Cyclists in Sussex are being targeted by people throwing eggs from passing vehicles, according to a report in local newspaper The Argus. The news comes just a week after a cyclist in nearby Worthing was treated in hospital after being attacked by a motorist wielding a hammer, in what police are viewing as a road rage incident.
The newspaper says that “angry drivers” are to blame for the egg-hurling incidents, although quite how the newspaper is able to establish the motive is unclear, given that no-one seems to have been caught yet.
One cyclist, 49-year-old Denise Banks from Portslade, managed to take down the registration number of a white van from which an egg was thrown at her in Upper Beeding near Shoreham-by-Sea earlier this week, and police are said to be investigating the incident.
“I don’t understand why anyone would want to do it but it has happened to me twice and I’m sure other people have had the same experience,” Ms Banks told the newspaper.
Another cyclist, Adrian Imms, aged 27, was targeted during August as he rode his bike on London Road in Brighton.
“This is people going out specifically to chuck eggs at cyclists,” he told the Argus. “That’s quite a sad way to spend your Friday night."
The newspaper quoted a spokeswomen for Sussex Police as saying: “We take any reports of assaults on cyclists very seriously.”
Meanwhile, last week, a motorist was arrested following a suspected road rage attack in Worthing in which a 60-year-old cyclist was hit as many as 15 times with a hammer.
Samuel Brownson, aged 20, from East Preston, was charged with attempting to cause grevious bodily harm and released on police bail. He is due to appear at Worthing Magistrates Court on Monday.
Following the incident, which took place on the afternoon of Wednesday 7 September, a police spokesman, quoted in The Argus, said that the cyclist had initially been struck by a Vauxhall Astra car, and an argument ensued.
The driver then retrieved a hammer from the boot of the car and hit the cyclist on the head with it, before driving off.
The victim of the attack, who suffered cuts to his head, was taken to hospital for treatment and subsequently discharged.
A further report in The Argus the following day filled in additional details of the incident, including that the cyclist was not wearing a helmet, presumably deemed relevant in this case since wearing one could have helped lessen the extent of his injuries.
The report added that police believed that the attack happened because the driver had become frustrated at the slow speed at which the cyclist was riding uphill, and added that the assault had been witnessed by at least four people.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.