A driver in Poole has claimed that a cyclist punched him in the face and threw his bike onto his car, causing £1,000 worth of damage, in an alleged road rage incident provoked by the motorist striking the rider at “about 2mph”.
Motorist Rob Lakomy claims he was confronted by the man after colliding with him near Mannings Heath roundabout in Poole at around 2.30pm on Friday 22 August.
“I was travelling very slowly at about 2mph, so nothing happened to the bike rider, but he became very aggressive,” Lakomy, who was travelling in the car with his wife at the time of the incident, told the Daily Echo this week.
The cyclist, Lakomy alleges, reacted to the collision by lifting his bike over his head and throwing it at the car, a BMW 520D Estate, leaving it – as seen in photos taken by the motorist and submitted to the paper – with several scuff marks, scratches, and dents.
According to Lakomy, the bike caused substantial damage to his car which he claims will cost over £1,000 to repair.
“He then started shouting and running towards me,” the motorist continued. “He pushed me about three times towards the back of my car, punched me in the face, and ripped off my sunglasses, which shattered.”
Lakomy reported the alleged road rage incident to the police an hour later, but says he was unable to find any witnesses or those with dash cam footage of the confrontation because he “was in shock”.
“I think I must have frozen up,” he said. “I didn’t know what else he was going to do. I thought he might stab me. It’s not something that happens every day.”
Almost a week on from the alleged road rage confrontation, the driver contacted the Daily Echo to appeal to anyone who may have witnessed the incident to provide a statement to police.
A spokesperson for Dorset Police, who confirmed the force received a report of the collision at 3.35pm last Friday, confirmed that enquiries are ongoing, but no arrests have yet been made.
“It is reported that after the collision, the male cyclist threw his bike onto the car causing damage,” the spokesperson said.
“The driver of the car got out of his vehicle and the cyclist assaulted the male driver. He did not sustain any serious injuries.
“Enquiries are ongoing into the incident. No arrests have been made.”
Over the years, we’ve reported on several road rage incidents involving cyclists and motorists that have ended up in court.
In April, we reported that a van driver was sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work for punching a cyclist in the face and damaging his bike after becoming incensed that the man and his wife weren’t cycling in a nearby cycle lane.
The incident took place at Bridlington, Yorkshire, at 9:05am on 29 June, when the 57-year-old cyclist and his wife were riding along Kingsgate. Adrian Burrows was driving his van on the road when he confronted the pair for not using the cycle path, shouting: “There’s a f***ing bike path over there.”
When the cyclist asked, “What is it to do with you, mate?”, Burrows responded with, “F*** off, you southern c***”, before pulling his van in front of the couple and slamming on the brakes, forcing them to swerve to avoid a collision.
Burrows then jumped out of the van and proceeded to punch the cyclist on the left side of his face, before picking up the man’s bike and throwing it to the ground. Along with his community order, he was forced to pay £133 in compensation for repairs to the damaged bike.
























40 thoughts on “Driver claims cyclist punched him in face and threw bike at car, causing £1,000 worth of damage, after motorist hit him “at about 2mph””
“Nothing happened to the
“Nothing happened to the cyclist…” apart from being hit by a car, that is. Leaving aside the fact that the driver is probably grossly underestimating his speed in order to exonerate himself, what explanation does he have for the fact that he hit the cyclist at any speed?
Rendel Harris wrote:
BMW at 2MPH, and I’ll take “Things that never happened” for £50 please.
Quote:
Driving along at 2mph! Crazed cyclists with knives! Cyclists bumped at 2mph using their bicycle as a sacrificial weapon against the offending car! Sunglasses that spontaneously shatter when removed from the face! Very Important Person with a BMW 540 Estate who is so shook after an unpleasant confrontation that he can’t pull himself together enough to report it to the police until an hour has passed!
Cool story, driver bro. Oh, and don’t forget to come up with an excuse as to why you can’t show *your* dashcam footage of the incident to the police.
Also, the original article
Also, the original article states: “The rider reportedly lifted the bike over his head and threw it onto Rob’s car.”
And yet the accompanying photos show most of the car’s scratches to be much lower down on the sides and front corner panel of the car–or, to put it another way: exactly where you might expect scatches if you hit a cyclist with your car hard enough to make him right justifiably angry.
Beat me to that! How do you
Beat me to that! How do you get chainring teeth marks on the front under scuttle?
LookAhead wrote:
We all know this is rubbish, speedometers don’t work below 30mph so how could he know what speed he was doing!
And the damage they must have
And the damage they must have been doing to the engine and drivetrain…
I strongly suspect for some
I strongly suspect for some reason that Mr Lakomy is giving an extremely one sided and biased report of the situation. The reality is just as likely to be, ‘I rammed a cyclist off the road due to my negligence and when I confronted them about scratching my car, they picked up their bike and threw it as a defence. Then when I further aggressively went at them, the cyclist slapped me’ 🙄
Driver hits cyclist, cyclist
Driver hits cyclist, cyclist hits driver. Sounds reasonable.
I’d imagine publishing the photos could prejudice any criminal case.
When I was knocked off my
When I was knocked off my bike by a driver at slow speed I was very nice about it. I ended up having a couple of phone calls with him and persuaded him to give up his license.
I couldn’t have done that if I’d lost my temper. I might have been more angry if I’d been hurt or my bike damaged, but I’m not sure what being violent would have actually achieved other than making me feel better for a few minutes.
Good for you. We only have
Good for you. We only have the drivers word however that this cyclist was violent.
Without independent evidence I’m taking that with a large pinch of salt.
2mph me arse. Maybe after he finished emergency braking. Have you ever seen a motorist travelling at that speed on the road?
Only 72 comments which is
Only 72 comments which is very low for the echo
“About time cyclists were identifiable. A compulsory hi-viz top with a ‘number plate’ on the back would solve the problem – and make the cyclists safe at the same time.”
I imagine Lakomy was so busy
I imagine Lakomy was so busy checking his speedo to ensure he wasn’t exceeding 2 mph, that he failed to see the cyclist.
Even at 2 mph serious injury could happen if the cyclist was knocked over and fell under the car.
It seems unlikely that any cyclist still would throw his bike at a car.
Maybe the car had already been damaged in an earlier collision?
Lakomy is understating the possible threat from the cyclist when he mentions the fear of being stabbed. I recently purchased a small yield thermonuclear device from my local cycle dealer and I believe that a lot of cyclists have done the same. Many carry nerve agents or anthrax as a cheaper alternative (also better for cyclists using tubeless tyres as the radiated heat and shockwave from a nuclear device can affect tyre glue).
But as we all know. No witnesses, no footage, the police can’t do much, except prosecute Lakomy for dangerously slow driving?
Mr Blackbird wrote:
Would you consider writing an article for road.cc on this – perhaps “The top 5 weapons of mass destruction every cyclist could carry?”
Of course this will create a storm of comment eg. “Is it compatible with Campag?” “I’ve managed perfectly well with a stick / rock for the last 90 years…” “No way unless the nuke is less than 47.5 g / tubeless-ready” / “I have been subjected to 4 gas attacks by motorists but police won’t act”…
chrisonabike]
The answer has to be no, because even Campag isn’t compatible with Campag according to their technical documents*
* although this may be a ploy just to make people buy more stuff as the “incompatible” stuff often works anyway.
Mr Blackbird wrote:
You can get a Browning .50 through Amazon from the US. Handlebar vibration might be an issue. A rubber mounting might help.
OldRidgeback wrote:
I suspect the recoil might be a bigger problem.
so it’s an emergency brake?
so it’s an emergency brake?
Clem Fandango wrote:
I think that’s more the minigun… (the weight of the batteries and ammo – needed for a rate of somewhere between 30 – 100 rounds per second – would slow you down quite effectively on the flat and uphill without needing to fire!)
OldRidgeback wrote:
For most vehicles a .30 cal will do just fine, unless you’re trying to blast through the engine block. And indeed there are many historic examples of guns / mountings to bikes – some featured on a series of C&Rsenal’s T-shirts.
Alternatively if bigger vehicles are your problem there are (historic) cycle-towable antitank rifles (or this flashbank dispenser if you prefer). Or for ” ‘bang’ up to date” then a modern Swiss tactical bike with antitank rockets (the Swiss have been keen on army bikes for a long time)?
chrisonabike wrote:
For most vehicles a .30 cal will do just fine, unless you’re trying to blast through the engine block. And indeed there are many historic examples of guns / mountings to bikes – some featured on a series of C&Rsenal’s T-shirts.
Alternatively if bigger vehicles are your problem there are (historic) cycle-towable antitank rifles (or this flashbank dispenser if you prefer). Or for ” ‘bang’ up to date” then a modern Swiss tactical bike with antitank rockets (the Swiss have been keen on army bikes for a long time)?— OldRidgeback
Yes, the .30 might also reduce the recoil issue mentioned elsewhere.
…..mate, I know a guy who’s
…..mate, I know a guy whose cousin works in the MOD stores. He can get you an RPG (you can get a bar mount off of Amazon) for a tenner & a crate of lager.
2mph eh? presumably the
2mph eh? presumably the cyclist was riding two a breast and had been riding at 1mph for the last 12 miles too.
Motorist Rob Lakomy wrote:
The cyclist was travelling at 0mph, so nothing happened to the driver either.
(plus the driver was inside a cage when <15kg was allegedly thrown at him).
The damage to the bodywork
The damage to the bodywork below the front nearside foglight is consistent with colliding with the chainring of the cycle while it was lying on the ground.
The driver has admitted colliding with a vulnerable road user, and he has provided photographic evidence suggesting he knocked the cyclist over on to the ground.
If Dorset Police are clever enough, they should have charged the driver with driving without due care & attention!?
I suspect those are teeth
I suspect those are teeth marks from an enraged cyclist. The cyclist retaliated after the motorist (a family man and member of the Rotary Club) loudly opened a tin of travel sweets while overtaking him at 2mph. Remaining extremely angry even after throwing his bike at the car, strangling the driver and dancing on his grave, he then proceeded to gnaw the front of the car, causing £10000 worth of damage.
Indeed. You hardly ever see
Indeed. You hardly ever see the much more common opposite situation reported. Clearly a case of “man bites car”.
A BMW driver? Hmmm.
A BMW driver? Hmmm.
One thing he doesn’t explain, is how he managed to hit the cyclist: the speed doesn’t matter. If I was wearing hi-viz head to toe with bright flashing lights and some dozy twit in a Beemer still managed hit me, I might just want to take it out on the twit.
Maybe Rob Lakomy should just take the £1k damage as a fine for being a terrible driver, and invest in some training to prevent repetition.
https://www.leicestermercury
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/pathetic-man-six-times-drug-10458382?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
Could this not be re framed
Could this not be re framed equally as driver collides with cyclist and confronts them afterwards?
The quotes suggest to me that there’s a threshold speed collision below which it’s no harm no foul, and the cyclist wasn’t entitled to be upset. It is about as valid as “what are you worried about mate, I didn’t hit you”. Read in that context I hope the police enquiries centre around their coffee breaks.
Even if I believed Mr Lakomy,
Even if I believed Mr Lakomy, which I don’t, then this claim can easily be be reframed as a cyclist was hit by 2t of metal travelling at 1m/s, obviously, with a momentum of 2000kg.m/s. Mr Lakomy should take a lot more care when in charge of such equipment. If this was a forklift truck in a factory setting then this would be in the accident book for sure.
Yes and there would almost
Yes and there would almost certainly be an investigation and possible disciplinary measures.
Mr Blackbird wrote:
Exactly. If I touched anyone or anything with an FLT at work I’d also be banned from all equipment until I passed a drug and alcohol test, the investigation was finished and I’d completed a refresher course, which is done every three years anyway along with an eyesight test.
The most telling thing about
The most telling thing about this article is how the driver thinks that driving into a cyclist is absolutely fine as long as the speed is low enough.
Yes – see “nudged” / “grazed”
Yes – see also “nudged” / “grazed” / “bumped” – along with “I only drove near them…”
And “clip” and “tap”.
And “clip” and “tap”.
Steve K wrote:
And, unless there is something missing from the article, the police agree with him.
He’s managed to get his
He’s managed to get his retaliation in first, but hopefully the usual police bothsides-ing will resolve this. Not a very believable story he’s told, is it, not exactly the whole truth.
No comment from the Police
No comment from the Police about how the car driver was taken to have admitted to driving without due care
or dangerous driving
and causing a collision
and has been charged with anything at all
which surely would be obvious
I am not saying the cyclist is totally innocent – IF the cyclist threw his bike at the car and assaulted the driver then they need to be charged as well
and – to be fair to the driver – he did stop and get out
but they are both at fault to some extent
Pics make no sense. Someone
Pics make no sense. Someone opening a car door into another will make a similar dent. Throwing a bike at a car would make significantly more damage.
And are we to believe that the bike bounced off the side of the car and then under the front bumper?