HGV used as weapon? Monday, Chepstow SN53FFX watch out!!!!

alfablue

Family bike ride: on Monday afternoon at about 17.00 we were returning from a day ride (Bristol to Chepstow, return, via NCN 4 and Old Severn Bridge). We were a bit late owing to a puncture so the light was fading, but the bikes were well lit and riders in Hi Viz.

On turning right out of Mounton Road on to the A466 (Wye Valley Link Road) southbound for a short (500m) stretch leading to the roundabout (see maps), we were very nearly wiped out by an HGV.

The road is not wide enough for cars to overtake without going over the centre line, and as the road was busy with traffic both ways I advised my family to adopt the primary position to discourage dangerous overtakes, particularly as there was a pinch point towards the end of the stretch of road (see pics).

It is a downhill section so we easily reached a reasonable speed, though there was a roundabout and a traffic queue and a 30mph limit, so we were in no way delaying anyone.

As we got going we heard an HGV leaning on his horn coming up fast behind us, he did a crazy overtake whilst still on his horn, nearly wiping out my two sons and their girlfriends and my girlfriend, and forcing them into the pavement. I had already arrived at the queue of stationary traffic (which the driver could see, thus convincing me that his behaviour was an act of overt aggression). I turned round to remonstrate with him, and my son turned up and started hammering on his door (his language was not the best, but quite understandable!). He opened the door fast thrusting it into my sons face and knocking him backwards. We got photos as he drove off.

I called the police (I believe this was more than careless driving, it was an assault with an HGV as far as I am concerned). They turned up very promptly and were very understanding, took details. They said he had already phoned them (knew he's done wrong?). They said they would make enquiries, find out who his employer was, talk to them etc.

What else could / should be done? This driver scared the life out of us all, took a very serious and reckless risk with our lives, and to me it is like a serious assault. I believe he will succeed in killing with his HGV if he continues to drive.

Anyway, if you see him, get off the road and run like hell!







(The above information is both true and in the public interest, and there are 6 witnesses to this)

Barrie_G

Make sure to keep on at the police so that they don't just quietly drop the matter, try to find out the employers name / company so that you may make your own phone call to let him know what sort of person he's employing.

cee

crikey.

that sounds like a brown trouser moment indeed.

glad everyone is unharmed and hope it doesn't deter any of them riding.

alfablue

It was horrid, my family came over for the weekend, I wanted to get them more enthusiastic about riding for their health and wellbeing, then this happens - I am very upset

alfablue

Barrie_G wrote:

Make sure to keep on at the police so that they don't just quietly drop the matter, try to find out the employers name / company so that you may make your own phone call to let him know what sort of person he's employing.

I will, I am not satisfied that they will do enough.

acidstrato

i might be a little harsh here, but isnt the cycle path painted on the pavement on this stretch.

i live nearby and work in chepstow and regulary ride where your refering to and it is very dodgy by there however when i turn right on that road i tend to head down to the crossing on the pavement, crossing the road using the sign corssing as intended plus there are very rarely walkers on this side as well.

not defending the driver, sounds like a typical prick

alfablue

acidstrato wrote:

i might be a little harsh here, but isnt the cycle path painted on the pavement on this stretch.

i live nearby and work in chepstow and regulary ride where your refering to and it is very dodgy by there however when i turn right on that road i tend to head down to the crossing on the pavement, crossing the road using the sign corssing as intended plus there are very rarely walkers on this side as well.

not defending the driver, sounds like a typical prick

i'm curious though, what is this primary position you adopted?

There is a cycle path on the pavement on the northbound side. We use it for going northbound, and I did consider using it on the return, however this would have involved crossing over the road twice with six people in fairly continuous traffic. I considered that we should be safe (I use this route with my g/f very often, we just make sure we are in primary), as the traffic was in a queue at the end of this stretch, we had Hi Viz on and all had Smart 1/2 watt rear lights.

Ironically, the pavement path itself is the cause of a problem on this stretch, as the pinch-point is to allow cyclists to cross the road! We really do need to assert our right to cycle on the road; drivers need to be prepared for our prescence, and indeed the highway code suggests that pavement cyclepaths are only for up to 18mph (however none of this is very relevant as the driver could see us, he just wanted to run us down).

The day that cyclists cannot ride on a 30mph stretch of road is the day I give up cycling :twisted:

acidstrato

i agree with you to a degree, I should never have to defend myself for riding on the road at any given speed, but I often do

however, the purpose of the path is for safety and that road is a fairly busy and dangerous road at the best of times (try riding it on a friday race night, its mental!) a group of riders taking up some of the small amount of space on that road when there is a conveinient cycle path in place could have caused a huge amount of frustration on the drivers part.

hopefully he will get spoken too, but nothing else will come of it

alfablue

I totally disagree that the small space we took up could justifiably account for ANY frustration on the drivers part. The traffic was moving at well below the speed limit, we were keeping with the flow, he just tried to barge through us. Please don't be an apologist for this deadly behaviour - any frustration he has is due to his own mental state, not to do with anything any cyclist did to him!

craker

I regularly cycle this stretch, (and drive it :-( ) there's a roundabout to slow down for and normally queuing traffic (doesn't stop tw£ts overtaking you just in time to join the queue though).

Bad luck remember this sort of thing is very rare. I saw a truck like that today taking a tipper truck up to a quarry in the vicinity, he was going really slowly...

btw the northbound cycle route is just pavement, I don't feel compelled to use it. The southbound bit is more sensible but remember all not mandatory.

acidstrato

i'm not justifying the drivers actions, i'm simply giving an unbiased view of a road i know well

wreckless or just stupid, either way I dont think he was trying to mow you down, but you never know

alfablue

I think he was trying to intimidate the hell out of us and take the risk of mowing us down. There is absolutely no way this was a frustrated driver being held up (which would still not excuse it), he barrelled down the hill with intent to do harm, hence leaning on his horn (illegally)! I saw it all, as I was there.

MadammeMarie

This was an assault with a deadly weapon, no less than that. And I would go further as to suggest attempted murder!! That scumbag should be shot! :twisted: :evil: :x

spen666

MadammeMarie wrote:

This was an assault with a deadly weapon, no less than that. And I would go further as to suggest attempted murder!! That scumbag should be shot! :twisted: :evil: :x

There is no such crime in English & Welsh law - you've been watching too much American TV

There is assault occassioning ABH, Assault occassioning GBH, Common Assault, Attempted murder and murder

giant_man

spen666 wrote:

MadammeMarie wrote:

This was an assault with a deadly weapon, no less than that. And I would go further as to suggest attempted murder!! That scumbag should be shot! :twisted: :evil: :x

There is no such crime in English & Welsh law - you've been watching too much American TV

There is assault occassioning ABH, Assault occassioning GBH, Common Assault, Attempted murder and murder

Well its about bloody time there was such a law spen imo, before decent cyclists lose their lives needlessly ...

spen666

giant mancp wrote:

spen666 wrote:

MadammeMarie wrote:

This was an assault with a deadly weapon, no less than that. And I would go further as to suggest attempted murder!! That scumbag should be shot! :twisted: :evil: :x

There is no such crime in English & Welsh law - you've been watching too much American TV

There is assault occassioning ABH, Assault occassioning GBH, Common Assault, Attempted murder and murder

Well its about bloody time there was such a law spen imo, before decent cyclists lose their lives needlessly ...

There is NO NEED for such a law

We have the offences set out in my earlier post- they cover the situation described- no need to introduce legislation to cover situations already covered

Gorillaman

spen666 wrote:

giant mancp wrote:

spen666 wrote:

MadammeMarie wrote:

This was an assault with a deadly weapon, no less than that. And I would go further as to suggest attempted murder!! That scumbag should be shot! :twisted: :evil: :x

There is no such crime in English & Welsh law - you've been watching too much American TV

There is assault occassioning ABH, Assault occassioning GBH, Common Assault, Attempted murder and murder

Well its about bloody time there was such a law spen imo, before decent cyclists lose their lives needlessly ...

There is NO NEED for such a law

We have the offences set out in my earlier post- they cover the situation described- no need to introduce legislation to cover situations already covered

Then why are cyclists being let down by these laws?

It's very clear that something needs to change as the current laws are not deterring drivers from outragreous acts of agression. If law change is not the answer- what do you suggest should change?

Of the charges you outlined below, only attempted murder seems to fit as no damage was actually done to the cyclists in question (thankfully!) -- and I can't see that being made to stick somehow.

spen666

Gorillaman wrote:

....

Then why are cyclists being let down by these laws?

It's very clear that something needs to change as the current laws are not deterring drivers from outragreous acts of agression. If law change is not the answer- what do you suggest should change?

Of the charges you outlined below, only attempted murder seems to fit as no damage was actually done to the cyclists in question (thankfully!) -- and I can't see that being made to stick somehow.

Cyclists are not being let down by the laws

Cyclists are being let down by those who enforce the laws.

There is a huge difference between the two.

What changes to the law do you want to make? I suspect the changes to the law will only introduce new offences that are covered by existing offences. The knee jerk reaction is create new laws.

Creating new offences will do nothing to solve these problems and indeed will have a negative effect as motorists realise yet more offences are not enforced


There are few circumstances not covered by current offences.


The problem is obtaining sufficient evidence to convict and or getting the police to take such allegations seriously enough

deal

spen666 wrote:

Gorillaman wrote:

....

Then why are cyclists being let down by these laws?

It's very clear that something needs to change as the current laws are not deterring drivers from outragreous acts of agression. If law change is not the answer- what do you suggest should change?

Of the charges you outlined below, only attempted murder seems to fit as no damage was actually done to the cyclists in question (thankfully!) -- and I can't see that being made to stick somehow.

Cyclists are not being let down by the laws

Cyclists are being let down by those who enforce the laws.

There is a huge difference between the two.

What changes to the law do you want to make? I suspect the changes to the law will only introduce new offences that are covered by existing offences. The knee jerk reaction is create new laws.

Creating new offences will do nothing to solve these problems and indeed will have a negative effect as motorists realise yet more offences are not enforced


There are few circumstances not covered by current offences.


The problem is obtaining sufficient evidence to convict and or getting the police to take such allegations seriously enough

i suggest one of these little video cameras - http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12666507

i just bought one and always have it ready along a stretch of road where i have had objects thrown at me from a car (the same car two separate occasions), both incidents reported to police who were a waste of time.

SteveR_100Milers

spen666 wrote:

Gorillaman wrote:

....

Then why are cyclists being let down by these laws?

It's very clear that something needs to change as the current laws are not deterring drivers from outragreous acts of agression. If law change is not the answer- what do you suggest should change?

Of the charges you outlined below, only attempted murder seems to fit as no damage was actually done to the cyclists in question (thankfully!) -- and I can't see that being made to stick somehow.

Cyclists are not being let down by the laws

Cyclists are being let down by those who enforce the laws.

There is a huge difference between the two.

What changes to the law do you want to make? I suspect the changes to the law will only introduce new offences that are covered by existing offences. The knee jerk reaction is create new laws.

Creating new offences will do nothing to solve these problems and indeed will have a negative effect as motorists realise yet more offences are not enforced


There are few circumstances not covered by current offences.


The problem is obtaining sufficient evidence to convict and or getting the police to take such allegations seriously enough

Good post.