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reported a dangerous driver – now charged with dangerous cycling. Help please

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  • March 15, 2015 at 9:52 am #23509
    smileydave

    I need some help and advice.

    i was cut up by a taxi, so shouted at him to give me some room.
    as I came along his inside, he engaged me in conversation. I held onto his window frame to balance (clippy pedals), while we discussed highway code rule 163. He drove off without warning. I was in the impossible position of holding onto a (now) moving vehicle, knowing that if I let go I would definitely fall over, so I held on in the hope i could stabilise my self and come off safely – needless to say i didn’t, since he continued to accelerate. He refused to give his details

    I reported the driver to the police and have this week received a summons, charging me with dangerous driving.

    Needless to say i am furious. I’ve been stitched up by the system – they only have my details because I reported the taxi driver myself.

    an initial consultation with a solicitor is going to cost me £300, and possibly up to £2000 in defence costs. I’ve discussed the case with a JP, who thinks it should ever have come to court. but since it has, I’m forced to act.
    the best financial solution, sadly is to take my lumps and plead guilty.

    I’m wating to find out if my initial statement was ever received by the case manager – I can’t believe that if they’d read both sides of the story they would have prosecuted me

    I cannot believe that it was in teh public interest to prosecute me, the victim.

    I think that this case will discourage cyclists from reporting dangerous driving, and if anything will encourage them to take the law into their own hands. If i’d scratched him and fucked off, I’d have got off scot free and had my revenge.

    thoughts help and advice please kind people of road.cc

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Viewing 15 replies - 16 through 30 (of 53 total)
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  • March 16, 2015 at 8:51 pm #837149
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    exilegareth

    Bear in mind that the
    Bear in mind that the original post resembled an application to be on the Jeremy Kyle show, but….

    if you don;t think hanging onto a taxi while you’re being towed up the road is dangerous, where exactly would you draw the line?

    I think the OPs point is that the driver pulling off with him holding onto his car is dangerous, to which some cynical lawyer has replied ‘yes it was dangerous, because you held on…’

    March 16, 2015 at 8:26 pm #837147
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    FluffyKittenofTindalos

    abudhabiChris wrote:
    Your

    abudhabiChris wrote:

    Your profile says you ride a Condor “pirate version”. Does that mean a fake copy or a homage to Marco Pantani? if you are happy to tell everyone you ride a counterfeit bike then you seem to think the law doesn’t apply to you when you feel like it.

    I don’t know about the rest of the discussion (don’t really see what the OP hoped to achieve with posting the hard-to-follow tale here), but you confuse me with this. Are you saying its actually _illegal_ to ride a bike that looks like a different bike?

    March 16, 2015 at 7:26 pm #837145
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    robert.brady

    smileydave wrote:you

    smileydave wrote:
    you obviously had a bad day with your mother yesterday and started drinking early.
    If i’d asked for criticism form a sanctimonious prick, I’d have asked for it in the title. instead I asked for help, of which you have contributed precisely nothing apart from keeping the discussion near the top of the board.
    when i asked you what you would have done in exactly the same situation. i meant if youhad found yourself getting dragged along hte road by a taxi driver. i’ sorry that that wasn’t obvious enough for you to realise that I didnt want oyu to bang on your own soapbox about your own pet hates.

    it seems to me taht you don’t do much utility cycling, otherwise you’d have come across these issues yourself.

    I’ll assume this is aimed at me so to answer your points:

    No, I didn’t have a bad day with my mother, she’s been dead 17 years. No, I hadn’t been drinking early, I’ve actually given it up for Lent.

    It seems you want sympathy but you didn’t specifically ask for that, either.

    I wouldn’t have found myself being dragged along by the taxi because I wouldn’t have held on to it. If I was being dragged along by it because I was holding onto it, I’d have let go. Cars don’t accelerate that fast.

    I ride to work five days a week and get out on a Sunday morning but, no, I’ve never got myself in trouble with the police.

    March 16, 2015 at 4:15 pm #837143
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    BigglesMeister

    smileydave wrote:section 28

    smileydave wrote:
    section 28 actually. thanks for oyur input

    Section 26 …

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/26

    26 Holding or getting on to vehicle in order to be towed or carried.

    (1)If, for the purpose of being carried, a person without lawful authority or reasonable cause takes or retains hold of, or gets on to, a motor vehicle or trailer while in motion on a road he is guilty of an offence.
    (2)If, for the purpose of being drawn, a person takes or retains hold of a motor vehicle or trailer while in motion on a road he is guilty of an offence

    Section 28 …

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/28

    28 Dangerous cycling.

    (1)A person who rides a cycle on a road dangerously is guilty of an offence.
    (2)For the purposes of subsection (1) above a person is to be regarded as riding dangerously if (and only if)—
    (a)the way he rides falls far below what would be expected of a competent and careful cyclist, and
    (b)it would be obvious to a competent and careful cyclist that riding in that way would be dangerous.
    (3)In subsection (2) above “dangerous” refers to danger either of injury to any person or of serious damage to property; and in determining for the purposes of that subsection what would be obvious to a competent and careful cyclist in a particular case, regard shall be had not only to the circumstances of which he could be expected to be aware but also to any circumstances shown to have been within the knowledge of the accused.]

    Have they charged you under the correct section ????????? You may well have been hanging on (an offence under sect 26) but not dangerous cycling (sect 28)!!!. Is it a moot point ? Unfortunately, you’d prob need to speak to your defence again to find out!

    The penalties are as follows … so dangerous cycling is lot more serious than just hanging on.

    RTA section 26 Holding or getting on to vehicle, etc., in order to be towed or carried. Summarily. Level 1 on the standard scale.
    RTA section 27 Dogs on designated roads without being held on lead. Summarily. Level 1 on the standard scale.
    RTA section 28 [F303 dangerous] cycling. Summarily. [F304Level 4] on the standard scale.
    RTA section 29 Careless, and inconsiderate, cycling. Summarily. [F305Level 3] on the standard scale.

    March 16, 2015 at 4:09 pm #837141
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    KirinChris

    MKultra wrote:OFFS do not

    MKultra wrote:
    OFFS do not feed the troll.

    But can’t we poke it with a stick?

    March 16, 2015 at 3:36 pm #837139
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    middleagedmoaner

    IMVHO there may be something
    IMVHO there may be something missing from the initial account. It would be highly unusual for a court summons to be issued in any situation on the strength of the uncorroborated word of one person against another. When applied to cycling/motoring issues, this sometimes works for the individual, and if they feel wronged, sometimes against them. There can be few of us who have never reacted to events in the heat of the moment, and thought better of it later. Safe riding all.

    March 16, 2015 at 9:50 am #837137
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    MKultra

    OFFS do not feed the troll.
    OFFS do not feed the troll.

    March 16, 2015 at 9:32 am #837135
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    kwi

    There you go, sound advice
    There you go, sound advice from abudhabiChris.
    Also find it hard to believe an initial consultation with a solicitor will cost as much as you think. In my experience that is usually free.

    March 16, 2015 at 9:01 am #837133
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    KirinChris

    I raised eyebrows when I saw
    I raised eyebrows when I saw the OP yesterday and the subsequent discussions and OP’s contributions have done nothing to lower them.

    You want opinions from a forum where you’ve been a member for one day, apparently joining just to vent a story.

    You get annoyed that not everybody is being sympathetic and not giving the advice you want. On the internet.

    You have been abusive to posters very quickly and completely inappropriately, which may be an indication of how you handle confrontations.

    Your profile says you ride a Condor “pirate version”. Does that mean a fake copy or a homage to Marco Pantani? if you are happy to tell everyone you ride a counterfeit bike then you seem to think the law doesn’t apply to you when you feel like it.

    Presumably you aren’t a member of CTC or LCC or some other group which provides 3rd party insurance and legal access either.

    As for your story, you initially didn’t mention anything about damage to yourself or your bike or the driver not giving details in an accident. Or that he had stopped again after this altercation. Why didn’t you call the police then and there? Did you not mention that to the police when reporting the driver? I find it hard to believe they have ignored this completely. Leaving the scene of an accident is generally frowned upon.

    So, you want advice…

    Your tale has too many holes and inconsistencies for me to have much faith that we’ve heard a complete and objective account. Forgive me if I am misjudging here, but from what I’ve read it all seems to be about You.

    I suspect the police have a similar view and if your current conduct is anything to go by so will the magistrates. You may well be an innocent and blameless victim, meek as a lamb and pure as the driven snow, but I doubt your ability to convince them.

    So, either plead guilty and take your fine, or get proper professional legal help and pay someone else to fill in the gaps and draw attention from the holes.

    March 16, 2015 at 8:58 am #837131
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    daddyELVIS

    My advice is don’t get legal
    My advice is don’t get legal advice on an internet forum!

    March 16, 2015 at 8:24 am #837129
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    redmeat

    Why in god’s name would you
    Why in god’s name would you hold on to someones car?

    March 16, 2015 at 8:13 am #837127
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    Judge dreadful

    smileydave wrote:man comes

    smileydave wrote:
    man comes onto the internet for help. Gets precious little.
    Smug twats who’ve had a bad day with the motherinlaw and have started drinking early come on the internet to abuse strangers and succeed. Well done internet you must be so proud.

    That pretty much sums it up. =D>

    March 16, 2015 at 8:11 am #837125
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    Reg Molehusband

    I’ve decided to start using
    I’ve decided to start using my GoPro camera when cycling in town. I don’t want to end up in the same unfortunate situation. Best of luck. You need some.

    P.S. Discussing this further on the forum is not going to help your case. Go and speak to a solicitor.

    March 16, 2015 at 7:44 am #837123
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    CXR94Di2

    Seek a solicitor, you need
    Seek a solicitor, you need to know what options you have. Will this charge, if convicted affect other aspects of your life, getting new job, current job, insurance, loans etc. Can you plead it down to a lesser charge?

    Seek professional help

    March 16, 2015 at 6:45 am #837121
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    smileydave

    i wasn’t interviewed – I
    i wasn’t interviewed – I reported the driver myself as a dangerous driver and hten heard nothing until I was charged.

    should I have been interviewed under caution? thisis teh kndof help that I need

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