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news
Rider on BMX kicks cyclist off bikeCyclist disappointed at police caution for BMX rider who kicked him off bike in rush hour traffic
A cyclist kicked off his bike by a another rider on a busy London street has expressed his disappointment that his assailant only received a caution.
Raphael Carrondo was attacked as he rode along London's Victoria Embankment on August 6. He only sustained cuts and bruises, but could easily have ended up under a coach.
He posted his bike cam video of the attack on YouTube:
After he complained to the Evening Standard that police did not seem to be taking the case seriously, the Met tracked down the other rider.
He told the Standard's Rachel Blundy: "Shortly after the story went out and the YouTube clip went viral the police started investigating. They found the person. A member of the public came forward and said they recognised the rider. They asked him to come in for an interview and he was cautioned afterwards.
"I was expecting a little bit more than a caution but if that is what the police think should be done then that is ok. I was hoping he might have to do some community work."
The 32-year-old sales and marketing consultant, originally from Brazil, previously said he had posted the video when police told him they could not afford the resources to track down the BMXer if he didn't know who he was.
He said: "The next day I say, 'If the police can't do anything, I can.' This is something that probably happens every day, that kid probably did something to someone else. With social media as it is today we can find someone doing the wrong thing."
Carrondo was shocked at the level of abuse he was subjected to after posting the video.
He said: "What I wasn't expecting was that when I put it online, that the wrong became me. Everybody was trying to justify why the kid would react like this."
Despite the online abuse and the incident itself, Carrondo has carried on riding.
He said: "I never stopped - I have kept cycling. I had to because it is how I commute to work."
The Metropolitan Police said they had contacted Mr Carrondo after watching footage of the attack.
A spokesman said: "In late October, when officers from the Roads and Transport Policing Command's Cycle Task Force became aware of the footage of the incident on 6 August, they contacted the victim and launched an investigation.
"On 11 November a 19-year-old man was arrested at his home address in south London, in connection with the investigation. He was later bailed pending further enquiries.
"On 24 November the 19-year-old man accepted a caution for common assault."
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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42 comments
Just stop with the excuses and tolerance for the BMX rider.
This was Common Law assault, possible property damage and dangerous negligence which could have cause serious injury or death, so the BMX rider was completely in the wrong and due some punishment; he is lucky that he is not facing serious criminal and/or civil action, because he'd lose!
Good guy/ Wank
you decide.
Let's just imagine what happens when the BMXer gets a car...
*shudder*
The BMX rider is in the wrong. It's a stupid and dangerous place to try and undertake another cyclist. From the way he kicked the front wheel of the victim's bike and the sheer speed of the action, it's fairly obvious to me he's done this before. A well practiced maneuver I think. He would have known the likely result of his actions. He's lucky to have got away with a caution. I know what I'd have done if I'd caught up with him again.
Agreed that the BMX is totally in the wrong but lets not jump to conclusions about 'well practiced manovoures'. Getting a leg out like that on a BMX is easy enough for most of us (BMXers). There's nothing here to suggest that he's a repeat offender.
Just an observation. Why has the victim cyclist been repeatedly named and criticised and yet we don't know the name of the BMXer who knocked him off?
Some people here are clearly retarded.
I often have to pass stationary buses on my commute. I don't just blindly swerve around them and expect whoever's on my right to magic themselves out of the way. I look behind and see if there's room for me to pull out. Ideally when there's still some room between me and the bus. It's nice when the cars see that I need to go around the stationary bus and either move further to the right or hold back to let me pass. But if that doesn't happen I wait - stopping if I need to - until there's an opening in the traffic allowing me to pass the bus. And I don't go chasing down the cars that didn't allow me through to take revenge on them.
The BMX rider is completely in the wrong and a massive cunt to boot.
Not one to promote any violence, but that BMX rider deserves an earth shattering slap! A caution is probably the right decision, hopefully he learnt his lesson. Cyclists who undertake on the left put themselves and other road users in danger... end of story
All the excuses and 'justifications' for the BMX'er kicking the guys wheel out are ridiculous. We wonder why the 'youth' of today won't accept responsibility for their actions and it is bulls**t like any excuse for a petulant, dangerous and just plan f**king nasty actions like that which reinforce the belief that they are never ever wrong and anything MUST be someone else's fault. Even the victim of their vicious and dangerous assault must be to blame because he didn't make allowances for their fukwitted behaviour.
Just think about that - next time a cyclist gets run over and killed, imagine the driver's response being "its their fault they didn't move out of my way when I decided I wanted to pass so I ran them over and killed them" That (in an extreme version) is the line your argument sounds like its going from here. But then, I would probably not expect a BMX to come up the inside and try and jump out there so would have been repeatedly glancing over my right shoulder and back to the road in front of me, not to the left.
It's pretty clear Carrondo never cut the guy up. I've seen it happen a few times (all bmxers funnily enough, but I'm not saying anything) when some mouth-breathing rocket shoots up the inside, assuming he's going to get clear before the gap he's aiming for closes (already a dick move in the first place) then, when they find out they were wrong and horror of horrors have to get back in line, they chuck the toys out the pram as if they're the ones who've somehow been wronged. The first anyone else gets to see or hear of it is when the dick starts effing and blinding.
If other riders can't take things like this seriously how do we expect the rest of society to, including the police. Anyone who believes it is ok to kick out at a rider even worse with the potential of putting a person under a bus must be a very unfortunate person. Bmx, lorry or taxi to punish a rider by knocking them off there bike can never be right.
If the bus had pulled out and killed the guy would that be ok?
http://road.cc/sites/all/modules/smileys/packs/Yahoo!/clap.gif oozaveared is correct in their definition of a 'caution'. However, the issue of a caution would indicate that the accused has no previous history of THIS type of offence. The accused will have a criminal record and this caution can be highlighted to the courts should they come to notice for similar offences in the NEAR future.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the only offence relative to assaults under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 that has a specific 'intent' is 'GBH with intent' i.e. intent to murder. Consequently the Common Assault offence could have been arrived at by the CPS deciding the evidence didn't reach THEIR threshold test for ABH, particularly relative to the actual injuries received.
What does surprise me is that there is no mention of a Criminal Damage offence here! The BMX rider is clearly reckless as to whether damage would be caused or not and I'm sure some damage was caused to the other riders bike.
To lay matters to rest. The Highway Code gives three places where it is permissible to overtake on the left hand side. This is not one of them! The BMX rider has no road sense, probably never even lifted up a copy of the Highway Code, and his riding clearly leaves a lot to be desired.
@oozaveared
@P3t3
No, he didn't 'cut up' the BMXer. He held his line while in traffic, while the BMXer was trying to undertake and simply push his way through. If it had been a taxi, you'd have recognised this move as a 'black cab special'.
But apparently it's OK while riding, but not while driving?
FFS.
Your justification of that seems to lend support for the following assault as well. The BMXer was a douche all the way through.
Clearly, even the police thought it serious enough, once prodded to investigate, to issue a caution following an arrest.
Carrondo's riding was both legal, and as he *should ride* per the Highway Code.
This is the second time this discussion has been had, and it's as bothersome to see cyclists make excuses for dangerous behaviour each time.
sorry but at no time did I justify the assault ever under any circumstances. My point is that whilst the BMX er is in the wrong Carrondo could have given him a bit of room. Of course you don't have to. But you could.
Apologies, you're right. I read more into it than I should have.
I think Carrondo was likely focused on his own line, and staying safe, and as such fully cognitively occupied already. It's nice to be nice, but personally I'd rather simply focus on staying safe, being nice is a very distant second to that.
No that's called The Law. You are entitled to hold your current line and the person moving into the flow of traffic must give way. This applies even to motorway slip roads, technically you would have to stop if no-one let you in.
You don' t know why Corrondo didn't move, it might be because he didn't feel it was safe to move, couldn't move, was concentrating on something else or was just bloody minded. That is why it is the responsibility of the person joining the flow of traffic to give way
Good the BMXer got a caution. We've all had the red mist descend at times. The guy on the BMX should have moved to the left to move around the bus earlier anyway. The roadie did nothing to deserve a kick to the front wheel. Luckily no-one was seriously hurt.
And I'm a BMXer mind.
And the Police wonder why there is so little respect for them out there. I think the Police do a very hard job in very hard circumstances, but FFS when the Assault is in HD Video for them clearly showing the intent all they had to do was charge the guy, fill in the forms, hand it over to the CPS and sit back and wait for him to plead guilty. It really don't get any easier for them. Its a poor show.
Nah, still too much effort for them - unless of course the assailant used hurtful or insulting language!
the whole idea of a caution (it's not a telling off) is that the person must admit their crime and agree to be bound over. It gets you a criminal record and that stays on the system. It's a guilty plea without having to bother the court.
The aims of the formal police caution are:
1 to offer a proportionate response to low level offending where the offender has admitted the offence;
2 to deliver swift, simple and effective justice that carries a deterrent effect;
3 to record an individual’s criminal conduct for possible reference in future criminal proceedings or in criminal record or other similar checks;
4 to reduce the likelihood of re-offending;
5 to increase the amount of time officers spend dealing with more serious crime and reduce the amount of time police officers spend completing paperwork and attending court, whilst simultaneously reducing the burden on the courts.
It's the CPS that are often the bigger problem. Part of the reason why the Police now use cautions so heavily is because they know the CPS won't take up a case after they've invested the time preparing it for them.
CPS would have gone down the Caution route, they would have had to be consulted on this case if it was deemed an ABH, Common Assault allegation would have led to Police being able to issue a caution if offender had no previous for like offences.
Wouldn't have got anywhere near Court, rightly or wrongly.
The victim would have had to agree to the offender being issued a caution, so would have known the outcome.
Well, the victim is *meant to* know about it. There have been quite a few times where that's not been the case even for much more serious offences.
CPS would have gone down the Caution route, they would have had to be consulted on this case if it was deemed an ABH, Common Assault allegation would have led to Police being able to issue a caution if offender had no previous for like offences.
Wouldn't have got anywhere near Court, rightly or wrongly.
The victim would have had to agree to the offender being issued a caution, so would have known the outcome.
I agree with Domino, he probably didn't even notice he was there and probably looking over his right shoulder to move out to overtake the bus, you don't really expect a bike to undertake you in that situation, the Bmxer should of realised that, backed off slightly then overtake him after they passed the bus.
My concern about this, is that it's not the first time this has been the result. Those with good memories may recall this incident from the start of the year, which road.cc also reported on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKfGIAIeLYY
To summarise, it's a motorcyclist annoyed with a cyclist taking primary in atrocious weather, and trying to kick his front wheel out. The outcome wasn't even a caution, it was a warning letter.
I don't care about the arguments about provocation. To me they are an irrelevance. I want to know that the law can deter people from attacking me on the road where the potential for injury is enormous, and on the balance of these high profile incidents it doesn't appear to.
He didn't cut him up. Watch the video. The BMX overtakes on the LEFT and then tries to cut in front of the road bike. Upset that he wasn't able to, he then kicks him off. What a fucking cunt.
Every time I see this I am amazed at the skill level of the BMX rider, its a beautiful move! I don't think I could do what he did without a fair bit of practice.
Part of me thinks that this is just a bit of rough and tumble and the guy the who shot the video should just suck it up and put it down to experience. Don't cut people up and they probably won't kick your wheels about, we get taught not to tell tales at school.
The other side of me regrets that the punishment in this country is generally in line with the damage caused (grazes), not the potential damage (run over and killed by a bus). This kind of violence has no place on our streets.
I can imagine many countries where the police would simply laugh at you, the fact the police did anything at all says the country we live in is a pretty nice place all-in-all.
Are you serious? Because this reads like you think that kicking someone's wheel about is a reasonable response to not getting your way.
The victim didn't cut him up. The guy on the BMX put himself in a crap position and then lashed out when nobody else sorted it out for him. No excuse.
No, you are right it wasn't a reasonable response.
But these things happen all the time, its how life works with selfish irrational creatures like humans. Especially in the young, inexperienced and impetuous like the rider of the BMX. Just because the BMX rider made a "mistake" (or whatever you want to call it, I agree it was a poorly thought out move) coming down the left and side doesn't mean that the guy making the film can't adjust his line and make allowances. I don't know exactly where he was looking as I wasn't there, but I don't believe he had his eyes off the road ahead for as long as he is suggesting in the video. We also don't now what happened in the time before the video clip.
See my next paragraph for some of my further thoughts on the matter, you may see life as a series of black/white yes/no "no excuses" situations but I don't.
I think a caution was probably about right in this case - enough to give the BMX rider something to think about without removing his chances in life. He might, given time start to be more considerate.
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