http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-12867156
Depressing story really (sorry to bring you that on such a nice sunny day!) My partner knows the driver through work, apparently she is lovely - and a cyclist too.
I know there are a lot more incidents where we get injured by cars, but there's surely no place for this kind of road rage and violence, ugh! Scary stuff.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
'Driver on A8 injured by cyclist's punch in the face'
(19 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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Never any excuse to resort to unprovoked physical violence. That the guy was on a bike and the victim was in a car is immaterial.
Posted 14 years ago # -
If only the police had been even fractionally as interested in my hit-and-run, when somebody deliberately drove through me at a junction...
In group / out group theory at work?
Posted 14 years ago # -
Not to condone it but hypoglycaemia and/or adrenaline may also have been a factor.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Meant to mention this, the police had a van parked on the verge going into RBS and were pulling cyclists over for questioning. (I was on the path on the other side)
A non forumer on twitter got stopped, but they were just referring to it as an 'incident', said person thought that it was the usual type of car/bike interaction.
Call me a sexist 50s throwback if you like, but who punches a woman in the face?
Posted 14 years ago # -
Nope, I'm with you as a 50s throwback Stepdoh.
I'm also not going to make any excuses for the cyclist. If it had been the other way round (a male driver punching a female cyclist in the face) we'd be forming lynch mobs and looking for the car. This guy deserves to be found and have the law applied, as anyone who commits an assault should be.
Incidentally, I reckon we should make a move to stop calling it 'road rage' when it gets down to physical assault - seems to lessen the seriousness when referred to as road rage...
Strangely I get the feeling the police would take that more seriously than a driver using his car to drive at a cyclist.
Posted 14 years ago # -
When I had a bus driven at me, I was told by the counter clerk at L&B that she couldn't log it in a number of ways because "there hadn't actually been an accident".
So If I'd been smart, rather than manage to get myself out of the way of the bus by 2mm and preserve my own wellbeing, I'd had let him clip me by 1mm in which case they would have been forced to take action, rather than log it, nod and smile and then file the report in the shredder.
Posted 14 years ago # -
When I got punched in the face by a van driver that almost mowed me down whilst I had a baby in the trailer the police did absotutely nothing about it. Theres really no need to be punching folk in the face though.
Posted 14 years ago # -
yeah, what's with all the face punching in this town?
Even growing up post-industrial Port Glasgow i was only punched about twice in 20 years.
Posted 14 years ago # -
maybe drivers will feel oblidged to wear helmets and helmet cams?
Posted 14 years ago # -
I think it would be wonderful if we all got along and I find it hard to imagine how dangerous someone's driving would have to be before I'd attack them - I nevertheless find it hard to summon much sympathy in the face of the blatant bias on display.
Cyclist is intentionally run down - noted, no action.
Driver gets a whack upside the head - roadblock on cycle routes, scouring CCTV, etc.Until justice is evenhanded I wouldn't go out of my way to keep tipping the scales...
Posted 14 years ago # -
having mentioned previously on here possibly violentish retribution to car drivers,ie steel toe cap boots to door skins, want to say that this is wrong. People, no matter who, cannot go about hitting/punching/kicking other people ! Anyone who dosnt understand that is clearly needing help ! Hope the driver gets over this and realises that most people are still law abiding, good,fair people.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yeah, as I've said elsewhere I think it's stupid of anyone (including the media and us) to frame this in terms of 'cyclists vs drivers' - I'd say it's more 'psychos who think physical violence is acceptable vs everyone else' really. And I'd like to think they're in an even smaller minority than cyclists...
Posted 14 years ago # -
+1 there is no reason to punch anybody, except for fun.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Hit-and-run driver injures cyclist in Winchburgh
I presume the Police response will be commensurate to that above?
Lothian and Borders Police said it was possible the driver did not realise they had collided with the cyclist, who suffered a broken shoulder blade.
If they didn't realise THAT then it's quite possible that they weren't paying due care and attention?
Posted 14 years ago # -
According to friends at work today the incident was considerably more than "a punch", whilst I have no idea of the reliability of their information (Evening News someone mentioned?) they were talking about the lady having been badly beaten and only saved by the intervention of a passer-by.
IF that is correct I would respectfully suggest the Police response quite reasonable?
Posted 14 years ago # -
Absolutely, hence my "commensurate" bit. I didn't mean to criticise the response to the A8 incident - If the woman getting beat up gets a couple of vans and a stake-out of the scene, what I meant was that surely crushed cyclists at least merits more than a report being filed and forgotten about!
Posted 14 years ago # -
IF that is correct I would respectfully suggest the Police response quite reasonable?
Well, yes and no. I think taken in isolation the response is nothing less than I would like and expect. It's more that it highlights how badly everybody else is treated.
"Oh, the poor misunderstood hit and run driver probably didn't even realise they left a cyclist hospitalised, never mind" VS "roadblocks at dawn"
Can you imagine the police setting up a roadblock to identify a driver, even in the case of a fatal hit and run? I can't.
Posted 14 years ago # -
To be fair, when my childhood friend Allan was killed by a van driver a few years ago, the police did put in a lot of effort to find the driver, who was convicted
(see http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Hitandrun-driver-jailed-for-18.2502891.jp ) You do have to wonder what you'd have to do to get a serious sentence though? Punch a driver?Posted 14 years ago #
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