A cyclist who was seriously injured when he was pushed by a passenger in a car has told road.cc that “this craze needs to be curbed” through prosecuting offenders, warning that unless action is taken, “someone will die.”
Paul Cockrill contacted us after we published a witness appeal from Cleveland Police relating to the incident, which happened at around 9pm on the evening of Tuesday 16 July as he rode along the A179 towards Hart Village.
The 44-year-old, who is a member of Ferryhill Wheelers, told road.cc: “I’d just popped out on my own for a 16-mile loop around Hartlepool about 8pm at night as it was such a lovely evening.”
Mr Cockrill, who works as an accountant for an engineering company, said: “I was coming back into town on a 60mph road, downhill and downwind traveling at 34 mph when a blue car came from behind.
“The driver slowed and there were passengers leaning out of the front and back windows. I believe it was the rear passenger who pushed me.
“I fell on the bars, causing the bike to jolt and me to go down head and shoulder first into the road.
“I flipped over then proceeded to slide 30 metres down the road (my father was called by a first attender and he had paced it out when gathering my possessions).”
His injuries included a cracked rib, lesion on the lung, a broken collarbone and a fractured and dislocated shoulder.
“I had to wait six days on morphine while awaiting surgery to fix the shoulder. I spent two days in North Tees Hospital, but when i was told they couldn’t operate till the Monday I came home for the other four days.
“The surgery was complicated as the top of my arm bone was broken into five pieces and Iwas in surgery for around five hours.”
He said that doctors have told him it will take around three months for him to make a full recovery.
As far as the police investigation is concerned, he said: “There is a police camera on the road and the police officer has told me they have it down to five number plates but their issue is they have to be able to prove who was driving and who else was in the car in a court of law, which I’m assuming won’t be easy.
“I imagine however if it was a murder enquiry they would have them in about 30 minutes,” he added.
Anyone who witnessed the incident, or who may have dashcam footage, has been asked to contact Detective Constable Anthony Wallace of Cleveland Police via the non-emergency number 101, quoting the event number 120856 or the charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
38 thoughts on ““Someone will die” if police fail to tackle “craze” warns cyclist seriously injured after car passenger pushed him”
Good luck with the recovery
Good luck with the recovery Paul.
What a crock of shit. If the
What a crock of shit. If the police can’t bring someone in for this then there’s something seriously wrong.
This whole having to identify
This whole having to identify the driver to prosecute – what a crock. If the registered keeper of the vehicle can’t identify who was driving then they being the owner of the vehicle they should be held responsible and be hit will all charges – including the assault charges – after all their are culpable in allowing this to happen by slowing down.
dee4life2005 wrote:
Exactly. That’s why someone is the registered Keeper – the buck stops with them!
brooksby wrote:
This whole having to identify the driver to prosecute – what a crock. If the registered keeper of the vehicle can’t identify who was driving then they being the owner of the vehicle they should be held responsible and be hit will all charges – including the assault charges – after all their are culpable in allowing this to happen by slowing down.
— brooksbyExactly. That’s why someone is the registered Keeper – the buck stops with them!— dee4life2005
THis! Beef up traffic and vehicle registrations laws so that if a vehicle is identified being involved in any kind of incident and the registered owner refuses to identify either the driver or, in incidents like this, the passenfgers, then they should face all the charges the police would pursue plus an additional one of refusing to identify.
Should be facing a jail sentence with immediate loss of licence and destruction of vehicle.
dee4life2005 wrote:
I have to say this is the way forwards.
If you are driving a firms delivery van, and are photoed speeding, the vehicle owner is reponsible, they get the letter, which clearly they then pass on ( he said from perosnal experience…).. people have to take responsibility for their actions..
There’s a psychosis in
There’s a psychosis in Britain which appears to be continually stoked-up by the usual suspects. I’ve lived (and cycled) in Switzerland for 20 years and would be astonished to hear of something like that happening here. This sort of thing is more like it:
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/september-23-ballot_swiss-to-vote-on-the-importance-of-cycling/44409042
slappop wrote:
Sadly hit and run happens in CH too, I read the Cycling Switzerland FB page and there’s quite a few serious incidents including shizzle like this, obviously not on the same numbers but nonetheless there are shithouses everywhere in the world. There have been two hit and runs in the last couple of weeks alone reported via the Cycling Switzerland FB page incl this one
https://www.rjb.ch/rjb/Actualite/Region/20190717-Voiture-contre-velo-a-Scheuren-temoins-recherches.html?fbclid=IwAR2xo9oay59GtIyhsTfUe55hpSJbYGlj1nzWXpglHncHkfNRm-oKsS6zOUc
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
‘…mais le véhicule ne s’arrête pas et continue sa route….‘
Once again, the driver is not even mentioned.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2392955/lets-talk-about-drivers-hitting-cyclists
slappop wrote:
‘You do not know how crafty they are. You do not know how evil they are. You do not know how they sully everything they touch’.
This has happened twice in
This has happened twice in recent years on the same stretch of road in east london/dagenham. Both victims were cyclists in their late 50’s commuting to/from work, both suffered serious injuries that took many months to recover from. Nothing. Now accidently run over a ped of the same age and cause the same injuries and see what happens.
This is attempted murder and
This is attempted murder and GBH, surely? What is wrong with people? And with the police, for that matter? I blame the gutter press for demonising
and dehumanising cyclists, this just awful.
Get well soon mate.
Should not have to, and might
Should not have to, and might not always be enough to identify the driver, but a rear facing camera is now unfortunately as important as pedals on a bicycle.
Wishing Mr Cockrill a full and speedy recovery.
Wishing the miscreants a large number of septic boils on their miserable scrotums.
Should not have to, and might
Should not have to, and might not always be enough to identify the driver, but a rear facing camera is now unfortunately as important as pedals on a bicycle.
Wishing Mr Cockrill a full and speedy recovery.
Wishing the miscreants a large number of septic boils on their miserable scrotums.
Mungecrundle wrote:
Alternatively we could offer them an evening of “pleasure” with a bike cog . . (as per recent news) and “accidentally” replace the lube (which should always be used on drive gears clearly) with something more suitable like liquid-weld… Then let a trainee firemen assist in them getting free with an angle grinder.
Rear facing camera is
Rear facing camera is obligatory these days, although with cases such as this an AK-47 or Uzi might make people think twice about doing this.
Get well soon and good luck with finding these tuncs
Think it’s standard in gang
Think it’s standard in gang related violence for the CPS to struggle to prosecute anyone unless they can deliver hard evidence on who exactly did the deed.
Grim times though.
Do not accept a brush off
Do not accept a brush off from the police. In my mind, this is terrorism.
It’s highly likely the owner of the vehicle was involved. If so, they can use mobile phone base station handoff records to geo-locate the owners phone with the vehicle movements. It’s likely to have passed some ANPR or CCTV. Also, any other mobile phones whose location correlates with the drivers would help identify the other suspects.
There is still much the police can do if they were willing to expend the effort on it.
Fucking Cunts to do that
Fucking Cunts to do that also the police are shit . This is attempted murder. if they know who owns the car and the passengers then they charge all the cunts with accessory to murder . If they squeal and give up the pusher ,he gets charged with attempted murder and the driver an accessory . This is fucking outrageous. Its not a terrorist attack though “seriously fuck me “ it’s a bunch of cunts who do not understand how fucking dangerous their cuntish behaviour was. Stick them in prison for a decent amount of time , they may as well have had a gun , a car ,hands etc are weapons if used to harm it’s all the fucking same . Clamp this shit down now .
I have reported incidents of
I have reported incidents of youths shouting at me through car windows to the Police in the past, as I considered the next step was for them to push me off.
This was when I was cycling over the mountain at midnight on the way home from work.
To say that the Police were not interested was an undestatement, they even suggested I try a different route home!
I wish the guy a speedy recovery and I hope they catch the bastards, but I don’t hold out much hope!
It’s strange though, if a cyclist accidentally knocks over a pedestrian, it’s all over the front pages and you either go to prison or you get a £100,000 compensation bill, even though they walked out in front of you whilst on their phone.
Expect more of this thanks to
Expect more of this thanks to Channel 5
It could have been my
It could have been my imagination, and I didn’t watch the programme, but in the 2 weeks after the programme was aired, I experienced more close passes and at higher speeds than seems to be “normal”. It’s back to the same average as before now.
BS. The car owner is
BS. The car owner is responsible for whomever is operating it. The car has keys. It wasnt stolen. The car owner is responsible for his injuries and can be prosecuted accordingly. If people cant be responsible enough to own a car they should lose that privilege. Its unsafe to have lawless drivers allowed to operate cars with no consequence. It blows my mind to hear police say stuff like that. It’s like they are protecting the car owner from their agreed responsibility. The rest of the world makes fun of the USA saying we sue everyone. Well this is why.
At the very least you would
At the very least you would think if they knew what car was involved they could confiscate it for being used in a crime.
I do think it should be treated as attempted murder. Worryingly violence against cyclists seems to be praised and encouraged in some corners of society. The local travel and transport page of Facebook often has posts suggesting such treatment, bragging about it or encouraging it.
This was attempted murder and
This was attempted murder and the police should treat it as such, not just another traffic incident. If he had been killed, they would have devoted much more resources to it, but it was only chance that he didn’t die; and next time someone will be killed.
Perhaps when BoTrump has appointed the 20,000 more police that he’s promised, less than what the tories cut in the past ten years, they will have enough time to pursue incidents like this without having to wait for a body.
This happened April 2015.
This happened April 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEEN8loUHzM
Reported it to Kelly, and a week later, got an e-mail that the passenger had been fired.
I didn’t think any more of it until about six months later, when the thick twat who had been in the passenger seat posted a public comment to the video, confirming that he had lost his job over his actions, and warning me that if I ever cycled on that road again, there would be ‘karma’.
Needless to say, I contacted the police who refused to act. So I complained, and got a visit from a constable, who spouted such utter shite in the guise of legal advice that even my missus and I were amazed. Bumped my complaint up the chain. Got a call from a sergeant, who said that he couldn’t do anything.
‘Tell you what,’ I replied. ‘How about I post online that I’m going to kill Theresa May, how would that grab you?’
Two days later, I got an e-mail to say that the passenger had been given ‘words of advice’.
I do wonder how the police
I do wonder how the police would have responded if he’d fought back and ended up injuring one of the passengers, say by forcing their arm back against the window frame so it breaks. I have a feeling there would be charges brought against the cyclist then. The whole idea that they can’t identify them is nonesense, with the amount of data available and video footage it would take some data analysis types very little time to figure out who was involved.
The mindset of most of the police that cyclists are taking risks by being on the road really is appalling, until they at least accept that we have the right to be there then it’s not going to improve.
IT WAS JUST A PRANK!
IT WAS JUST A PRANK!
Will be the excuse if these shitstains ever get brought to justice. Mobile phone ‘ look at me’ culture is to blame for this shit. I think the world needs a massive series of EMP explosions and we go back to luddite times. Your power meter would be fucked but you could still cycle.
Rick_Rude wrote:
Ooo – was that a clickbait post?
Rick_Rude wrote:
…what about my Di2 gears?
hawkinspeter wrote:
Fixies are fun!
alansmurphy wrote:
Yeah, guess I’ll just have to practise making fake Transformer noises.
CHKK CHRR CHRRKK!!
Rick_Rude wrote:
We just need to target mobile phones. The internet was a much nicer place when you needed a modicum of easily-learned technical knowledge to get online and use it. It went downhill when every mouth-breather with a smartphone was able to get online by fingering an app.
Yeah, I’m a snob.
srchar wrote:
Yes it was happier times when the idiots couldn’t even open the technology door never mind be running the place.
Nathan Barley’s ‘The Rise of The Idiots’ actually came to pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZptMIcdCcpI
At least in Jackass times they were hurting themselves, now we’ve moved onto hurting other people for japes.
Rick_Rude wrote:
Yeah, but that’s like totally Mexico, i’n’t it?
Arseholes of a backwards can
Arseholes of a backwards can’t course:
Friggin poofs.
Wishing you well sir.
Last summer I recieved a slap on the arse from a drunken car, butt was lucky. He then wristed or handed my handlebars. I’m guessing 25kmph on 2% downgrade, body upright catching breath with hands free of grasp. I grabbed the bars and laughed thinking that the bar hit would’ve hurt.
Wishing you well sir.
As an outraged cyclist i will
As an outraged cyclist i will begin stalking car drivers. As they enter their lethal weapon (cars) i will push their head savagely against the top of the door, aiming for a concussion type of trauma. Surely the cops won’t mind, because it will all be in good fun! Just a prank! 🙂
Even road.cc has fallen into
Even road.cc has fallen into the trap of using the standardised language that plays down the seriousness of the action, referring to it as an ‘incident’ in the sub-headline. Call it what it was – an assault.