him in the premiums...

I would love to read the lies he puts on his claim form. I bet it won't read "bonnet damaged by irate cyclist in response to me intentionally driving into him".

[Slidingpillar]

Assuming that is, he has insurance...

If you have his registration, lie and say you own the car (otherwise it'll cost you to find out) here

[Tonyf33]

Plod checked he had insurance already, I've got better things to be wasting my time on frankly. IF plod had been bothered to pursue it as I wanted to due to the fact he deliberately drove at me I would have. As it stands they aren't so there's no value in me wasting my time further on it.

[iviehoff]

I lose my cool at this point and punch a dent in his bonnet & kick his bumper.

Unfortunately this bit means you aren't going to get anywhere. You committed an act of criminal damage, for which a conviction would get you a criminal record, which is a big deal, no matter how minor the crime. Any attempt by you to get their acts taken seriously will result in that counterclaim. The police will remind you of this, and thus ensure both of you go away and don't bother them.

In situations like this, it is very easy to get wound up, but any act of aggression by you completely loses you the moral high ground. In another similar situation, where in fact my bicycle and spectacles were completely written off by the car driver's appalling actions, I merely slapped the car with the flat of my hand, and the driver used this to assert criminal damage to the police (there was some minor pre-existing damage to the car in a different location he claimed resulted from this). The police used that to ensure we both no longer troubled them. Important lesson.

[[XAP]Bob]

And yet the police here have backed me up on every occasion I've fended off a car - breaking a number of wing mirrors.

Last year when I was assaulted the motorist phoned the police as he claimed I'd damaged his car. Didn't get him very far - well it got him to court, and a conviction...

[BSRU]

The police are not interested in incidents when it comes down to one persons word against another especially if no-one is injured.
Sad to say it is one of the reasons more road users, especially vulnerable road users, resort to having cameras to record their journey.