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news
Suffolk Police appealPolice seek Suffolk cyclist who allegedly assaulted driver
Police in Suffolk have launched an appeal to find a cyclist who allegedly assaulted a motorist before spitting at his vehicle and making a dent in it with his bike.
The incident happened on Wednesday 15 July at around 2.30pm on the Coast Road in Corton.
A picture has now been issued of a man officers want to speak to in connection with common assault and criminal damage.
According to Suffolk Constabulary, "A VW Touran was being driven on the Coast Road at Corton when a cyclist refused to let them pass.
"Both the cyclist and the van stopped and then the cyclist spat on the car and threw his cycle against the vehicle, causing a dent in the bodywork.
"When the male driver of the vehicle, aged in his 40s, confronted him the cyclist struck him in the mouth and cycled off."
Anyone who recognises the man in the picture is asked to contact Lowestoft police on 101, quoting crime reference 37/39966/20, by email Kevyn.Durrant [at] suffolk.pnn.police.uk (at this address), or by making a report online here.
Alternatively, information can be given anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or via their website.
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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29 comments
Ah the old I was minding my own business and out of the blue he assaulted me officer. 🙄
Looking at the coast road at Corton, there's no white lane marking denoting that the road is considered safe for cars in the opposite direction to pass without taking some due care and attention (once the road is below a certain width, white lines disappear).
If the driver is hesitent or unsure of the road layout, they may well simply sit behind the cyclist who would be in his right, to cycle a couple of feet from the edge of the road. In my experience, this would result with the driver, driving too close to the bike (in order to take avoiding action if the cyclist fell off for example), probably tooting his horn, then squeezing past before shouting abuse as they overtook him.
As always, theres two sides to every story, the fact that the cyclists never reported the incident suggests that he's come across this quite often. As for famous Mark Twain quote goes, "A lie can be half way round the world, before truth has even got its (cycling) shoes on".
Depressing when it comes down to who is going to win at fisticuffs. "You don't know who they are, or what they're capable of", I intone to myself, when riding or on the motorway.
Moments of stress seem to be a "car- crash" in some people's minds. They know fine they've done wrong - in the case the other driver and you are both questioning his actions. But they cannot accept that idea, leastways not from outside. That source has to be dealt with.
Exactly - "How dare you tell me what I can/cannot do!"
Arsehole driver tailgates cyclist, shouts abuse as he close passes him, gets a mouthful back, gets out to flex his gammon rights, misjudges situation and gets parked up by a bloke who doesn't fit his stereotype of lycra clad weakling.
You love to see it.
That's exactly what I was thinking, maybe put a pic of the van driver in circulation so we can all laugh at him
A VW Touran is not a van.......
Just saying it's a crap report
There was another fighting cyclist that looked remarkably similar to him a few years back.
Driver got out of the vehicle in order to "have a word" with the cyclist (euphemism for "threat or use of violence" 9 times out of 10), and was surprised to come second in the ensuing fraca. Then bleats to the Police.
Give him a medal.
Seems to have been a spate of cyclists throwing bikes at cars recently. Perhaps this is the beginning of a trend, moving away from lightweight performance components and towards a steed that can do some proper damage when hurled at an SUV, yet still be ridable afterwards.
When I was a lad a neighbour gave me an old Polish bike, the frame of which seemed to be made of gas pipe, but without the hole down the middle.
I wish I still had it, I can see a handy use for it now.
Isn't that how the Grifter was put together? I'm sure that was heavy enough to have it's own gravity well.
Could be a gap in the market there; never mind the latest super light carbon gravel bike, the next trend will the throwing bikes.
My e-road bike weighs in at 18kg with the battery on (120kg if you include the rider).
True, the car would have to be stationary for a while while I find a block and tackle, hi-ab or forklift, but I reckon it might do a *bit* of damage and still be ridable.
perhaps 'steel is real' after all
which (almost no doubt) translates as
My hero
Yep, I'm sure that's exactly how it happened...
"refused to let them pass."? I don't know this road, but I'm guessing that it is narrow and winding, and there are few places where it would be safe to pass a cyclist. I've just taken a look at Google Earth and it doesn't seem that narrow, so how would a cyclist prevent a vehicle overtaking?
For the cyclist to get that wound up, there had to be a previous incident, perhaps the driver came right up behind him and blasted his horn, which is guaranteed to gain the sympathy and respect of the cyclist.
And how did he manage to ride away? The other guy's got a van.
Is it Shrodinger's narrow road, Burt?
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18657741.appeal-taxi-driver-abuse...
there seems to be a lot of it about at the moment.
Moral : get your report in first, and once again it's fine to threaten someone's life with a vehicle but becomes a police /media matter if there's any sort of holding to account.
Did he do a little "bib" on his horn, perchance? seems to be the way in Suffolk. It does seem be Scrodinger's Bike - both thrown and cycled off on. The other guy might have a van, but he was gobsmacked.
TBf, the road is narrow enough that cycling dead centre would stop someone passing if they wanted to do it safely to the cyclist and if that was the cyclists intent, weaving either side of centre if a car tries. However as with the Barnsley one, there does seem to be the whiff of missing info on the story.
However I do accept that an arsehole can be an arsehole whether they are on a walking along, on a bike or in a motor vehicle, it is just the the ones in the latter do more damage with their arseholiness.
Id agree theres more to it and weve barely got half the story, but its a road wide enough to drive mobile homes along into Broadland Sands, and you wont get very far cycling around East Anglia on roads which are often much narrower than that by taking the middle as your line to ride.
Maybe they were travelling in opposite directions.
For goodness sake. Some of the replies here are disgusting. As it will be all guess work you lot don't know what happened. If some has committed a crime they should pay. If the law wants him then fair enough. If it was the other way round you lots would be shreiking for justice.
You have a point, but I doubt that there is anyone reading this who hasn't been the victim of deliberately dangerous driving for no other reason than that they are a cyclist. When I get an arrogant, entitled, dangerous driver threatening my life, I tend to get just a wee bit angry, and if that driver then gets out of his vehicle to lecture/attack me and I'm still in fight/flight mode and pumped up with adrenaline, I think most people would understand if I wasn't able to restrain myself and gave the stupid fucker what he deserved.
Cyclists don't just randomly attack drivers.
Agree 100%, and was in exactly that situation a fortnight ago. The van driver, who had threatened to kill me and started to get out of his vehicle, then reversed in order to line his vehicle up to drive straight at me. I believe that he was only discouraged from doing so by my lifting my bike up and making ready to throw it through his windscreen if he had started such a manoeuvre.
My crime, to anger him so? Pointing out, after he'd just driven straight into the path of an oncoming car (who had to swerve out of his way) that maybe he'd like to check that the road was clear before trying to overtake next time? A conversation that only started because HE pulled over and asked "what have I done wrong?" in reaction to the oncoming driver's frantic use of the horn!
And were I a cyclist who had been forced to defend myself when that sort of motorist got out of his car to "remonstrate" with me, it would be a cold day in hell before I came forward to volunteer my side of the story. Plenty of examples of cyclists being properly shafted, whether as active parties or just victims, to make me think that the system would treat me fairly when the motorist was the one who put me in danger first.
But is it fair enough though?
So this chap has allegidly assaulted, spat and criminally damaged a driver and their vehicle. Why are we privvy to all that information? Does that need to be shared... surely it would be better to simply say that they are seeking to speak to this person in relation to a serious road rage incident... why the details? Why do we need to publically demonise someone based on a single persons account?
I agree with you though... it is sad that many of us here, are either trivialising or justifying serious offences (not sure spitting at a vehicle can be seen that harshly, but I know magistrates take a very hard line on this). However, our reaction is understandable when you consider the one sided reporting of what went down.
I love the idea that this latex loonie was consciously holding up traffic, and then getting feisty with anyone that took issue with that... so, why was only one car involved... why wasn't there a string of cars all held up behind this psycho? Similarly, how did the driver end up outside of their vehicle in a position where they could be attacked?
The problem is we can all visualise how this may have happened, and so our focus is more on the why, rather than the what...
Huh? Not sure how that has any relevance to my comment? Did you hit the wrong 'reply'?