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news
Police tape (CC licensed by freefotouk on Flickr)Cyclist hit by egg thrown from car says he could have lost eye
A cyclist in Southampton says he could have lost an eye after he was hit by an egg thrown from a car travelling at an estimated 30mph one evening last week as he rode home from work.
Cycle courier Peter Lever sustained a black eye and swollen face in the incident which happened close to the junction of Portswood and Kent Road, reports the Daily Echo.
After the egg struck him, the 44 year old thought he had blood running down his face, but realised what had happened when he saw eggshell on the strap of his cycle helmet.
Mr Lever, who had been heading home from work, turned around and set off after the car, described as a red Citroen C1, with the driver heading into the city centre, but was unable to catch up with it.
“I think if it had got me in the eye, I would have lost my sight,” he said. “There are no consequences for people doing this sort of thing.”
Asked what he would say to his assailants, he said: “I would just explain I am a father to a young child. If they had damaged my eyesight that would have impacted me for the rest of my life.”
He added: “I felt shocked. I was angry at first. I did chase after the car. Who knows what would have happened if they had stopped at the traffic lights.
“I feel a bit disappointed in humanity. Most people are good people. I would like them to be charged with assault because that is what it was.”
A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary commented: “We received a report of an egg being thrown forcefully by a person in a Citroen car at a cyclist on Portswood Road around 12.05am on Friday, July 9. The cyclist suffered bruising to their face.”
Anyone who has information is asked to contact officers in 101, quoting reference number 44210270319.
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.
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42 comments
Once had a snowball thrown at me. Quite impressive really, must have been at least 20m at a moving target and I recall the visual effect of it appearing to curve as it closed with me and struck square in the left kidney.
Thankfully, I've had nothing more "solid" than fluids squirted at me and a water-bomb/balloon that failed to connect.
The most odd assault on my person (other than being clipped by wing/door -for the pedantic- mirrors and a broadside by a 4x4) was getting my arse slapped by the occupants of a passing car. This was well before cameras on bikes were a thing.
I got a horrendously close pass (about 2cm from my elbow) last week. A deliberate act - no other cars on the road and the vehicle able to pass without any issue...but deemed it neccesary to buzz me at very high speed. I'd also presume that the driver would have continued driving if they had made contact with me, and left me as a victim of a hit and run. Motards do not like cyclists here in Ireland. In fact they absolutely loathe them, citing all the same claptrap about no tax, insurance, blah blah blah...
I thought you had a new offence of dangerously overtaking a cyclist in Ireland. Is it not working?
It's legislation, but so far I've yet to hear of many people being prosecuted. In fact there was a case of a cyclists that was told he would receive a fine for swearing at a driver in one such circumstance of close pass.
I believe was also reported on road.cc at the time.
https://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/irish-cyclist-fined-gardai-over...
I've sent images/video in the past to Gardai...and had no follow up...yet they're great at posting on their own social media about fining drivers for speeding, having no tax, overtaking other vehicles (but not bikes) on a solid white line etc...
That's disappointing. Sounds like another opportunity lost.
https://road.cc/content/news/193295-cyclist-seriously-injured-egg-thrown...
According to the Evening Standard
He said: “I was wearing sunglasses and they took the brunt of the impact."
I'm just surprised that the rozzers haven't hurried round to seize the egg and dispose of it.....
This guy came pretty close to losing sight in one eye, thanks to a paintball in New Zealand.
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1nj&page_id=354919&v=5B
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/north-canterbury/9544486/Cyclists-...
I almost always wear sunglasses or safety glasses, more for insects and dust than for the risk that something will be thrown or shot at me. The only thing anyone has thrown at me so far was a water balloon. It missed by quite a bit, and at night I couldn't tell where it came from.
“I think if it had got me in the eye, I would have lost my sight,”
If im going out on the bike, I always wear a pair of glasses, Because last thing i need is an angry bee replacing my eyeball.
If im going out on the bike, I always wear a pair of glasses, Because otherwise I can't see where I'm going
Another story that reaffirms why I think it's best to use cameras when riding.
I'm getting very close to getting one myself. Had a close pass tonight within 20cm on a corner of a narrow road. To say I was angry is a pretty big understatement and I couldn't even catch up with them this time as it was on a climb. I think I am literally one more really bad close pass from making the investment.
Haven't spent anytime researching just yet and probably the worst thing I can do is get one as a knee jerk reaction. Any that are half decent are costly and that's always put me off getting one i.e is it really worth it? Then you get nearly taken off your bike by a group of pre-pubescent chavs and you start to strongly consider it, despite the alarming cost.
Perhaps road.cc can help us both out with their recommendations?!
But what will a camera do to improve the situation?
Give me the ability to record these close passes (especially the really bad ones) and try to seek some sort of justice. I have no idea how good my local police are at dealing with close pass footage but there's only one way to find out.
There have been a couple of forum threads on camera recommendations e.g. https://road.cc/content/forum/front-rear-cameras-284181
My current set up is a GoPro out front and a Fly6 Gen3 to the rear, but neither is perfect. The GoPro has brilliant quality but short battery life (<1.5 hours) - so I normally turn it off when on quieter roads.
The Fly6 Gen3 is noticeably lower quality video, but still good enough most of the time. The battery life is much better (~5 hours with the light switched off). But they have a reputation for being very unreliable and I have found the same thing - mine had a habitat of randonly turning off the light mid-ride with no warning. So if I'm going out when it's dark, I will always run a second rear light (which does defeat the point to some extent). The seatpost mount is also not great - it's just a velcro strap so it's hard to get tight, and if it's at all wet it will slide. The Cycliq camera are a great idea and if they could get them to work properly they would be a nearly perfect solution, but I struggle to recommend them given the major reliability issues.
I have heard good things about Ghost Drift cameras although haven't tried them myself. But might be worth looking in to?
Does your strap not have the rubberised side? My v2 strap did (has now come away after 18 months), and even reasonably tight it meant the camera never moved. I've now stuck electrical tape to the strap and this does almost as good a job; you could try that?
Must admit, though, I've never used the light function of the Fly6 as I run a Garmin Varia and - in really poor conditions - also a See.Sense.
One thing I would like them to do is to link units together so that a press of the 'incident lock' button locks the footage on both (instead of having to feel around behind you).
Yeah the strap does have a ruberised side and I'm sure it helps, but it still doesn't feel super solid and definitely still slips when wet... I have various lights with stretchy silicon straps and they all feel much more secure.
I'm sure I could bodge things to make it stay better and maybe one day I'll get around to it! One issue is that I have two bikes which I regularly switch between so I don't want anything that takes too much time to attach or release.
The xl has a lot of battery life over 8 hours. They don't have all the features others do but the basics are fine.
One or 2 issues with getting the reg at speed and if it is a wide angle but I think that is a general problem across all makes.
There is a 4k version but you start getting weight issues as I believe they are more aimed at m/c riders who have a different type of helmet so it isn't much of a problem for them.
XL still below (reg obscured by software)
Random suggestion try swapping out the SD Card on the Cycliq's for a new/different one, make sure its newly formatted and make sure its not >32Gb. Cured all the odd behaviour of mine.
That's a good suggestion. SD cards take a beating in continous recording cameras. It's good to give them a reformat every few months.
Also, if it's not the original SD card, make sure it's from a reputable supplier. I've been burnt with counterfeit cards in the past - usually they're the capacity you expect, but a lower read/write speed.
My concerns with submitting the footage is that I transfer the files to my computer for conversion as 4 minutes of footage on a Go Pro at 1080 at 48fps is too big for the Portal. So have to convert it down for them. However as I don't get informed if they are going to process anything, and I don't have the ability to mark items as do not delete on the card, I would fail on keeping the original recording if one ever ended up in court.
You don't have to keep the original recording on the card. An authentic copy is ok. I copy the unedited files to my NAS drive just in case. I've only submitted 3 incidents so far though. Only one went to court and I sent the unmodified files to the case officer on a DVD.
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/exhibits#video
Yeah - it will also depend on the force. TVP are fine with YouTube links, and - whilst editing to cut bits out is not allowed - actually welcome editing to add telemetry and pic-in-pic (i.e. show rear view along with front) for context. The only time I've been asked for a separate upload was actually earlier this week, and then they still only wanted the same file I'd stuck on YouTube but uploaded to their portal - because the driver wanted to see it and that was the 'easiest' way for TVP to manage it.
I do keep all my originals on NAS for a year though just in case.
The sooner there's some consistency, the better. Hopefully the new NPCC guidance (https://twitter.com/AndyCoxDCS/status/1415677942579875841) will have some positive outcome.
Frame protection - Heli-tape or Gorilla padded tape - works well to sort this.
Take a look at the Chilli Tech Bullet Cam. It's a sensible price and produces good quality video. You can get a bracket that takes both the camera and a Wahoo or Garmin. Had one about 6 months because of close passes and reliability has been good.
I was disappointed with my Chilli compared with my ageing Contour Roam.
Contour is no more, but it was ideal at the time: lower profile, decent video (now mine crashes, even if I don't). The Chilli video quality is lower - altogether a cheaper unit, but you;d imagine that tech improvements might have taken up the slack.
It all depends on the length of your rides. GoPros (and the knock-offs) have great quality, but rubbish battery life (for my purposes). If you're just interested in incident capture and out for more than an hour, battery life is key - quality only needs to be good enough to capture the incident and the reg plate.
I use Cycliq Fly12 & Fly6CE. Battery life (with lights turned off) is easily 4+hrs on rear and 6+hrs on front. I've done 7hr sportives with them, just doing a 5-10min top-up charge at food stops along the way. But yes, they're not the cheapest.
The original/upgrade Chilli-Tech cam (mentioned elsewhere) has a similar battery life (4+hrs) with the advantage of a replaceable battery and is much cheaper - and you can stick it on your helmet. But you don't get the incident protection or file lock, and it doesn't double as a light for the shorter rides. The sound quality may suffer - especially in the wet when you use the 'solid' end cap - if that matters, and the timestamping is tricky - especially if you do change battery. The new Chilli-Tech cam only has a 1hr battery life, but it can be powered by an external battery pack - this may affect mounting choice.
Don't wait, do it now; we need your help. We need to get these bad drivers off the road, and if we all had cameras to record them, we stand a chance of doing it.
Agreed. We need to expose as many bad drivers as possible. If more of us are submitting close pass footage it will either put pressure on police forces to treat them more seriously, or more likely swamp them to the point where they are indicating the growing issue to the powers that be, with stronger legislation or structural reforms coming as a result.
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