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Hit and run driver strikes cyclist on footpath in Poole (credit - Don Codman, Facebook)Hit-and-run driver chased cyclist on pavement and knocked him off bike in shocking road rage incident
A cyclist was injured in a hit-and-run road rage attack after a motorist allegedly took exception to the bike rider pointing out that he shouldn’t be using his phone while driving. The driver then sped after the cyclist before mounting a pavement and knocking the man from his bike.
Police in Poole are currently investigating the shocking incident, captured on a nearby house’s Ring doorbell device, which led to the cyclist being treated in hospital for injuries to his knees, elbow and shoulder, the Daily Echo reports.
Don Codman told the newspaper that he was cycling home from work at around 5.20pm on Tuesday when he noticed a driver using his phone while in a queue of traffic.
“The cars were crawling along up to the lights. I was going normal pace, and the car went ahead [as the traffic moved],” he said.
“I went past again [when the traffic stopped], and the driver was still on their phone.”
The cyclist, who has been struck by distracted motorists in the past, says that he then tapped on the driver’s car window to inform him that he shouldn’t be on his phone while behind the wheel.
“I debated whether to say anything, but I stopped and tapped on the window. I was just carrying on normally, I was not aggressive at all,” he said.
“I just had to say something. If you see something that could hurt you or someone else you have to say something.”
> Hit-and-run driver laughed at seriously injured cyclist before fleeing crash scene
According to Codman, as he continued on his way home along Herbert Avenue in Poole, he heard shouting, a car engine revving, and the beeping of a horn from behind.
After moving onto the pavement – where he felt he would be safer – the motorist then drove past him before stopping. As Codman rode by on the footpath, in an attempt to avoid a confrontation, the driver restarted his car and began to pursue the cyclist.
Codman continues: “I wasn’t being aggressive, but the driver flew off the handle. He was clearly using his car as a weapon.”
In the footage above, the motorist can be clearly seen turning onto Sancreed Road at speed, mounting the pavement, before hitting the cyclist from behind and driving off.
Codman, who sustained some nasty scrapes and bruises to his elbows and knees in the collision, was treated in hospital for his injuries, while a passer-by who witnessed the incident phoned the police.
(Credit: Don Codman, Facebook)
Despite the shocking hit-and-run, Codman says the incident won’t put him off commuting to work by bike.
“I’ve got to carry it on,” he said. “I don't have a car and it’s the most efficient way.
“Everyone knows there are idiots about, so who knows what will happen. For him to react as he did was just totally wrong.”
A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: “We received a report at around 5.20pm on Tuesday 22 November 2022 of a collision involving a dark blue hatchback car and a cyclist in the area of Sancreed Road in Poole.
“It was reported that the car failed to stop at the scene of the collision. The cyclist sustained injuries that were not believed to be serious. Enquiries into the incident are ongoing. No arrests have been made at this time.”
“This was a very distressing incident for the cyclist involved and we are carrying out a number of enquiries into this matter,” Police Constable Matthew Batter told the Daily Echo.
“I would urge anyone who witnessed what happened or may have captured anything of relevance on dashcam footage to please get in touch.
“I would also urge the driver involved to please do the right thing and come forward so we can take your account.”
Witnesses or anyone with information relating to the incident have been asked to contact Dorset Police through the force’s website, or by calling 101, quoting occurrence number 55220189695.
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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47 comments
You should be able to ask someone not to use their mobile etc when driving but it can be very risky
Again, drivers take the lead from the police. If the police refuse to take an interest in handheld mobile use while driving, and drivers have never heard of any action being taken locally, and the drivers are doing it all the time...
This is very true.
I wish I could remember not to react out of fright and dare to shout "Oi!" because most drivers who drive in such a way to cause a reaction also seem to think that they are pillars of driving virtue and therefore you are not entitled to imply criticism, and as such you must be punished. I reckon I have had 4 technical assaults in the last year, the most recent for being aggrieved that as a pedestrian I was not given the same consideration as a pedestrian that a driver would give a horse.
The reality is that it is not cyclists that are the targets, and if a pedestrian, motorcyclist or other driver had signalled to the driver in some way that they should not be using the phone, there probably would have been some incident. I think my first real road rage incident was 20 odd years ago when a driver cut across the M54 sliproad at right angles to get on the hard shoulder to undertake a queue of traffic on the M6 southbound. He nearly collided with me so I sounded my horn instinctively (he was actually the second car to do it - the previous one nearly hit the car in front of me), he drove up the hard shoulder, eventually blocked me as I tailgated a lorry for protection, got out, tried to open my door, shouted "Open up!" to which I shook my head, he smacked the window with his fist. His opening line though was the gem: "What's your problem?" Back in the 80s, a mate of my sister had his car attacked with a mace for failing to let a car past in a single lane section of coned off roadworks - chased through London and eventually blocked. girlfriend covering number plates.
I find it fascinating that after all this time, drivers cannot resist using their phone, and I reckon 80% of tradespeople in vans still use their phones regularly while driving even with increased sanctions and clarification of the law.
Hey, you never know; you might get to meet Ronnie Pickering!
Who?
RONNIE PICKERING!
Who the fuck’s that?
What's worrying is that this seems to be a common reaction from drivers (the ones using phones, anyhow).
We really need more drivers to be banned if they can only respond with violence and aggression.
Totally agree - there is an ever increasing attitude of "How dare you judge me and tell me what I can or cannot do!"
Of course, there are certain persons on this very site who would completely agree with the motorist, and who would blame the cyclist for having dared to even look at someone else's vehicle. Or something...
Weirdly the Cycling Mikey phone drivers I saw today were all smiling. The comments were the last one must have been high
That cyclist is lucky... lucky to not face road rage charges.
Tapping on a drivers window is tantamount to raping the drivers partner / mother / off-spring (delete as appropriate); can the driver really be blamed for seeking justice?
Absolutely, as Martin73 has told us, "Don't touch what you can't afford." Comments beginning, "I'm not excusing what the driver did but…" incoming in five, four, three, two...
I expect he will be along shortly. He seems to be upset that CM could be making £145 a month from youtube. But instead of not accepting anything without proof, he seems to be adamant on this.
I'm guessing with this he won't accept it was a gentle tap on the window as there is no video of that, and the driver was exceptional by making a turn at that speed and not flipping the car. (He does seem to praise dangerous driving alot). Although even when video shows a tap, that is a full on attack on the driver and it is allowed for them to go "vigilante" against the cyclist.
I think our two friends are too busy on another thread. So we might be ok for now.
Nope - they've turned up, now.
Martin73 | 120 posts | an eternity ago
what happened there was entirely proportionate and reasonable, entirely provoked by the cyclist who should be the one run in by the police. I can only imagine the trauma of the driver, who no doubt was on the 'phone to his dying mother in hospital, rushing to get to her bedside.
Amazing what happens in an hour. Probably given up flogging one dead horse and have moved to another.
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