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news
Aggressive driver in total meltdown with Carmarthenshire cyclists after close pass
A Carmarthenshire cyclist who received a close pass from an aggressive driver who then parked up to shout at the rider and his companion, began filming the aftermath – including the motorist repeatedly yelling, “Do you remember smacking my car?” and telling him, “You don’t f*cking live here, you live in Llangadog, now f*ck off!”
Race organiser and contributor to our sister site off-road.cc Matt Page told us that the incident happened last week “just outside my home town of Llandovery and the road is the A483.
“I was riding with a friend at the time and doing a good pace and it’s a dead straight road with no traffic and that is why I have absolutely no idea why he was so irate as he passed initially,” Matt said.
“He close passed us tooting, then stopped in the middle of both carriageways 100 metres later and started shouting, so obviously has a big issue with cyclists in general.
“After driving off he was stopped, waiting for us to come along and his stance and manner, I knew he was about to start something, which is why I started filming,” Matt continued.
The footage shows the driver asking, “What’s your name?” with Matt telling him, then saying, “First of all you overtook us when we were riding legally two abreast, completely legal … ”
“So you were blocking the entire road, preventing anyone from overtaking?” the driver responded.
“Excuse me,” replied Matt, “you do not understand the Highway Code,” which makes it clear that cyclists are allowed to ride two abreast.
The motorist, raising his voice, continued to insist that “You were blocking the entire road,” before repeatedly asking Matt, “Do you remember smacking my car?” – something Matt denied – with the driver perilously close to a meltdown of Basil Fawltyesque proportions.
The driver then told Matt to “F*ck off,” and receiving the reply, “I’m from here,” responds, “Sure you are.”
When Matt said, “I live in Llangadog” – a village around 5km southwest of Llandovery – he is told, by the increasingly animated motorist, “Llangadog, do you? So you don’t f*cking live here, you live in Llangadog, now f*ck off!”
The driver, who returned to his car to take his own phone and start filming, again asks Matt his name and accuses him once more of hitting his car – an allegation he continued to deny.
The motorist, who seemed to think he may have grounds for an insurance claim, demands Matt’s address, and burst out laughing when he received the response, “I know all the police around here,” continuing to insist Matt wasn’t a local while not answering the question of where he is from himself.
The man then speeds off, making a punishment pass and beeping his horn, but the episode isn’t over yet.
“After the initial altercation he was in Llandovery town centre and upon spotting us again came to confront us,” Matt said.
At that last encounter, he repeatedly asked Matt, “What would you do if I slapped on your brand new car? What would you do? What would you do? What would you do,” before walking off with a parting greeting of “Tosser.”
“This has been reported to the Police on the day of the incident,” Matt added, “but the case has yet to be assigned to an officer despite it being a week ago.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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89 comments
Simply beggars belief.
And unsurprisingly the police have done nothing yet... pathetic.
No doubt plod will give him an award and start proceedings against the cyclists for some form of made-up spurious complaint.... This country beggars belief at times.
Such a contradictory prick.
"I'm ok to park in this side road blocking all access but you can't stop there blocking me in".
"I need your name and address but I won't tell you mine" (You swap details for insurances mate, the clue is in the name swap).
"You need to fuck off, however I will keep on shouting at you to make you stay anyway".
"You said you were illegally cycling along the road" - when Matt said he was legally cycling.
"You smacked my car" when asked where- "down there". No mate where is the damage he meant.
"I'm not doing anything to you" apart from screaming in his face very very aggressively.
"You aren't from around here, get back to your city" 5 km away not from around here.
"You are blocking the road with your bike whilst talking to me" But you blocked the road earlier when you initially stopped to berate them.
Like I said contradictory prick. I think we need a name for these like for women it is Karen. I choose Nigel. Anyone else agree?
Also not being able to overtake while then passing?
Anyone that gets that angry about having to share the road shouldn't be in charge of their own pockets let alone a car.
Notice he made no effort to show you any "damage" to his car despite your unprovoked attack being so savage that it apparently requires an insurance claim. .....
There is no way they could have slapped his car on the initial pass unless he was very very close, ie mirror scrapping handle bar distance and he was matching or very close to their speed. (Not putting it past it though if the second pass was any indication of the first but very very unlikely).
So if they did slap it, then that would only have occured on the intial unfilmed confrontation when he stopped in the road to berate them for delaying him by a few seconds* or making him move over the central markings to overtake initially. In which case said slap, if one did occur was his own fault for stopping when not needed anyway.
But I know if there was any actual damage, he would have been pointing it out on camera and then pointing at the cyclists.
* You can see from the video that we are not talking 100's of cars in both directions stopping overtakes. It is relatively empty for an A road designation and vehicles could easily overtake safely with only a few seconds of waiting. And streetview shows it is too narrow for non crossing whiteline overtakes safely, but also quite straight and flattish up to where the confrontation took place so nothing to stop safe overtakes at all.
Looks to me that he took out his phone to film the confrontation as he could see that the guy had pulled in and was probably looking for trouble.
From what i saw Matt was the only one that was very polite and courteous.
If you pass cyclists so close that they can touch your car, you may, or may not, be a "fine person", but you certainly are a dangerous driver and shouldn't be allowed to be in charge of dangerous machinery in public.
Well I hope he gets done for a public order offence, as well as the close pass and inappropriate use of the horn. You can't go around shouting abuse at people like that.
It's a bit telling that he wasn't interested in showing Matt the 'damage' to his vehicle.
I might have damaged my very expensive bib shorts during that incident. Soiled beyond repair. So would be promptly filling in a V888 form so I could contact his insurers and claim for a new pair of pants.
What a truly pathetic little troll you are Nigel. I'm sure you and this vile piece of work could be excellent friends, thereby doubling both your friend quotas.
Rendel. I'm disappointed that you took the bait. Our silence should be sufficient to treat that comment with the contempt it duly deserves.
Fair point.
Don't feed him
There is a law against getting angry. It comes under Road Rage.
My name is nigel and I like to shit stir. What problems do you have ?
[A person who] uses towards another person threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, with intent to cause that person to believe that immediate unlawful violence will be used against him - Public Order Act 1986
And before you try to get smart and accuse me of same, shouting "You fucking cunt" at a motorist who nearly killed me and was disappearing into the distance at 50mph does not come under that description, which is why the police entirely supported me and prosecuted the driver.
That car driver has anger issues. I wouldn't trust him with a skateboard.
What a horrible experience from a truly nasty man. Chapeau Matt for keeping your cool. I'd have needed a stiff drink after that one.
What an absolutely spectacular bellend. Well done Matt for keeping your cool, not sure I could have with someone getting that much in my face, particularly given the times we're living in.
On a side note it's deeply ironic that he's telling you and your friend, who both have noticeable Welsh accents, to "fuck off you don't live here" when I can't detect a trace of Welsh in his accent!
Wouldn't it have been fabulous if Matt had have answered in Welsh and continued in Wwelsh. That would have been so good. Then we would really know who was local.
Absolutely!
Christ, what a ghastly man. Someone with anger issues like this really should not be in charge of a car. Did you have footage of him close-passing you?
It's in the video at 4.01 and he ought to get in huge trouble for that, given that the preceding video is clear proof that it's a premeditated aggressive action.
What a twunt
That was genuinely unpleasant to watch. I really hope the driver gets some anger management or was just caught on a horrifically bad day (not that it excuses him).
Unless Matt has very long arms, if he had hit the car wouldn't that be proof that it was a close pass?
Ah, the Mr Tickle loophole!
It's the other form of schrodinger's cyclist - both so far away as you overtake them that it isn't a close pass, yet close enough to hit your car.
My God that raised my blood pressure just watching that. That made me want to punch my computer screen just listening to the vicious bile being spewed by that 'twunt' as someone so eloquantly put earlier. I live in rural France and rarely feel threatened on roads and certainly in four years never even remotely like that. My hat i do doff to Matt for keeping his cool with that right in his face. Sadly another of many videos on road.cc that just confirm that I could no longer cycle back in the UK ever again. I do not envy cyclists having to put up with that every day which I had my fair share of living in Brighton area in Sussex......
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