Is this a legal first? Cyclist's helmet cam footage helps convict driver

It's one of the most explosive reports I've seen, which is why I got it straight up on BikeHub.co.uk. Good to see you reporting on it, too. Lots of bike sites need to pick up this story and, er, bike with it.

Naturally, I'm rather interested in the 'road tax' bits and why DfT didn't stress it doesn't exist. Report author - I'll be charitible, it's Christmas - seemed to be clueless on VED and roads funding.

Apologies if I've restated anyone else's comments (there are quite a few), but:

The van driver used his vehicle as a weapon. He got off lightly. I could vent my spleen using lots of colourful words as would have been the case if it had been me on the bike. He should have got a custodial. Over 2 tonnes of metal against a person with an extra 9Kg of metal just illustrates that the van driver is perhaps the missing link science has been looking for.

Secondly: bright lights. Drivers have a point here (though not this one). I use twin Fenix LD20's on strobe mode in built up areas. Purely because I've come to learn that no matter how bright your lights are, people/cars/dogs/kids still won't see you. BUT an incident made me think different. A motorist pulled me over one day, and in a perfectly reasonable manner explained that flashing lights make it hard for a motorist to judge distance. I didn't agree with him at the time, but the message sunk in,and this winter I don't plan to use front or rear lights on strobe mode (fenix LD20's flash about 20 times a second, which is perhaps 'unhelpful'.

Thirdly: I was knocked off my bike 20 months ago and successfully won my case in court. I'm not blowing my trumpet - it was such a long drawn out dirge of an affair; it has made me reassess how I react to motorists who are either genuine arseholes, or who just make genuine mistakes. So, with or without camera, you have to gauge whether it's worth investing the effort in going for a prosecution. Though it's unfortunate that so many cyclists have to get knocked off in order to secure a prosecution (I refer to an earlier comment about the police having a 'friendly chat' with a motorist who cut somebody up... No one was hurt, so that's alright, eh?).

Spot on with this one, but camera doesn't give you impunity all of the time.

As to road tax or not -- the cyclist said when the driver argued he didn't pay the road tax "niether do you -- road tax hasn't been around since 1937" that is not an issue. Drivers also gripe that cyclist's don't pay gasoline taxes. So what? What fees or taxes I may or may not pay has nothin' to do with you choosing to attack me like a crazy person.

Seriously, if the driver was right about the road tax, or whatever, would it change the fact that he cut the cyclist off, deliberately obstructed him,a nd then threw debris at him on purpose after stating his ignorance at the top of his lungs?

This driver should be charged with assault and battery if he threw debris at a cyclist, not driving without due consideration or whatever. Cutting the cyclist off might have been a traffic infraction, if it was accidental -- what followed, including trying to pelt the cyclist with a bottle, was not a traffic infraction but a criminal matter, same as if the cyclist had, without just cause, bashed the driver int he head with a bottle. Throwing objects isn't a driving infraction, it's an attack. Would the police charge someone who did a drive by shooting with a traffic offense simply because he was in a car when he did it? Still, I guess as other cyclists we should be glad the idiot driver wasn't made out to be a victim of a viscious bicycle gang by a sympathetic media or legal system! I had this happen in New Jersey, USA -- passenger of a school team bus brained my in the head with a bottle going up a steep hill on a main road in evening rush hour traffic. I followed the bus back into town and made reports to the police. They let the coach investigate himself and surprise none of his players fessed up. Next time I'll storm the bus like Terminator. It's nice that the law works in some places, but that doesn't mean it works in others. In some small towns there's still the attitude that we have to protect the nice happy people fromt he consequences of their actiosn, so they can grow up to be serial killers or something. I mean, what other future can a person who bashes a bottle on yer head really have? (if you're even in Berkeley Hts. NJ, keep your head down, cops won't do crap to protect you even though they have nothing else to keep them busy).

Still, glad this cyclist got his day in court, even if some of us on the other side of the pond haven't.

Maybe the cyclist should have pulled the idiot driver out of his van and introduced his face to the road surface at high velocity?

Well done on the conviction. When I got clipped by a van a couple of months ago - the police showed little interest in it despite having footage.

The only issue I have with it all is that I do get confrontational.

My life is important to me, and when its threatened by idiots like shown in the clip above, I go into self preservation mode.

Perhaps I need anger management?

"I don't think I've ever been dazzled by a cyclist's rear light" etc -

look into a strobing 1 watt + red LED directly and say they're not a bit blinding ) a few brands make them now.

to a few here, pls just read what i was saying in context - it's at traffic lights / when stationary they can be an issue. and that was simply as an example of how some minor things add up to more stress for us on the road, wrongly or not. a common case of mionor point developing into a thread without being read by all?

anyway, that was not the main point i was trying to make, that of co-ordinated and less-specific points made towards promoting road sharing.

"Oi mate, I pay road tax too you know."