Road Rage - Forest Hill Road - afternoon of Friday 10th December

[Penguin68]

My adult daughter was witness this afternoon to a car driver intentionally running into a cyclist (who had overtaken him in a queue of traffic at the lights) hitting him against a parked car several times and running over and destroying his bike. He then drove off. There were many witnesses, a number, including my daughter, photographed the event and his reg. number. My daughter phoned the police, but on learning that the cyclist wasn't severely injured (bruised and shaken I'm guessing, as it was all at low speed) they said this wasn't the sort of incident they would come out to - despite the fact that the cyclist had been assaulted by a man in a car, who had gone on to intentionally total his bike - which makes that assault leading to actual bodily harm and criminal damage in my book.

Obviously terrible for the poor cyclist (but a lot of people gave support and e.g. shared their photographs and evidence of the event) - but what sort of service is the Met giving us?

Too busy chasing up year-old office parties to bother with trivia like this no doubt (and yes, I know those are different branches of the Met, but really!).

[Pugwash]

Forest Hill Road comes under Dulwich Hill SNT - try emailing [email protected] or ring 0208 721 2447.

The officer for this ward is PCSO Simon Johnson.

[Rockets]

This is horrendous. I am glad there are witnesses - the person concerned should push the police to get a crime number and make an insurance claim against the drivers' insurance.

[Penguin68]

Whilst I agree that the motorist should be made to pay for the damage to the bike (by the way, I'm not sure insurance will necessarily pay out for damage caused by the criminal intent of the insured) I believe that he should not be licensed to drive, if he cannot contain his rage for a 'slight' by another road user (as described to me by my daughter, I was not myself a witness). He is a danger on the road and shouldn't be allowed to drive.

[tomskip]

I'm getting increasingly concerned about the number of crimes the police don't deem eligible for investigation.

[NewWave]

tomskip Wrote:

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> I'm getting increasingly concerned about the

> number of crimes the police don't deem eligible

> for investigation.

Same

[Lynne]

What are the police for?

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Jesus 😳

[Sally Eva]

This is an assault with a dangerous weapon. Causing actual bodily harm.

The police should be investigating it.

[Monkey]

The police are a complete disgrace. Bunch of useless, useless people. I've lost all respect.

I hope the cyclist is okay. Sending much love and support.

I've emailed this report to the London Cycling Campaign.

[Trousaprezz]

Could you give a description of the driver and car and, if possible, registration number? This individual is clearly a danger to other road users and deserves to be named and shamed.

NB: From next month the Highway Code is being updated to include a 'hierarchy of road users' - let's hope the Met are up to speed with the changes...

https://www.theorytestpro.co.uk/posts/explained-the-highway-code-s-new-road-user-hierarchy/

[Shaggy]

Hi Penguin,

This is horrendous and is an an assault with a dangerous weapon.

It has also been recorded by witnesses.

The police said they weren?t going to *attend* but do we know if they are going to investigate? They may well have ample evidence. It might be worth finding out, and I?m happy to help.

The police need a massive and repeated kick up the arse and I wouldn?t be at all surprised if they are institutionally anti-cyclist as well as being institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic.

[KalamityKel]

Hang on... the police said they weren't going to come out to the site of the incident. I can't see anywhere here where they said they wouldn't investigate.

Don't be so quick to criticise/judge without knowing all the facts.

[Penguin68]

Just to clarify, my daughter reported this incident to the police, who, as soon as they ascertained that the victim was not seriously injured advised that he could report the attack using an on-line form. As the victim was a stranger to my daughter, who knew neither his name, address or telephone number (and therefore did not give these to the police) I would be interested to know how they might have proactively pursued (or investigated) this.

The scene of crime (and it was a crime) at the time had bicycle parts strewn over the road. Now dispersed and not available for evidence. And the people who viewed the crime (and might have stayed around to give evidence had the police deigned to turn up) are also dispersed.

I don't know all the facts, of course, but as my daughter was the contact who called the police, as she was a witness (a rather shocked witness) to the whole attack I believe I am quite close to 'the facts' - close enough anyway to have drawn a conclusion about the marked lack of police involvement or interest in such an attack.

[malumbu]

A serious incident has been reported. We can all express our outrage at the driver's behaviour, and our sympathy to the cyclist. Road rage, criminal damage etc are all crimes that have to be investigated by the police, hoping that the cyclist did report this, and as posted others have also reported evidence.

I'm not sure why some feel that this is the opportunity to speculate about the police or go into a rant. If you want to do that start a thread on the Lounge. I'm no fan, but not sure why you have to go into a knee jerk on this thread.

I've suffered from road rage but never to this extent. I tend to try to be in a position to get away from angry drivers. The majority of cyclists and drivers are courteous to each other and happily share road space.

I reported a near miss from a driver weaving in and out of traffic on the Brixton Road many years ago. They almost took out a cyclist, I stopped, encouraged the cyclist to report and then drove (I'd usually have been on my bike). The police knew who I was talking about (it wasn't your stereotypical bad driver) and the cyclist turned up shortly afterwards to put in a proper complaint.

My one issue now rather than then is it was easier to report incidents at a police station and talk to officers. Doing it on line of course brings efficiencies.

[DuncanW]

Thst'd relly awful - shocked, but sadly not surprised that the police wouldn't attend

[Azalea]

I?d contact the South London Press.

[KidKruger]

If this is reported to the Metropolitan police as a bicycle / driver collision, where the driver did not stop at the scene of the accident, the Met will issue a request for driver information to the license address of the registered car owner.

If this form is not completed an automatic court hearing will be scheduled, for the vehicle owner to explain why they did not respond to the initial letter.

This should open up the details of the incident and hopefully lead to prosecution.

[mrwb]

The police stations were closed, police numbers were cut, police priorities were changed. Blame politicians who have done this, not the police!

In ED for example, we used to have a proper police station on Lordship lane and sub police station on crystal palace road and possibly other locations.

The police, like the royal mail and other essential services, have been run in to the ground over the last 20-30 years.

Monkey Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The police are a complete disgrace. Bunch of

> useless, useless people. I've lost all respect.

>

> I hope the cyclist is okay. Sending much love and

> support.

>

> I've emailed this report to the London Cycling

> Campaign.

[malumbu]

No blame society for wanting to reduce taxes. I can't recall any party campaigning for greater policing AND higher taxes. [this really is a discussion for another thread]

[monniemae]

So sorry to hear this. Sadly the online form unlikely to get you anywhere. My partner was attacked by a driver on pomeroy street in nunhead recently: the driver deliberately blocked him, then tried to run him over, then drove through a red light, caught up with him on kender street grabbing him from his bike, slamming him into a wall and only when my partner screamed, attracting a lot of attention, did the driver get back in his car and drive off.

We have heard nothing from the police.

Earlier this year, another driver verbally abused me through Evelina road while I had my small children on the bike; threatened me; kept revving and swerving sideways towards us to frighten us.

I reported online with video, photos and a full number plate.

I have heard nothing from the police.

I?m frightened by the increase in road rage I?ve experienced and witnessed this year and it is absolutely made more frightened by the apparent lack of action/interest by the police.

[Pugwash]

I gave details of the Dulwich Hill SNT and PCSO details - I have met with Simon PCSO over the years and have found him very responsive in connection with local concerns. The 2 other officers (Gavin and Mark) were moved to a different patch and I am not sure whether new officers have been drafted in to replace them. I suggest your daughter email in with all details.

[malumbu]

I reported an incident on line, a driver for some reason bumped into me whilst I was cycling on a cycle lane across a junction. I took a photo, had a witness, but beyond the shock that a two tonne vehicle would bump into me in plain site, there was no harm. I could have fallen into the South Circ. The police took no action, not a surprise, but they did respond to me. If you are unhappy with their response then there is a complaint procedure.

SNT and PCSO's have always responded with courtesy

[Monkey]

Pugwash, are the community policing meetings you used to organise still happening during these Covid times? I will definitely turn up at the next one and suggest as many people as possible do. I know the police are understaffed but if we say/do nothing, it will only get worse.

@Monniemae, Malumbu, so sorry to hear about your experiences.

Thank you.

[Siduhe]

I witnessed something similar (but nowhere near as bad) yesterday.

I was on my bike stopped at a red light going up Turney Road towards Rosendale Road - a cyclist came up behind me, ran the red light and cut up a car coming the other way on green, car leant on the horn and shouted something muffled but obviously pretty rude, cyclist stuck up two fingers and called the driver something incredibly rude, assuming that the driver would continue driving along.

By this time the lights had changed to green for me so I was cycling along the same road as the car and cyclist.

Car was driving along slowly, kerb crawling the cyclist who by this time was up on the pavement - both shouting at each other (lots of "come on then, come over here and say that to my face" on both sides), so I went round the outside of the car and carried cycling along.

About 45 seconds later the same car comes zooming up the road at high speed, goes past me and does that tiny little zig-zag left that drivers sometimes do to cyclists towards me - felt deliberate but couldn't say for certain as there was a traffic island coming up, so I'm pushed in a little bit closer to the cars on the left. But I'm kind of expecting it like I do every time a car goes past me at high speed, so I'd slowed right down and have no problem avoiding it as the driver zooms off.

I don't think my experience is that unusual and it may well have been a similar experience as the cyclist mentioned by the OP. Both the other cyclist and the driver were in the wrong in my view and their inability to accept that they shouldn't have a total right of way to travel on the road as they want, as well as a huge amount of anger and rage at being "disrespected" ended up with a potential issue for other cyclists and drivers that had nothing to do with the original incident. Nothing to do with cyclists vs drivers, but everything to do with poor driving/cycling and that's what I'd like the police to be focused on.

Met police do a regular traffic stop at the crossroads of Blackfriars Road and the Cut on my way into work and they pull up cyclists, mopeds and cars who run the lights or go through close on the pedestrian or cycle phase without reference to the mode of transport - and the result is that people don't run the lights any more like they used to and it's safer all round.