Police have released footage of the moment when a man shoved a female cyclist off her bike and into the road in Tower Hamlets. The incident, captured by the woman’s helmet cam, took place on Sidney Street, off Whitechapel Road, shortly after 6pm on Friday May 1.
As the woman turned onto Sidney Street, she passed a man who was crossing the road. “Please don’t try and knock me off,” she said.
The man swore at her and chased her down the street and as she slowed down near a junction, the man approached her again. “You want to put your finger up at me, you mug?” he shouted and then pushed her off her bike into the path of passing traffic.
The woman, who is in her early 40s, managed to get both herself and her bike out of the road to safety, out of the way of moving traffic. While she was said to have been very upset following the assault, she did not require medical treatment.
Paul Kitson from CTC, the national cycling charity and a Solicitor with Slater + Gordon, said: "When a pedestrian deliberately pushes a cyclist off a bike this is a criminal act. The appropriate offence depends upon the extent of the injury." According to CTC, the offence could be considered common assault, actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm.
Police believe the man be in his 40s and he was wearing dark clothing. Anyone who can identify him is asked to get in contact on 101 quoting images 180410, or by calling Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
53 thoughts on “Video: Man pushes female cyclist into traffic in East London – police appeal for witnesses”
Why is this only coming to
Why is this only coming to light about 4 months after the incident?
Ramuz wrote:Why is this only
=D>
Exactly. I’m guessing because the woman threatened to go Full Social Media on the Met for lack of action?
He looks much younger to me
He looks much younger to me than 40+.
40? I think they are
40? I think they are confused between his age and IQ. What a piece of scum. To push anyone off a bike into the road is sick. To push a woman, I can’t comprehend what twisted little mind he has.
I hope he is caught and nailed to the wall.
Traffic kills…therefore to
Traffic kills…therefore to push someone deliberately into it’s path is surely attempted murder? Course it won’t be though…it’s a cyclist so she should expect to be treated like this and if she hadn’t been wearing a helmet well, practically brings it on herself.
Oh I wish I wasn’t kidding 🙁
No, it’s not attempted murder
No, it’s not attempted murder unless he was attempting to murder her, which it seems he wasn’t. It’s assault, probably nothing more.
vonhelmet wrote:No, it’s not
I still don’t understand this obsession the law has with ‘intent’. Neither you, nor I, nor anyone else can possibly know what was in this character’s mind at the time he pushed her. All we can know he that he pushed her into a traffic flow, which has the potential to kill her. Why not judge actions, instead of guessing intents?
oldstrath wrote: All we can
Because the law only takes into account what actually happened and not any potential outcomes.
RedfishUK wrote:oldstrath
What von Helmet wrote above was ‘it seems he wasn’t trying to murder her’. That seems awfully like trying to judge someone’s intent to me.
oldstrath wrote:vonhelmet
The “obsession” with intent is because that’s what defines the distinction between a serious assault and attempted murder. To bring a case and try to prove that this man attempted to murder this woman you would have to show that by his actions he intended actually to kill her. It’s not enough to show that he assaulted her in a way that might have killed her. Any punch might kill someone but not every assault is attempted murder. Funnily enough murder is easier to define. If he had deliberately pushed her into the traffic and she was killed he would be up for murder whether or not he intended to kill her. But for the charge of attempted murder you would have to demonstrate that he fully intended to kill her and just failed.
The offence here was common assault. Bad enough.
If a person is crossing a
If a person is crossing a road when a vehicle is turning onto that road, doesn’t the vehicle have to give way to the pedestrian?
Pushing someone off their bike in revenge is not the solution however.
earth wrote:If a person is
Good luck with enforcing that one on cars.
oldstrath wrote:earth
Good luck with enforcing that one on cars.— earth
Highway Code rule 170 says drivers *should* give way to pedestrians already crossing a road into which they want to turn. Not many people seem to know this one. And it’s a “should”, not a “must”
In this case it seemed to be a straight ahead road, and we can’t see what’s following behind the cyclist. But regardless, nothing excuses what he did.
Duncann wrote:oldstrath
Good luck with enforcing that one on cars.— oldstrath
Highway Code rule 170 says drivers *should* give way to pedestrians already crossing a road into which they want to turn. Not many people seem to know this one. And it’s a “should”, not a “must”
In this case it seemed to be a straight ahead road, and we can’t see what’s following behind the cyclist. But regardless, nothing excuses what he did.— earth
I’ve interpreted the article a bit differently it seems. I can’t watch the video either because it’s blocked so I’ve only go the article to go on. It starts by saying the women turned onto a road and passed a pedestrian who was crossing. That does not say to me that he was further down the road and jaywalking but perhaps he was well down the road and did step out into her path. But it also alludes that she gave him the finger.
I agree he still shouldn’t have pushed her off.
earth wrote:If a person is
If a pedestrian begins to cross the road when the road is clear and then a vehicle appears, the pedestrian has priority.
To me that doesn’t look like that situation applies in this instance. He took to the road in moving traffic, of which she was part, so she should have priority. He put himself at risk with moving cars, but his crossing also put her at risk. What happened after was assault. All road users have a duty of care, including pedestrians.
I think that only applies to
I think that only applies to “motor vehicles”, but in any case she wasn’t turning into the road … it was a straight road and he was just jaywalking (to use an american term) so he was in the wrong. This guy is a cowardly piece of work, and I hope the police catch him and he gets done for assault. Hopefully it’s not the first time he’s had a run in with the law and he gets some jail-time – I suspect though because it’s a cyclist he may just get a warning. sad, but probably true.
earth wrote:If a person is
Yes, mind you how many drivers, and by extension people in general a)know b)want to try and force the vehicle to give way.
mrmo wrote:earth wrote:If a
I certainly don’t risk it when I’m crossing the road at a t-junction for instance but that just means pedestrians are bullied into submission and that’s the same mentality that bullies cyclists into submission.
A strange one. Why would she
A strange one. Why would she say to a pedestrian “Please don’t try and knock me off”? Must be more to the story as why would he also mention being sworn at?
The guy’s mugshot is
The guy’s mugshot is currently in prime position on the Guardian and Telegraph websites, possibly others too. It will be interesting to see if or for how long he maintains anonymity.
ron611087 wrote:The guy’s
Plus the Daily Mail, and they’ve left the comments on =))
Jesus, what a big man!
Jesus, what a big man! Attacking a woman because she stuck her finger up at him. Sigh*
Utterly contemptible
Utterly contemptible behaviour, but why did she say anything to him about trying to knock her off in the first place?
The video clearly shows him crossing the road in the midst of slow moving traffic (who here hasn’t done that) and he’s looking right at her and adjusts his pace to end up walking behind her.
I think it’s irrelevant that she was a cyclist he’s just a nasty piece of work that likes a bit of agro with anyone that he deems is getting in his life.
Whilst not absolving this
Whilst not absolving this knobber – why did she give him the finger? Out of interest more than anything.
ct wrote:Whilst not absolving
Presumably out of frustration because his response to the nervous sounding female he was intimidating asking to not be assaulted was to shout “SHAAAAT AAAP” like the bullying little twerp he is.
ct wrote:Whilst not absolving
My guess is he made some kind of I’m-going-to-push-you-off motion as she cycled by, which prompted her comment, he then swore at her (we can hear that) so she gave him the finger. He then chased after her and physically assaulted her.
The guy’s scum and I hope he suffers some form of retribution. This is again, however, a reminder of why, no matter how in the right you are, escalating confrontation is usually just not worth it.
His reaction was utterly
His reaction was utterly disproportionate, but she did initiate the bad feeling by continuing to cycle at him and deny him his right of way. He’s a pedestrian, he was well on his way across the road, and had already started crossing her lane, as she turned onto it – judging by the text of the article and the video. Not only does she ignore his right of way, she piles insult onto that offence by trying to paint him as the offender and (apparently) give him the finger.
Now, how he responds is totally disproportionate, but many here will surely also know how angry it can make one when another faster road user takes liberties with your right to use the road. There is a primal “flight or fight” response that sometimes gets triggered when other people, in charge of higher-energy vehicles threaten your well-being, and which can be hard to control in the heat of the moment. Well documented in the many cyclist videos, surely – if usually only manifested by swearing and hand gestures.
The man ultimately commits a far, far graver injustice – an actual offence and unjustifiable. However, it has to be recognised that the seed of this incident was in the lack of manners and respect the cyclist showed the pedestrian to begin with.
Pedestrians have a right to the road too. I am flabbergasted, when I walk here and try do things like cross the road, how often I am bullied by car drivers – and I’ve seen cyclists bully pedestrians too. As with the lack of respect shown to cyclists by motor vehicles, there is a similar great problem here with a lack of respect for pedestrians on the roads.
We need to all show each more respect on the roads. Including pedestrians.
Paul J wrote:His reaction was
Utter Bullshit.
She was on the road, she had right of way. I notice the grubby little twat was happy enough to pay heed to the ‘red man’ on the pedestrian crossing when the Focus and the Fiesta were going past him in front of her.
I wonder what changed in his mind to say that he didn’t have right of way when the cars were going through that phase of lights but he was happy enough to bowl out in front of and right up to a middle aged lady on a bicycle?
So, riddle me this, why is the woman on the bike responsible for sowing the seed of this incident but the Focus or Fiesta drivers aren’t?
farrell wrote:Paul J
Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of who was where and what they should or shouldn’t have done. This little runt didn’t have right to lay hands on another person.
“Stick your finger up to me?
“Stick your finger up to me? Come on then….”
Says the big hard man to a woman.
Bring it on softarse!!
=))
There is no such thing as
There is no such thing as jaywalking in the UK. I think she should have let him cross, as it is my understanding that you should always give way to pedestrians no matter how silly their behaviour.
Also, the camera view of the street shows there is no other traffic, so he hardly pushed her into the flow of traffic or any nonsense like that.
However it is assault, and he should be banged up like a kipper.
DrJDog wrote:Also, the camera
There is a silver car alongside her as she slows down, so I’m going to go right ahead and rule out the use of any improbability drives or similar technology that would mean the car just appeared there so must have come from behind her. If you have anything to suggest otherwise I would be bang up for hearing about it.
Then when she hits the deck you can see there is a car coming up behind her. My thinking, and yours may well be different and we’ll have to agree to disagree I suppose, is that if I’m to the left hand side of a lane and I’m pushed off my bike in to the floor in the middle whilst there is a car coming behind me that is definitely being pushed in to the flow of traffic, not nonsense.
I’m not sure why anyone would argue something different on either point though.
yeah, I watched it earlier
yeah, I watched it earlier this morning and I must have totally misremembered it. I have now watched it again, and there are cars everywhere.
And the comment of the day
And the comment of the day goes to a Mr Clive Larman, who had the following to say on the LBC website
farrell, we can’t tell for
farrell, we can’t tell for sure from the video, but if she turned onto that road (as the article says), and if he was crossing already, then he had right of way – regardless of the state of the pedestrian crossing, and regardless of what other vehicles did, and regardless of whether he ceded right of way to those other vehicles.
Just as this can not justify his actions there-after, nor can his actions afterwards justify the **prior** lack of respect the cyclist potentially showed to a pedestrian (if she turned onto the road and he had already started crossing).
Even if technically he hadn’t set foot on the road once she was on the road, she most *definitely* anticipated he was crossing and would be in her path. At which point, getting angry with the pedestrian, accusing him of risking knocking him off (thus angering the ped), and giving him the finger was not, I would submit, a shining example of how a cyclist should treat pedestrians about to try cross a road at a pedestrian crossing (and remember, his violence could *not* be a factor at this stage – it was well into the future still).
He may have turned out to be a violent twat *after*, but that can *not* excuse a lack of respect to pedestrians.
Lack of respect to pedestrians on the roads is *most definitely* a general problem in the UK, just as it is to cyclists – and sadly cyclists can be guilty of not respecting pedestrians rights to the road.
Paul J wrote:farrell, we
If he had been ‘already crossing’ when she turned on to the road, he would have been tasting the bonnet of the Fiesta. You can see that in the video.
If he had ran into the side of the Fiesta, would he have have right of way?
Would the driver of the Fiesta have been in the wrong?
If he had done that with the Focus in front would the Focus driver have been in the wrong?
So why does he suddenly gain right of way when it’s a cyclist in the traffic flow?
Surely the point of traffic islands is for pedestrians to stop when the traffic is flowing though not just to decide which vehicle they can force to stop or will injure less?
He may be male, but he’s
He may be male, but he’s certainly no man.
No one ever has right of way,
No one ever has right of way, the term is priority.
Going straight forward, across a pelican crossing on green the road users have priority. All road users are obliged to give way in all circumstance if doing so would avoid an accident. In other words, you can’t run someone over just because you have priority.
There’s no specific criminal offence for pedestrians who ignore road priority. However, if their action results in an accident, they can be considered culpable for civil liability.
No way is that bloke in his
No way is that bloke in his 40s, for a start.
It just looks to me as if the chain of thought in the pedestrian’s head went like this: “A car can really hurt me, so I’d better wait until it’s safe to cross… Oh, a bike, well, they won’t want to get hurt so they’ll just go around me, no need to wait for them.”
Followed by “How dare you tell me anything about anything! Or criticise any part of my actions! I am the Master of the Universe and I shall smite thee!”
Or, of course, maybe the cyclist wasn’t wearing hi-viz, which makes you completely invisible, so he didn’t see her.
Or maybe the cyclist was wearing hi-viz, which also makes you completely invisible as far as I can tell.
Right, clarification here.
Right, clarification here. From the ladies speed & direction of travel, it intimates that she had just come straight over the Whitechaple Road, with the traffic lights in her favour, into Sidney Street. The pedestrian crossing at that junction was not operational due to the extensive roadworks. The pedestrian has taken it upon themselves to attempt to cross the road, irrespective of other road users. In this particular instance the other road users are NOT obliged to stop to allow him to cross.
Now, there is either some slight movement or gesture from the pedestrian (which isn’t clear/visible in the video) that prompts the lady cyclist to say what she does. Pedestrian then tells the lady to “Shut it, (inaudible)”, as she goes past. Interestingly, there is no deviation of the cyclists head (i.e. video) or direction that would support the ‘finger’ gesture, however; I wasn’t there nor do I have the ladies full account of the incident. The pedestrian then clearly chases the lady down the road and upends her and her bicycle. This is an assault. What level of assault would depend on the cyclists injuries. Had the ladies injuries been serious, ‘intent’ would have played a part. If it was me I’d be pushing for a ‘Criminal Damage’ charge, as well, once offender is caught.
Those of you out there that feel aggrieved about ‘intent’ in English law, don’t be. Ask yourself how many times you have wondered out of a shop without paying for something or left the workplace with something that possibly didn’t belong to you….all by accident of course. Now for an offence of ‘theft’ one has to prove what the intent was, so embrace ‘intent’ it can be a savour!!!
The only sexism in this video
The only sexism in this video is by the cyclist. She thought she could get away with giving the pedestrian the middle finger, by playing the ‘weak woman’ sexist card and not fearing retaliation.
Before you attack me, yes, the guy belongs in jail for assault! Looks like valuable lesson learned by both parties to live and let live.
Awkward one this, and it’s
Awkward one this, and it’s not helped by shoddy camera work and strangely tight editing. Ok! Devil’s Advocate time.
So what do we know?
The incident happened in Sidney Street which is near The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. Is this a factor? Do we have a distracted pedestrian? Does he have things on his mind? Has he even seen her?
He is crossing the road and as Bikebot quite correctly points out the is no such thing as a right of way in this country only priorities.
The Cyclist says “Please, Don’t push me off!”. How do YOU feel when you are accused of thinking of doing something that you had no intention of doing? Do you react well? Do you not feel anger towards your accuser?
He comments and receives in return an obscene gesture. He makes chase and catches up with the cyclist to remonstrate. In a fit of anger he pushes the cyclist, she falls.
Are his intentions to hurt, injure or kill the cyclist? No! He is not an animal, he is not scum, he is a person, a human being who has reacted badly.
Who are we to judge?
Lets rewind and try again.
A cyclist is riding up Sidney Street in the East End of London. She sees a pedestrian wishing to cross the road. He watches two cars pass and starts to cross the road. The cyclist who has anticipated his intentions has already slowed down, she calls out in a bright voice “Good morning” and smiles, the pedestrian smiles back. The pedestrian continues across the road and the cyclist goes behind the pedestrian. Both parties enriched by the social interaction that has just occurred.
Or am I indulging too much in the month of Elul? I don’t know.
Jamminatrix wrote:The only
WTF are you rambling about?
OK…I’ll play along.
There are several questions that went through my mind when I first saw this:
* Why has this only been released now?
* Why is the clip so short? The beginning gives little context, and the end cuts off before the situation is over.
Unfortunately, the camera has not captured what the actions of the pedestrian were as the cyclist approaches, and passes, for her to make such a plea.
Was he gesticulating to push her off? He certainly seem to have no compunction to actually do that.
He doesn’t “comment” though but in fact renders forth an instruction for her to “Shut up you… [inaudible]”. He makes no attempt to ‘remonstrate’ but runs to catch up with her shouting “Come on then…..”. That can only be taken as confrontational, and a forewarning of possible violence.
Again, a “fit of anger”? Its not as though he was remonstrating with her, got frustrated and resorted to violence. His entire manner was anger with intention to confront.
Seeing as we have no video evidence of what his actions were as the cyclist approached, we cannot know if his actions were cause or effect.
Was it a case that he gesticulated to push the cyclist, she reacted with her plea and possibly pointed, rather than “flipping the bird” that he then took as a sign of weakness/signal to react then ran to assault her.
Going back to “what do we know”, I have to ask these further questions:
* Why did she stop?
Did she think she could reasonably discuss the situation with him?
* Why is the quality of the released video so low?
Even with the cheapest cameras now they have at least SD quality, not the crappy 240p thats been released.
A vole please, Carole.
A vole please, Carole.
OK, what he did was very
OK, what he did was very wrong and he should be punished, but, tbh, has this woman just entered a town for the first time? I encounter numerous pedestrians like this every day; they’ve seen you and they either go in front, or behind. It just ‘sorts itself out’. What you don’t do is make an antagnostic comment with the ‘finger’ because, funny old thing, they might chase after you and ‘lamp’ you (there’s some similarities to the vid with the bloke that falls over after chasing the cyclist – a camera is a safety thing, not a means of getting a ‘road war’ vid to show your mates). A polite shout may be necessary if someone doesn’t see you and steps out right in front of you, or just sound that ‘here comes a bike’ thing called a bell that nobody takes offence to! Oh no…one of those naff things only seen on kids bikes and ‘shoppers’. Spoils the bar ‘ambience’ and detracts from the Garmin. It’s hard but, chill out, act maturely and ‘(wo)man up’! (perhaps the cops said that first time round, but they should have nabbed the offender).
Quote:they’ve seen you and
Or you have to take some evasive action because you’ve read the road correctly.
I find bells wholly offensive. Pricks come up behind you ringing their bells in a demanding way, not slowing down full of expectation that the pedestrian will get out of their way…. on a shared path. Used by horrendous people.
don simon wrote:
I find bells
Really? Wow; I’d thought I was being helpful, letting people know that I was there. Mind you, if there are four joggers across the width of the shared use path and I come up behind them and ping my bell so they know I’m there, why would they NOT move over to let me pass? Isn’t that also the point? You know, “sharing the path”…
there is a red man on the
there is a red man on the crossing as she passes. personally it wouldn’t bother me but she must have felt he was too close and she might have to swerve to avoid him. It doesn’t really matter, he assaulted her because he has the emotional control of a child and may soon regret his actions.
musicalmarc wrote:there is a
Yes indeed and I find it appalling that anyone on this website is being in the slightest way defensive of his actions. It is an assault and going by his actions, I do wonder how many similar examples of behaviour he has shown in the past. He was at fault, crossing when he shouldn’t have into the flow of traffic and thinking the woman on her bike wouldn’t hurt as much as the car he’d yielded too. He clearly didn’t like her comment and instead responded with violence.
Given that his ugly mug was on the websites of the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Telegraph and the BBC, as well as this website and a few others I suspect, the chances of him avoiding the assault charge he richly deserves are miniscule.
If he’d reacted like that to my wife, I’d probably follow up with civil claims then get the bailiffs on him and tie him up with as many fines as I could afterwards too. He’s scum and there’s no excuse. Appealing though it might be to give him the punching he so richly deserves, that’d be risking an assault charge in itself and there would be so much more of a long term benefit in tying him up in legal knots he’d not quickly escape.
Sadly, it’s likely any fines he does receive will still leave him able to breed.
News just in – he’s handed himself into the cops. I’d put money on him having previous.
If any one sees this twat run
If any one sees this twat run him down. See how he likes it, pushing a woman off her bike. Piece of scum.
If he had tried this on me, he would have got a D-lock on his head, but I guess he only goes for soft targets as he’s a bully.
Bring back hanging.
Bring back hanging.
Update: The Grauniad says he
Update: The Grauniad says he has now handed himself in.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/25/man-pushes-cyclist-into-london-traffic-metropolitan-police
looks like he’s handed
looks like he’s handed himself in.