Johnston Terrace Moton Road Rage « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Johnston Terrace Moton Road Rage

(38 posts)

Started 12 years ago by minus six
Latest reply from Wilmington's Cow

No tags yet.

12 Next »

minus six
Member

http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/news/278214-cyclist-knocked-off-bike-by-driver-who-intentionally-swerved-to-hit-him/

A cyclist was knocked off his bike by a car which intentionally swerved to hit him after an argument with the driver.

The 33-year-old had turned onto Fountainbridge at 8.45am on Monday when he got into a fight with the driver of a Renault Clio near the Lloyds TSB bank on the corner of Lothian Road.

As the cyclist travelled down Fountainbridge, the man driving the car followed him aggressively before swerving in front of the bike near the roundabout outside Cargo. The pair had another argument before the cyclist pedalled off.

He cycled another mile to Johnston Terrace before he noticed the Clio was behind him again. The car drove next to him and intentionally swerved and clipped the back wheel of the bike.

The cyclist fell to the ground and had to move to avoid being hit by the car again as it sped off.

The victim was taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Lothian and Borders Police are now appealing for witnesses. Officers want to speak to any drivers or pedestrians who saw the incident or any of the fights before.

Detective Inspector George Thomson said: "It is only good fortune that the cyclist did not suffer serious injury during this hit and run collision and we are now conducting a thorough investigation to identify and trace the driver of the Renault Clio.

"Anyone who witnessed the original confrontation in Fountainbridge, or the incident, which followed is asked to contact police immediately. Similarly, anyone with any other information that can assist with our enquiries should also come forward."

Anyone with any information can contact Lothian and Borders Police on 0131 311 3131, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Posted 12 years ago #
Smudge
Member

"..got into a fight with.."?

Will have to wait and see what the full story is with this one :-/

Posted 12 years ago #
DaveC
Member

My personal response would have been to call the police at Cargo. Then wait for the driver to move off before proceeding, probably along the canal path. If the driver stayed at Cargo then hopefully the police would turn up before he left or at least I would have time to get the reg number.

I know everyone's response would be different here but faced with a persistant road rager I'd ensure they were not in a position to knock me off my bike.

I hope the driver is caught and faced with a serious charge rather than a minor traffic offence, but proving it will be difficult as there appears to be no witnesses at the moment.

Posted 12 years ago #
cb
Member

Not sure I follow the order of events and locatiosn in that story. Seems to have gone from Lothian Road to Cargo (there's not a roundabout there anymore is there?) then back to Johnston Terrace, with the car following all the way.

Have I missed something (probably)?

Posted 12 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

cb - i agree - i thought this was very confusing.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

Incredibly confusing - made me wonder if there was a different Jonhston(e)(?) Terrace.

And 'got into a fight with' suggests actual fisticuffs, but the account from outside Cargo suggests they 'argued again' and therefore the first altercation was just words exchanged?

Posted 12 years ago #
minus six
Member

clearer report...

http://www.lbp.police.uk/information/latest_news/november_2011/hit_and_run_-_edinburgh.aspx

Lothian and Borders Police are appealing for witnesses following a hit and run incident at 8 45am in Edinburgh yesterday (Monday).

A 33-year-old man was cycling east along Fountainbridge when he became involved in a dispute with the male driver of a Renault Clio near to the Lloyds TSB bank.

As the cyclist continued on his way, the driver of the car followed him in an aggressive manner then swerved in front of the bike as they reached the junction close to Cargo bar.

The pair became involved in a further confrontation before the cyclist continued on his journey.

As the man cycled up Johnstone Terrace, he again noticed the Clio, which had entered Johnstone Terrace and drove parallel to the bike.

At this time, the car swerved intentionally, clipping the cyclist’s rear wheel causing him to fall to the ground.

The victim then had to avoid being stuck by the car again as it made off from the scene.

Police were contacted and the man was taken to hospital where he was treated for his injuries, which were not serious or life threatening.

Officers are now keen to speak with motorists or pedestrians who witnessed the incident.

Detective Inspector George Thomson said: "It is only good fortune that the cyclist did not suffer serious injury during this hit and run collision and we are now conducting a thorough investigation to identify and trace the driver of the Renault Clio.

"Anyone who witnessed the original confrontation in Fountainbridge, or the incident, which followed is asked to contact police immediately.

"Similarly, anyone with any other information that can assist with our enquiries should also come forward.”

Anyone with any information can contact Lothian and Borders Police on 0131 311 3131, or the charity Crimestoppers in confidence and complete anonymity on 0800 555 111.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Some confusion about location of Cargo. (Or order of events.)

Must be CCTV at Lothian Road.

Posted 12 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

Cyclist clung to attacker’s bonnet in terror after grinning maniac hunted him down

!!!!

Posted 12 years ago #
Morningsider
Member

Evening news report seems to make most sense. What does the first comment say -

"another cyclist getting their come uppance"

Really - even for EEN commentators this is low.

Posted 12 years ago #
wingpig
Member

I didn't get how you can cycle east past a Lloyds TSB on Fountainbridge. At least the EEN report (despite the usual quality of language ("peddled up Spittal Street")) makes it clear that at no point was a branch of Lloyds TSB involved.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

Aye, cyclists don't pay road tax ergo it's okay to run them over.

Posted 12 years ago #
steveo
Member

Acting Detective Constable ...., from Gayfield CID

Good to see they are giving the expected level of attention.

[Emphasis mine]

Posted 12 years ago #
Dave
Member

Makes my 'news' seem rather flat. I went to the station in Leith today to give a statement about a mad motorcyclist who tried to fight me this morning.

Glad I didn't meet the madman in the article instead (although it would have made princely headcam footage).

Although, mine has an element of Sherlock Holmes about it because I hadn't spoken or gestured to my troublesome chap at all. He must just have been cross that he was slower than me through the traffic.

Definitely happier being sworn at and riding off to avoid a fight than being driven round hanging off someone's wipers!!!

Posted 12 years ago #
custard
Member

given the time
surely there are witnesses?

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

Apparently three people helped him up after he rolled off the car. Just insane the more you think about it. And STILL the commenters banging on about cyclists running red lights and so on.

Sheesh.

Dave, sounds bad that. I've had it happen once. I looked over my shoulder to see if the way was clear to move across the road and somehow this spurred a driver on to pull alongside, wind his window down, and threaten to run me over. I was completely nonplussed...

Posted 12 years ago #
Dave
Member

I would post the footage but I'm not sure if that is sensible considering it might go to court (I'm sure it will just be police ticking him off, but I'm no expert).

I thought it was worth reporting purely because I was on the daily commute and so might see him tomorrow (or on the way home, I suppose!).

Posted 12 years ago #
crowriver
Member

Couple of months ago, I was heading East on McDonald Road, trailer in tow, and just ahead was a zebra crossing. I slowed down as a young woman was crossing from the right. A black VW saloon ahead of me, instead accelerated through the zebra crossing, even though a pedestrian was crossing at the time! Only to have to stop at the red light some 150 yards further on.

Well, I saw red at this point. I pootled along to the ASL and looked back at the driver of the black VW. Made a gesture which can be translated as 'banker' in his direction. Driver then creeps his motor into the ASZ and winds down window. Uh-oh.
"What did you say?"
"You're a banker" I replied, "You could have killed that pedestrian at the crossing, going straight through like that."
"What the f*** does it have to do with you?" comes the response.
"I've got your license plate number" I lied.
"Oh have you? I'll knock you off that f***ing bike!"
"Come on then!" I laugh. Big mistake. Light still at red and not changing anytime soon.

Driver gets out of car, marches round rolling his sleeves up, fists clenched. He looks a bit of a hard nut. I'm wondering whether to stand my ground or make a dash for it: tricky with trailer though. He almost reaches me, then comes a scream of "Oi!" from my left: it's the young woman from the zebra crossing. She runs into the road and places herself between me and the driver, blocking his attempts to dodge around her and hit me. Meanwhile she is yelling "You f***ing banker! You nearly f***ing killed me you bastard!" Driver looks a bit baffled, then embarassed, mutters "Oh f***ing hell" and slinks back to his car, like a naughty schoolboy who's been caught bunking off or scrumping apples.

Young woman says "Thankyou".
"You're welcome," I reply, thinking I should be thanking her really.

Driver and I sit in silence for what seems like hours. Lights turn green, we depart, him right, me straight on.

This is all true, as I remember it.

The End.

Posted 12 years ago #
DaveC
Member

Should have got his number and wondered up to Gayfeild Polis nick with the lady and her pushchair. With two to agree on the facts they should have made a case out of it.

Posted 12 years ago #
crowriver
Member

@DaveC, for the driving offence, maybe we should have. But then I think we were both satisfied that he had actually realised that what he had done was stupid, dangerous, and wrong. You could see it in his face. That seemed to be the important thing at the time.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

"The motorist fights back. Love it."

"Maybe the motorist should be allowed to just bump into a cyclist when they are a menace on the road."

Why stop at cyclists - if you see someone doing something you don't like, or that you perceive to be a menace, then you should be allowed to mow them down. Simples.

As for motorists fighting back I would say again, if there has been a war on the motorist then we're losing at the moment.

Posted 12 years ago #
minus six
Member

Scotsman armchair warriors and crazed motorists alike are implicitly empowered by this countrys transport policies at both local and national level. It wont change in my lifetime. We live in a sick country.

Posted 12 years ago #
Dave
Member

I'm thinking about producing a Firefox plugin called the "PrejudiceConverter(TM)" to make reading these comments a bit less (or perhaps more!) depressing.

"Most Jews (at least those under the age of 40) are serial law-breakers"

"maybe the white man should be allowed to [run over] a black man"

"While the reported actions of the wife-beater are inexcusable, some wives around at the moment [deserve it]"

And so on. I think it could be a big hit...

Posted 12 years ago #
Dave
Member

Holy cow, the FoxReplace plugin already does this, and now whenever I visit any Scotsman group website, the anti-cyclist rants read like Nazi propaganda, and I am merely grateful to the authors for documenting their hate in such a visible (and silly) way.

Posted 12 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

Some confusion about location of Cargo.

My experience of STV "local" is they are pretty lazy cut-and-paste merchants. Their stories are often based on twitter (sometime word for word of tweets) and generally don't seem to be proofread for basic spelling and grammar. They also have an annoying habit of throwing in "stock" images to illustrate an article, such as a police car if the story involves the police, even if it is a Strathclyde car in an Edinburgh story.

Not surprised really they managed to screw this one up.

Posted 12 years ago #
Smudge
Member

@Dave, you *so* need to produce that! :-))

Posted 12 years ago #
steveo
Member

So any one else being a little more cautious around angry men in ladies cars?

Posted 12 years ago #
wingpig
Member

How can you tell if a woman owns the car?

Posted 12 years ago #
steveo
Member

....

Posted 12 years ago #
DaveC
Member

I'm just cautious [FULL STOP!!] especially round big lorries, small lorries, busses, vans, cars, bikes, pedestrians, cyclists, dogs.......

Posted 12 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

12 Next »

Reply »

You must log in to post.

// CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

About This Forum

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Johnston Terrace Moton Road Rage

Reply »

RSS Feeds

Links