White Van Terrorist

[(RIP) Kaister]

Sinking to his level isn't a solution as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't actually achieve anything in my favour other than brief satisfaction. Pursuing him through the legal system, however, is likely to hurt him far more if successful.

but you're not sinking to his level - he was unprovoked and hadn't just had his personal items damaged and loved one hurt. ?

good luck with the law though

 

[GS TRV]

Sorry to hear about this Sproggy. Hope you get i resolved soon.

I have to say though you showed a lot of calm. If someone pushed me off my bike I think I'd have reacted a lot worse

 

[Mouse]

Cookie - if he doesn't then that's another legal way to punish him

 

[sproggy]

I have to say though you showed a lot of calm. If someone pushed me off my bike I think I'd have reacted a lot worse

I don't think it was a case of calm, I think it was surprise/shock, and then attending to priorities. My first thought was for Anna (lying on the road between two cars - not a good place to be), then for the bike (lying on its side still running) and by the time I'd attended to that the van was driving away and there was no time for a 'worse reaction'. Particularly given that we were in the middle of a very busy three-lane dual carriageway in the morning rush hour!

Believe me, once we'd picked the bike up I felt anything but calm......

 

[Shep]

Driving into London the other day, I was patiently waiting with all the other traffic when a motorcyclist selfishly tried to block my path, I held my ground not wishing hurt either the bike or rider and passenger, all of a sudden he struck out with his fist, hitting my bonnet, I stopped and got out of the van to check for damage, at this point the rider tried to make an escape, i instinctively reached out and the rider, trying to avoid me, toppled over, the rider and passenger seemed unhurt, and I genuinely felt a fear of personal assault (already he had shown violence towards my property) so I left the scene as traffic had started to clear. I only feel sorry for the fact I had no chance to get the motorcyclists reg. no.

I was so shaken by the attack that I had to take the rest of the day off work.

During my career as a painter and decorator, alot of my time has been spent travelling in and out of London, I have lost count of the number of times motorcyclists have bashed their way past standing traffic, undertaking, damaging mirrors, and bodywork, its about time filtering was outlawed (as in germany) and these motorcyclists were bought in line with the rest of the law abiding people of this country

regards Dwite van Man

 

[Bob's yer uncle]

Well done for keeping calm sproggy, i think i'd have lost it if some-one drove into my wife's leg. the bike can be covered by insurance - wife's a bit more fragile.

Hope this story has a happy ending for you and a seriously fu%$@d-up one for him.

BOB

 

[GS TRV]

Driving into London the other day, I was patiently waiting with all the other traffic when a motorcyclist selfishly tried to block my path, I held my ground not wishing hurt either the bike or rider and passenger, all of a sudden he struck out with his fist, hitting my bonnet, I stopped and got out of the van to check for damage, at this point the rider tried to make an escape, i instinctively reached out and the rider, trying to avoid me, toppled over, the rider and passenger seemed unhurt, and I genuinely felt a fear of personal assault (already he had shown violence towards my property) so I left the scene as traffic had started to clear. I only feel sorry for the fact I had no chance to get the motorcyclists reg. no.

I was so shaken by the attack that I had to take the rest of the day off work.

During my career as a painter and decorator, alot of my time has been spent travelling in and out of London, I have lost count of the number of times motorcyclists have bashed their way past standing traffic, undertaking, damaging mirrors, and bodywork, its about time filtering was outlawed (as in germany) and these motorcyclists were bought in line with the rest of the law abiding people of this country

regards Dwite van Man

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

my old boss said to me once with reference to the business world ...

'Never let yourself be a victim'...

Could mean a whole lot of things really.

 

[Yoda]

We had an incident a few years ago whilst four of us were out cycling. A car came whizzing past going excessivly fast for the minor country road we were all on.

He received the usual two-fingers salutes. On seeing this in his mirror he smoked the car to a halt, went into reverse and deliberately came back at us. Fortunately we were four experienced cyclists and no-one froze, but took dives into the hedge on both sides. He overshot by a good twenty yards, then zoomed off again.

We reported this at the nearest police station and, when the officer looked up the registration, reading upside down I recognised the name of the company.

The following morning I contacted the company and made a formal complaint. It transpired that it was the son of one of the managers driving his dad's company car.

After much debate, rising eventually to Chief Constable level, I tried to push for Assault, on the basis that if he'd got out of his car and swung a baseball bat it would be a criminal case, but because he used a one and a half ton wepaon at 30mph it was a motoring offence?

Eventually, the police did him for drunken driving from an incident later that same day and wouldn't add anything extra to the charges.

Bit of a nil-result which still peeves.

 

[david vaughan-birch]

Glad you are both ok Sproggy-but (having done a few of these types of cases myself) I suggest you both get to your GP as soon as you can, whether or not you think you think you are injured. Often it takes a day or two for the symptoms to emerge and its handy evidence later. There's no reason why you cant bring a combined PI/damage to bike claim at the same time, and assault is also a civil claim so throw that in as well. By the way, if the vehicle is owned by a business, the claim will almost certainly be against the business, not against the driver (subject to issues of vicarious liability I wont bore you with)

 

[sproggy]

I went to hospital yesterday evening - lower back pains and restricted movement (and pain) in my right hip. The latter means it's difficult to lift my leg (no dog jokes, please ), for example from the ground onto the bike's footrest, or getting into a car, or taking my boots off, or......... They put it down to a mild case of sciatica which isn't important so much as they fact that it's now on record. Yesterday Anna had no problems.

This morning she's woken up with a bruised leg (from falling off the bike, I think it would be safe to presume) which she claims is trivial, and I have a painful shoulder with considerably reduced range of movement which I don't consider to be trivial! Both, I realise, should go on record and I guess our GP is a better way to achieve that than another trip to A+E. I already had in mind that any injury might form part of a claim. Ironically my shoulder is causing me far more discomfort than the back or hip that I reported yesterday!

Regarding ownership of the van I've been unable to contact the police so far (no answer at the station) but accepting that they won't be able/willing to disclose the registered owner's name to me I will ask them if they can tell me whether it's an individual or a business. My insurance company will be making the same enquiries themselves through MIIC, I'd hope.

Thanks for the advice, David.

Ian

 

[Tricky]

sproggy

Sorry to hear about your ordeal at the hands of this cretin.

I know that your being very sensible about this but some of those revenge tatics don't half appeal.

 

[sproggy]

I know that your being very sensible about this but some of those revenge tatics don't half appeal.

Revenge comes in many flavours. Put simply, though, he's a big bloke with an attitude and, it seems, a somewhat unstable temperment. I have to have my seat in the low position..... Physical confrontation would be unlikely to go in my favour. Causing damage to his van would stand a good chance of getting me in trouble, and that wouldn't make me feel any better.

Doesn't mean that if I heard he'd had his van wrecked I wouldn't feel a sense of quiet satisfaction but it wouldn't be with my involvement.

By my reckoning the most damage I can sensibly do is to his reputation (police involvement, possibly court hearing etc) and to his wallet (compensation for damage and injury (direct or through insurance) and possibly insurance loadings in future). I'm realistic enough to realise that these are the limits of my retribution options. My fiancee, on the other hand (being Sicilian) would be far more open to one or more of the less......er.......civilised approaches


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[Mutley]

My fiancee, on the other hand (being Sicilian) would be far more open to one or more of the less......er.......civilised approaches

Doesn't she have a godfather :shotim

 

[MMC]

Doesn't she have a godfather :shotim

Nay... That'll bring matters to a head far too quickly. We don't want to go horsing around now, do we?

 

[North]

Hi sproggy,

Sorry to hear about your run-in with the moron.

The guy should be castrated for doing that with your fiancee on the bike.

What a loser that guy must be.

The best course is to use the courts.

(Maybe he will have an "Act of God" accident. )

 

[Davel]

The guy is unstable in the extreme and the injuries could have been far worse.

Sadly, I have little confidence in the courts but agree that this is probably the best route provided the police are willing to take action.

He physically got out of the vehicle and attacked you FFS!

Somehing should be done about him?

Do you know if he is employed? Maybe, if so, someone should notify the employer that he is being faced with possible prosecution.

 

[sproggy]

Do you know if he is employed? Maybe, if so, someone should notify the employer that he is being faced with possible prosecution.

At the moment I don't know who he is or where he lives, let alone whether he's employed - only that he drives a 3 year old van which is kept in good condition and which he seems very (overly?) protective of!

I was unable to get an answer out of the police yesterday despite repeated attempts (seems they're like the high street banks - a network of call centres all 'screening' you from actually getting through to your local branch/station) but I'll try again today. I'd hope that by now the police have a good idea who he is, what he does, etc.

 

[GS TRV]

My fiancee, on the other hand (being Sicilian) would be far more open to one or more o

Def. a good start.. ask her what would have happened to this idiot if he'd tried this stunt in downtown Palermo.

 

[unhinged]

At the moment I don't know who he is or where he lives, let alone whether he's employed - only that he drives a 3 year old van which is kept in good condition and which he seems very (overly?) protective of!

Been knocked off my bicycle three times. Told the police about it twice and both times they said that as I wasn't hurt and there was no damage to the bicycle there was nothing they could do. I hope you have more luck.