VIDEO: Van driver forces cyclist off road; QC offers help to sue

Jesus he could of easily killed him. Premeditated attack!

If this driver isn't prosecuted then there really is no hope left for any cyclist.

^ what he said.

That said, fair play to vidette .  Policing the roads is not their responsibility - it's, erm, the police's (and DVLA, etc).  Assuming they pay tax (and I see no reason not to assume that), they're as entitled as anyone else to expect a driving license to mean "this person is fit for the road". 

I would say they've at the very least met their duties, and quite possibly gone beyond.  Especially if they're being truthful about the driver's "bad day".  Sympathy is NOT a bad quality.  Excusing recklessness is. 

Kudos to the guy for staying upright. That was some Sagan-esque bike handling!

On a more serious note, if this isn't taken up by the CPS this has to be a private prosecution. If it were up to me he'd be done for attempted murder.

Good skills by the rider there, he went with the flow. If he'd resisted he may well have ended up under the wheels.

that's attempted murder, not poor driving 

Let's hope the Cycle Defense Fund gets to work on this.

I think that's a fair response and thoughtful from the company.  The driver needs to be prosecuted though, ultimately he's used a vehicle as a weapon and could easily have killed someone.  There aren't any excuses or justification. 

Did 4 hours today and 5 close shaves. Think everyone has at least on on each spin

remember the following are all acceptable reasons for delay on a journey
horses
tractors
Milkfloat
learner drivers
people storing their cars on the public highway causing an obstruction
too many cars trying to us the road st once.

but it us not acceptable to be delayed by a cyclist who doesn't want to be passed where the road is too narrow.

Also remember that one person in a car is entitled to more road space than six people on bikes.

bikelikebike, you really should stop driving, anywhere, not just in "Scandinavia"... And see a psychologist.

The number of wannabe forum lawyers here getting it all completely wrong is painful.
1. The cyclist is not at fault.
2. The van driver was not allowed to overtake while within the solid white line.
3. Anyone that thinks a court would accept cyclists position as mitigation should definitely consider a career as far away from law as possible.

Is it just me, but is that rather a less than sincere letter?

"My wife and I are both very keen cyclist ourselves so fully appreciate the impact/trauma that a near miss like this would have on anyone in this situation."  Both very keen cyclists, so that's good, but it wasn't a near miss, he hit the cyclist.

"He has been dismissed from immediate effect!"  Why would you put an exclamation mark at the end of that sentence?  Unless you didn't really mean it of course.

"This experience has made me realise that I can do something to help reduce this sort of behaviour on our roads so have decided to introduce a driver awareness course into our already busy H&S training matrix for all our employees."  Why would you bother mentioning that your "H&S training matrix" was busy?  Do they even have a "H&S training matrix"?  Do they even know what they are talking about?  This is prime grade management hogwash designed to deflect criticism.

The entire letter reads like the Dilbert management-speak dictionary of how to placate angry customers, and I didn't believe a word of it.

A simple, straightforward statement that the driver had been dismissed and that they were telling all drivers to obey the law and not endanger other road users would have been far more effective and believable.

Given its harder to appreciate what's happening from videos, looking at the top picture, and assuming double white lines - road's pretty similar to the double solid section -  where would the rider be positioned so that the van could make an overtake that is unequivocally safe for the rider?  On the grass? The van seems to be bashing the rider in a pretty meek secondary. For safety's sake (i.e. NOT gratuitously implementing the law as some seem to think), the rider may as well be anywhere at all in their lane AFAICS (well, assuming a nutter isn't following as here. obvs) .  Simples.

Gobsmacked. Seen some horrific footage recently but this could have been fatal. Hope the parties involved contact the police and get the QC mentioned.

Could presume that given there is a solid line on the driver's side the van could not ovetake without breaking the line and the law.   The cyclist may have bee 'taking the lane' as we are encouraged to do in tight situations.   Hugging the kerb just encourages close passes in my experience and filmed evidence.

I understand why the cyclist was riding away from the edge of the road.

If you look int he video, the van passes within inches, and swerves in. If the cyclist was against the kerb, he would have no wiggle room and would be in the ditch or under the vans wheels.

I tend to ride away from the kerb when I am going round corners or where there are solid white lines to give me this 1.5m escape zone. A vehicle may be able to squeeze through with oncoming traffic without crossing the line, but at least I can move over to prevent a collision. Put the safety on your terms, not the drivers.  If a driver doesn't give you enough space, you have that safe area to swerve into.

in short, the cyclist was doing the right thing, and therefore actually prevented a collision. By riding central, the van would risk his own life by passing into oncoming traffic, and self-preservation stopped the van trying an overtake into oncoming traffic. The cyclist also had room to escape when the van decided to bully past.

Also, the video is from a following cyclist. I wonder how the van ended up between the two of them, and whether the cyclists position was a reaction to a previous dodgy overtake?

Van driver deserved to be sacked for that outragous manouver ... he had a right to be angry, but using his van as a weapon is beyond belief ... should get jail time if I had my way.

Cyclist should not have been in the middle of the lane ... there was plenty of room for a safe overtake without him blocking the entire lane to other traffic. Do pedestrians/walkers put themselves in the middle of the road to stop vehicles overtaking (there are no pavements on that road)? No, because that would be way too dangerous. A bike is no wider than a pedestrian and not much faster when compared to other traffic. Glad he's ok, but imagine the carnage if he was two-abreast with a riding buddy.

Yes, I can understand my opinion will not be welcome, but as most here are themselves road cyclists it isn't surprising that most opionions will be fairly one-sided in regards to taking the lane. I will even do it myself when necessary, but I think in this example it was not.

Looks like someone has been sent back under his bridge.

lol where's bikelikebike comments gone, has the ban hammer finally come out. 

I think bikelikebike may have left the building, ladies and gentlemen (number of posts on this thread have halved overnight)

Not really a fan of banning outsider opinion or devil's advocates. This thread would just be a long rant of anger over the poor driving on display. Sometimes you need an unpopular, contrary or extreme opposite viewpoint in order to hone your own argument.

Bad language, excessive reference to Herr Hitler, racism, sexism, lgbt bashing etc etc are all grounds for getting banned. But winding people up with unpopular opinion surely has to be fair game for an internet forum?

If nothing else, the opposing viewpoint whether genuinely held or deliberately manufactured to outrage the indiginous self selected user group of a special interest forum helps us to share the devastating counter arguments to such opinions which some people out in the wider world do actually have with regard to cyclists and our rights as road users. Personally I have come to some different conclusions having read opinions on this site that I disagreed with and subsequently went and researched.

SuperPython 59, Willo and now BikeLikeBike. I salute fallen foes.