Regent's Park Warning

izza

Just a quick warning.

Was down there this morning for normal chaingang efforts. Suddenly several of us punctured caused by drawing pins.

A few of us returned to the area concerned (southern part of inner loop) to discover the whole of the road was covered in drawing pins. I personally picked up over 30 drawing pins. In addition the street cleaner was there in his brushing vehicle and happily went over the area repeatedly.

Still saw over 6 others get punctures over the next 15 minutes.

Be careful if you're heading there this week/weekend and carry more spare tubes than normal.

bernithebiker

Tell the police, and maybe see if there's CCTV coverage (seems most of London is covered!).

Then the scumbag might get caught and done for Intent to Cause GBH or something....(Colinthecop might like to chip in there!)

lanternerouge79

Ouch, that is bad news

damocles10

That's bad news...some people are just messed up [ pin man ]. Thanks for clearing some up...went around there Sat /Sun and had no problems. It could be a serious issue if you have a rapid flat at speed...Police should be notified.

Stedman

It could have been worse, see; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-29497117

Someone this weekend did this on a fast down hill section of a sportive in Wales.

Old_Timer

Its a sick individual that scatters drawing pins along a roadway, especially one like this and the sportive noted in the second article. Painting the pins black to camouflage them shows direct intent to do harm to a person or persons. Hopefully the criminals will be caught in both instances. I'm most glad that no one was hurt in the sportive or on the pathway.

buckmulligan

izza wrote:

A few of us returned to the area concerned (southern part of inner loop) to discover the whole of the road was covered in drawing pins. I personally picked up over 30 drawing pins. In addition the street cleaner was there in his brushing vehicle and happily went over the area repeatedly.

Thanks for the heads up, not much in London surprises me these days. Expecting drivers to run me off the road and pedestrians to jump in front of you without so much as an acknowledgement to your existence has become the norm now.

Do you mean Inner Circle? And if so, do you do laps around there? It's only a km a lap, I got bored as sin going round and round there, but it's hard to find anywhere in Central London worth getting cold and wet for in the winter months.

chris_bass

My dad (who lives in Wales) was telling me about the one in Wales, I hope this kind of thing doesn't catch on.

theotherjake

The Frieze art fair was setting up. It's possible someone accidentally dropped them out of one of the multiple vans and lorrys unloading in the inner circle.

izza

The art fair preparations were concentrated in another area of the park and the drawing pins were scattered in a well defined, contained area. As such, whilst I am not a forensic scientist and nor would I look to get onto a soap box and blast anti-cyclists unfairly, however :

- had it been an accidental dropping from the nearside of a vehicle there was not a concentration of pins in the gutter or a longer trail of pins in the direction of travel
- had it been an accidental dropping from the offside or back of a car the pins would have fallen more evenly onto the other side of the road and also had a longer trail of pins in the direction of travel

Based on the above I am of an opinion that the pins were scattered by hand. In trying to be fair, it could have been an accident with someone dropping the pins unexpectedly and without knowledge. However, there was no pins on the pavement and only on one side of the road. In addition there is a pedestrian crossing only 30 metres away.

As such, I am convinced that there was malice involved but cannot prove it unequivocally. I have contected the police and will wait to see if there was some CCTV footage to prove/disprove my viewpoint.

kobestarr

Hello all I'm new to this forum - but found it as I'm relatively new to cycling round RP and have been doing so quite a lot in the morning of the past month (i.e. dark). It seems that including the one of this thread there seems to have been 3 separate incidents.

1) As reported in this thread on the inner circle on Saturday 4th October

2) Saturday 4th morning on the outer circle before the left turn junction on the outer circle (if you are doing the out outer circle Anti-clockwise)

3) Today on the outer circle - location TBC

A friend of mine has been in contact with the police over incidents 2 and 3 but was not aware of item 1 on this forum until just now.

Can I suggest that we (all RP cyclists on this forum) look to do the following until this seems to have died a death?

a) Report it to the police if there are any further incidents or anything suspect on the roads in RP - my friend has been contacting this police officer by email so it makes sense that we all use the same oneDave.Payne@met.pnn.police.ukb) Spread the word to your fellow riders and ask them to report back here of anything that seems dodgy. (confirmed tacks in road/ a lot of suspect punctures etc) with the location and time and date.

Cheers

izza

Update:

No CCTV on South side of park

Meetings are being arranged with local clubs/park officials/police to develop a relationship and collect any sightings/reports of incidents.

To clarify kobestarr's post the email address is dave.payne@met.pnn.police.uk in relation to any other drawing pin incidents.

Ben6899

izza wrote:

Update:

No CCTV on South side of park

Meetings are being arranged with local clubs/park officials/police to develop a relationship and collect any sightings/reports of incidents.

To clarify kobestarr's post the email address is dave.payne@met.pnn.police.uk in relation to any other drawing pin incidents.

Who is arranging these meetings? Who do you ride with, Izza?