OW Ow ow…Legal advice wanted!

April 27, 2011 · Posted in Rants . . . 

Brief background info: I have Arthritis, particularly affecting my right wrist at the moment (I can’t play golf or lift kettles without serious pain) and I cycle to and from Cambridge station 4 days a week (which also hurts until my painkillers have kicked in).

This morning about half a mile from home a white van started to slowly pull out from where it was parked. I was parked on the opposite side of the road from me but heading in my direction. I assumed, perhaps foolishly, that he was pulling out slowly to wait for me to pass…apparently not.

He continued to pull out whilst gradually speeding up and moving over to my side of the road to the extent that there was no room for me to pass between him and the parked cars on my side of the road. At this point I was forced to make an emergency stop (which hurt) and then in frustration and anger, and a hope to attract the drivers attention and alert him to what he’d done to hopefully make him more attentive in the future, punched the side of the van.

I am now in even more pain than normal and the van didn’t even stop. Aside from the punching I’d estimate that I have what I could describe as ‘near miss’ incidents at least twice a week.

Having seen several videos on youTube I’m left asking a legal question. If I buy one of the helmet, or handlebar, mounted ActionCams would I be able to submit videos of incidents like this mornings to the police and at least get these idiots fined?

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Comments

2 Responses to “OW Ow ow…Legal advice wanted!”

  1. PJC on April 27th, 2011 13:49

    Some people seem to have successful prosecutions. It seems to depend very much on the local police force:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12334486
    http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/news/roadsafe.htm

    http://thecyclingsilk.blogspot.com/2010/07/whats-that-camera-doing-on-your-head.html

    http://www.camcycle.org.uk/resources/problems/

  2. jodrell on April 27th, 2011 17:41

    Any ideas what Cambridge might be like?

    Thanks for the info, I’ll have a good trawl through the links…and I’ve found a friend who’s got an actionCam he’s prepared to lend me for a while so this could be interesting 🙂

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