Driver Daisy Abela, who has been at the centre of a Twitter storm over after she claimed to have “purposely run over” a cyclist, says she has spoken to the police about the incident, that she was not drunk and it was not a hit and run.
Asked to explain what had happened, Ms Abela told road.cc: “Just to clarify I have been in touch with the Metropolitan Police. This incident happened at 9am. I was not drunk and nor was it a hit and run.”
Yesterday, Ms Abela wrote on Twitter: “Just had a full on barney with a cyclist he started banging on my roof so I purposely run him over LOL see yaaaaa #c**ts”
"Trolls"
Contacted today by road.cc, Ms Abela said: “There are too many internet trolls involving themselves in this situation when it is being dealt with by the police.”
Ms Abela declined to give an account of what had actually happened, “at the moment ... I will be speaking to the police and will contact you further based on their advice.”
She and several of her friends claimed that Abela had been harassed by other Twitter users after her initial postings.
“I will be speaking to the police today in order to discuss the harassment I have been receiving and how best to resolve this situation,” she said.
Ms Abela said that her tweets about the incident, “have been placed together by internet trolls and blown way out of proportion.
“The only thing I am guilty of is writing a silly tweet, which I regret and apologise for.”
While denying that the incident was as serious as her initial tweets made it sound, Ms Abela said she did understand how bad they looked.
She said: “The tweets look ridiculous reading them back but I thought the conversation was between me and a friend who understood I was joking. I did not realise this conversation would end up public and lead to thousands of people harassing me.
“I will be making a public apology for any offence that I caused other cyclists.”
"It never happened"
Several friends of Ms Abela’s took to Twitter to defend her today, variously claiming that she had already spoken to the police, the incident was not a hit and run, the cyclist involved had not been injured and had not even been knocked off his bike.
However, initially none of those claiming to know Ms Abela were prepared to say whether they had been in the car at the time of the incident, or which police force Ms Abela had spoken to.
Then Robyne Frew took to Twitter to claim that she was in the car at the time of the incident. “She was taking me to work,” said Ms Frew. “[The cyclist] hit the wing mirror but didn't fall off and carried on riding.”
Asked if she’d seen Ms Abela deliberately hit the cyclist, Ms Frew replied, “He hit the wing mirror himself! He had his head in the passenger window.”
Several Twitter users expressed mystification at Ms Abela’s claim to have ‘purposely’ hit a cyclist.
“I'm not trying to justify what the tweet said,” replied Ms Frew. “I've read it. And it never happened.”
She explained Ms Abela’s claim to have been “definitely still drunk” as “banter between her and 1 other person.”
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40 comments
Driving Miss Daisy needs to grow the fuck up and stop blaming others for her own trolling, ignorant and self-entitled behaviour.
We almost got run down by a white van hurling abuse at us on a clubrun yesterday, apart from the abuse all we really noticed was the smell of weed coming out of the vehicle.
Shame this country is full of such twats isn't it.
Had that so many times, and never been totally sure about how to tackle it...
The driver's attitude is common enough: a combination of being aggresive behind the safety of a car window while resenting anything that may even slightly hold up her progress. A negative attitude can even be seen sometimes in the approach of Courts and among police in such matters.
The law does not provide sufficient protection for cyclists - the Highway Code is too "soft". Unprotected cyclists are also too soft when colliding with metal. Proper legislation is needed, creating strict liability or equivalent when motorists hit cyclists. It does not happen because the motoring lobby is far more powerful and ultimately carries more clout.
Emma Way, who Abela seems to have mimicked, left the scene of an accident in May, having negligently hit another cyclist. That is pretty serious even if the chap was lucky enouigh not to be seriously injured. The Court should send a strong message of disapproval in dealing with this matter and the cyclist should sue her.
Unwittingly she has put a spotlight on this whole issue of posturing motorists who dislike the idea of anyone apart from them using the road. Time for change...
If you had reported it immediately, the driver would have been arrested for DUI.
If you did nothing, you allowed him to get away with doing it to others.
Very true pmr - a high profile damages claim or well publicised prosecution of either Ms Way or Abela sends the only message this sort of driver - a small but dangerous minority - will understand. A motor vehicle is a big powerful tool and does a lot of damage in the wrong person's hands unfortunately...
Sometimes you don't have that option.
I got ran off the road last week by some tosser in a van towing a caravan, whilst I was considering setting off after him I noticed it was an Irish reg and he was being followed by similar transits and caravans.
Do you really think the police would have been any use? And I sure as hell wasn't got to take on a full gang of knackers on my own on a quiet road.
At 17 they can't have a pint but are allowed to take charge of a car on the road after passing a test that only covers the bare minimum of skills required to do so. Doesn't really make sense does it?
https://www.gov.uk/alcohol-young-people-law
I was taught that is was cider or perry. But that was a long time ago. Yours, in pedantry
There's always one! Think you get my sentiment though - the driving test needs to be more expansive and a fair bit harder.
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