A cyclist in Scotland who returned a soft drink cup to a man who had thrown it out of his car window got more than he bargained for when the driver got out and challenged him to a fight. But police told him they wouldn’t be charging the motorist with assault – because they considered the cyclist himself to be the instigator.
The incident, which has been reported on mainstream media outlets including Mail Online, was posted to YouTube by the cyclist under the user name LPDman.
The footage shows him picking up a discarded KFC Pepsi cup that he believed to have been thrown out of the window of a black Vauxhall Corsa car on Alclutha Avenue in Dumbarton, although he admits he didn’t actually see the driver drop it.
The bike rider turns round and chases after the driver, catching up with him on Crossler Road just after the four minute point in the video and asks him to wind down the window – admitting, in the caption, that his request was a “big mistake.”
Once the motorist winds the window down, the bike rider throws the cup into the car, with the words, “Here’s your stupid litter back.”
The driver gets out of his car and runs after the cyclist, saying to him, “Do you think your smart or something?” and asking him to get off his bike.
As the cyclist, who seems shaken, heads back in the direction he came from along the pavement, the driver reappears having turned his car around and asks him if he’d like to go to a nearby park “for a square go,” a request the bike rider declines with the words, “I’d rather not, mate.”
The motorist throws the cup back out of the car before turning around and speeding off, with the cyclist riding away saying to himself, “That was close!”
In the YouTube description to the video, he says: “Yes, go ahead and say I took a big risk on my physical life because I accept my life could have been taken but I personally feel this twit needs to learn a lesson in respecting the environment.
He later added: “Two police officers visited my house and said to me that although the man should not have came out of his car & attempted to assault me (resulting in a charge of Breach of the Peace), I was found to have been the instigator. In fact, throwing litter back to litter louts in revenge counts as COMMON ASSAULT.”
If that sounds harsh, it’s worth considering that under Scots case law, common assault “may be constituted by threatening gestures sufficient to produce alarm.”
While the driver getting out of the car and confronting the cyclist could clearly be construed in that way, lawyers might argue that chasing after a car for four minutes, then asking the motorist to wind the windscreen down before throwing an object at them could be, too.
What do you think? Was the cyclist right to go after the motorist and return the cup to him – or should he just have left well alone and perhaps just picked it up and deposited it in the nearest litter bin? Let us know in the comments below.
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
It's not cherry picking....
However we have seen alot less for similar. This and the one I mentioned the other day where the driver pled guilty and stated at his arrest he...
Would have been better if he had looked at the cyclists keeping fit and decided "I'll have what they are having".
I'm an off-road drop-bar rider, none of this applies to me! 😁
Explains alot.
A smartphone set to handsfree is always fully legal, especially when held in the hand...
I've had a pair of these (and, in fact, the full length ones) for a few years and they really are very good.
surely the police can do better that this? A woman almost died ffs...
Doesn't look like it'd keep mud/water out very well, I'll stick to my saddle bag with a plastic bag inside to keep my stuff together and dry.
The blessings from drivers take so very many forms - over to no-so-sleepy Haverhill... ...