Tunstall and Rendlesham Off-road Group

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-17066798

17 months indeed!! (splutters into Daily Telegaph)

From the CPS website



Hard pressed to see how it is possible not to infer that the intent in driving an 8 tonne bus deliberately into a cyclist wasn't intending to kill him.

A couple of years back I was a regular bike commuter from Kesgrave to Ipswich and had a similar incident albiet the aggresion was more subtle, a 66 driver three times overtook me and three times pulled back in before the whole vehicle had passed me obviously using the vehicle as a weapon. When I confronted him he said it was because I was riding too fast (kind of a complement I thought) and of course the usual cyclist should be on the pavement view encouraged by the pink lanes around here.

I made a complaint to first buses but with out the video footage like the incident above it was all pretty pointless and TBH after a couple of years of commuting I came to the conclusion the best way to deal with these people is make sure theres no witness and beat the offending drivers with an iron bar.

The law as it stands at the moment is stacked in favour of drivers who are not expected to show any particular skill or care when it comes to care for other road users.

_________________
" If you think I winked I did"
http://cyclingsuffolk.wordpress.com/

Totally right IW.

My lad commutes from south London into the City, and it is noticable when I've been with him that a good few folk routinely ride with a helmet cam on for precisely that reason.

I've always thought that driving closer than 1m to a cyclist should be an offence - thus contact makes it, relatively, easy to get a prosecution. This is the situation in several European countries.

I've seen some interesting cases on the bench - most memorable was the Range Rover driver who knocked a cyclist off by hitting his head with the side mirror. Her defence was that, if the cyclist had been bent over more, the mirror would have missed him!! It's a fact that there are not that many active cycling JPs.

Mike

Highway Code Rule 163 says "give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car", & includes an illustration of what "enough room" looks like - i.e. loads.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_070314

I'm surprised I don't see it quoted more often when drivers overtake too close.

It used to be 6 feet. Shame they changed it.