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news
Priory Lane road rage driver Jason Wells delivers a threatening tiradeSW London road rage meltdown driver apologises, while cyclist reveals he was clipped by wing mirror
The road rage meltdown driver filmed in Roehampton, South West London, during a long tirade threatening to kill a cyclist for not using a cycle path has apologised for his "unacceptable" behaviour. Meanwhile, the bike rider involved has told road.cc the motorist clipped him with his wing mirror as he tried to pass.
The driver, identified yesterday as cafe owner and father of two, Jason Wells, apparently misjudged overtaking the cyclist on Priory Road near Richmond Park on 14 March before squeezing in toward the hedge. Wells was yesterday issued with a public order fine of £90.
The victim of road rage attack, who wants to be known only as Michael, told road.cc Wells hit him with the Land Rover Discovery's wing mirror during the close overtake, and says he is disappointed with the £90 fine. He also regrets his own anger during the four minute long expletive-laden argument caught on his bike-mounted camera. Since footage was released on Sunday the video has had almost 120,000 hits.
Wells, who apparently trained as a master butcher, is reported by the Evening Standard as saying: “I would like to apologise for any offence caused. My behaviour was unacceptable and regardless of the situation, I shouldn’t react like that.
“I fully appreciate that cyclists have as much right to the road as any other road users.”
Wells' south west London business, the Brew café chain, with outlets in Clapham, Putney, Wandsworth and Wimbledon, was popular with cyclists, but now faces a boycott from the cycling community.
Michael was cycling to Richmond Park on Saturday 14 March for some exercise when the incident occured. He told road.cc he regrets his own anger during the argument.
"I'm not happy the way I reacted, I was extremely angry and at one point - you can hear in the video - I am so angry I can't even get my words out properly," he said.
"It doesn't show me in a good light."
"The last time [Wells] gets out he's angry because the mirror is bent right in, because he hit me with it. When he squeezed me for space I'm lucky I didn't hit the kerb and come off completely."
"He was seriously angry. I have never seen anyone get that angry and not act on it. He messed up the overtake then he tried to force me off. He feels I have violated his property because I have tapped his car."
Michael praised the police for spending two hours going through his video footage with him, but said the law fails to protect cyclists adequately.
He said: "I was a bit disappointed with the fine, because I'm pretty sure he can afford it."
While Wells is seen yelling at a number of people on bikes during the tirade for not using a shared-use path on the opposite footway, Michael said cyclists would only use it if they were "really tired or a small child".
He said that none of the cyclists heading to Richmond Park via Priory Lane would use that cycle path "because you have to cross a lane of traffic to get onto it, which means you have to hold up a lane of traffic."
He said: "It has happened before at almost the exact same spot. It is pretty much the same issue - the cars get held up by cyclists going up that small incline, they try to overtake and they make a mess of it and push you out of the way."
Although Michael, who wouldn't give any more details for fear of reprisals, was clearly unnerved by the incident, he remains philosophical.
"It is just one of those things - it has happened before, and it's probably going to happen again: someone is going to take displeasure with me, they believe I am impeding their route but as long as I have got a camera, I can document the event."
He said: "The main reason I went to the police was I didn't want it to happen to someone else - if he does it to someone else and they stop riding - I don't want that to happen."
Michael says the cyclist who intervenes in the argument was contacted by police as a witness but didn't come back.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: "Officers from the Putney Safer Neighbourhood Team investigating an incident which took place on 14 March near Priory Lane, SW5 involving a cyclist and the driver of a vehicle issued a 50-year old man with a public order PND (Police Notice Disorder) fine of £90 on Monday 1 June.
"The fine was issued after the man voluntarily attended a south London police station where he was interviewed in connection with the incident. He was not arrested."
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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74 comments
Or he was coked of his head!
Someone who behaves like will have I am sure done this sort of thing on other occasions and I also think what he did was malicious and intentional. He's clearly the sort of person that regularly loses his temper when driving. There's no way he would misjudge passing a cyclist to the point of hitting him.
Secondly, it's entirely irrelevant that he did not use the cycle lane, it's not mandatory to use it just because it's there. Anyway, it's a horrible and poorly planned cycle lane and I regularly get " squeezed" shouted and tooted at for being on that stretch of road.
If you watch the video, after the incident the next turn on the right is into " The Priory", maybe that was where he was going and if not he probably needs to.
Should of been Banned. Used his Car as a weapon, and then his mouth! Micheal, you were understandably Angry. When I feel fear I show anger.
Signed the petition
Cyclists are angry. Drivers are angry. Pedestrians are angry. Travelling in built up areas makes you angry. That's why I live in the Country.
Please support this petition:
https://www.change.org/p/jason-wells-founder-of-brew-cafe-cycle-to-work-...
Might be a good idea if he read the UK highway code or even took the UK driving theory test. He may have never done either.
A quick search shows different rules in Australia; Rules for Cyclists from Perth state "Wherever a bicycle lane is provided as part of a road and is in a reasonable condition for use, the rider must use that portion of the road and no other". see http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/active-transport/AT_CYC_P_cycl...
Not attempting to justify him using his vehicle as a weapon, but it may go someway to explain his mistaken belief regarding the cyclepath.
He should focus his apology on the hideous piece of driving he executed, his reaction to the situation is not the issue here. Using a car as a weapon to harm or threaten peoples lives is worse than drink driving in my book, it's an act which requires malice and intent. It's a shame we haven't got a legal system which can come down hard on these people who have a "moment of madness". Even if he had knocked the cyclist off it would probably result in a disappointing slap on the wrist.
I was recently being heavily verbally abused by a motorist who, leaving the engine running, had got out of his vehicle, to physically intimidate me. I just gave him the dumb insolent stare, so effective on my shouty Dad when I was a kid. Meanwhile a highly perceptive passing mamil, observing my predicament, quietly removed the keys from the vehicle and chucked them over a hedge. ''Come on mate,'' he said and we rode away together laughing our middle aged moobs off!!!!
Mmmm. If it had been a member of his staff, i'm sure he would have bulletted them. Not sure how he could censure himself, so i hope the paying public does so....
I don't swear very often so when I do it's usually indicative of something serious and when I swear I rarely use this word; but, along with the likes of Blatter, Saville, Armstrong ( Lance obvs) I can now add the name of Jason Wells as someone who could certainly be called a TOTAL C**T.
A considerable number of people posted "Terrible" reviews of 'Brew' on Tripadvisor. I guess that most were fabricated.
Tripadvisor have since removed all reviews posted after 28th May.
Who decides reasonable condition????
I would be too worried about the motorist grabbing the keys and getting back in the car even angrier, hunting me down and knocking me off.
Not sure this is a good idea. That attitude is not needed on a bike, he'll get himself killed and make motorists hate cyclists even more, and in this case probably fairly so.
That is definitely NOT the law in the UK.
It doesn't matter where this guy passed his test, he is driving in the UK and must obey UK law. That includes the right of a person on a bike to use any part of the road which is necessary, whether there is a cycle lane or not (Motorways excepted of course)
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY:
Even if UK law was the same as this clause that you quote, it doesn't justify threatening to kill someone. Even in Australia, the penalty for not using a compulsory bike lane is not death.
What I wrote in full..
As before; I'm not attempting to justify him using his vehicle as a weapon. There should have been a dangerous or reckless driving charge in my opinion.
I can pretty much guarantee that wasn't his thought process at the time - the more likely reason is he's just a tw*t. I base this on the following...
1) He was born in Melbourne - Perth is a very long way away and Melbourne people see it as quite irrelevant!
2) I don't know of any bike lanes in Perth that meet the description in the link you found, which apply when the bike lane is part of the carriageway AND there is a sign stating "Bicycle Lane". Some research tells me there are actually two (one in Freo, one on South Street) out of a massive network of separated bike lanes stretching 50km out of the city in all directions. The net result is that in practice there is no compulsion to use any actual bike lanes here, but that doesn't stop drivers whining about it anyway. We have plenty more people like Jason Wells you can have too.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse...
We have all had these very near missed with cars and sometimes it is malicious and sometimes it is just poor judgment on the part of the driver.
Either way when brushed by a 2 ton lump of metal travelling at 40mph it is bloody scary and your body goes into fight or flight mode which results in a huge adreneline rush. Which in the modern world tends to result in lots of swearing.
In this case I think the driver "buzzed" the cyclist on purpose as he was pissed off with being held up. But that is only based on viewing the video. His reaction is way off the scale and the fact he turns his aggression to any cyclist nearby indicates that he has it in for all cyclists. He points out the cyclist is "wearing ****** yellow" - that is so that he can see him - twat!
The cyclist involved does swear a lot but is also visibly shaken by the incident and you can hear him switch from anger to his voice breaking and you can see his hand shaking (we've all been there).
As much as I would never frequent any of his businesses (be a bit hard as I now live in Vancouver), he is just a dick and ganging up on him doesn't help with the them versus us that already exists. I think that the anti-cycling car driver contingent forget that many of the cyclists they hate are also car drivers.
We are all road users it is just that some of us are more vunerable than others. Be careful out there.
He gets a fine for a public order offence (basically for the death threats) but nothing for the near-lethal driving.
In other words:-
Riding a bike: Your life or death is of no interest to the cops.
Step off the bike: Cops will enforce the law.
Standard.
Re: severs1966 2nd June at 18.17:
Unfortunately very true. Whilst riding home from work one evening I was clipped by the wing mirror of a car trying to force it's way between myself and a traffic island. Managed to stay upright but reported the incident to the police along with number plate.
The response: nothing, absolutely zip. Not even the promised phone call after speaking to driver. I'm going to assume that the driver was never spoken to.
If I had fallen off and sustained an injury, maybe they would have got a phone call and asked not to be naughty again. I can only speculate.
'Hi is that Cafe Brew Cycle Service?"
"Hi."
"Hi. I'd like you to service my bike. When can you do it?"
"Just bring it in have a grande latte whilst you wait and it will be ready in 20 minutes."
"How much will it cost?"
"Generally about £100-£150."
"No, I was wanting to know how much the service would be not the coffee ……….
It actually needs a fair bit of work as some c**t in a gimp suit driving a Range Rover nearly drove into me and I came off. He got out and launched a tirade of foul mouthed abuse at me threatening to kill me and break my neck. It was pretty scary."
"Oh ……… " Silence, they've hung up.
There's a lot of emotion flowing here - it's a story that's rightly got lots of people agitated and from the evidence - pretty clear why. But it's also true that we don't necessarily have both sides of the story - but i don't think that's the right focus.
For the driver to react like he did with such ferocity it would suggest that he's not got a single bone in his body that is appreciative toward cyclists, their rights and the community they're part of. If he did, he'd have had a little more empathy in the situation and it might not have escalated the way it did.
Now that's nothing new. And each to their own. But he's a business owner who's actively tried to attract the cycling community to his establishments in order to build his businesses.
It's therefore now down to each member of the cycling community (and potential customer) to decide whether or not they feel genuinely welcome (or appreciated) by those establishments after the patron has behaved in such a way.
Some will decide that it's unrepairable, others not, but i have a feeling that the majority will vote with their clinchers and find a place where they feel truly comfortable and properly welcome.
We'll see.
Which is far away from this prick and certainly not in any of his cafes or using any other of his 'establishments'. Let's hope he's committed financial suicide wrt his businesses. If I was an employee of his I would now definitely be looking for another job as you might be working for nothing plus also be tarred with the same obnoxious behaviour.
Hang on....I'm just wondering if there is any link between this & the Naked Bike ride story. In both cases, the guy got over excited, the situation quickly turned ugly & ultimately ended in embarrassment. The size of penis seems to have been a contributing factor in each incident.
It seams bizarre that scream in somebody's face "I'm going to kill you" only warrants a £90 fine.
If I was go on Twitter and send a tweat to this lovely chap that I was going to kill him, I'd be up in court before the week was out and be in prison for 3 months.
One again, as along as your driving a car the police are happy for this type of aggression to go on unchecked.
I think before you can conclude that, you'd have to look at cases of such threats that didn't involve a driver. Two pedestrians having a row in the street, for example.
If the law seems soft here, its most likely just because its soft on such offences in general.
I'm more irked by the lack of any penalty for the bad driving that led to the situation. That's where there seems to be a special leniency reserved solely for drivers (as opposed to, say, reckless swingers of baseball bats)
https://www.change.org/p/jason-wells-founder-of-brew-cafe-cycle-to-work-...
That new Brew Cafe Menu in full...
Starter
- Pork Sausage (Chipolata) -
- Coke -
Main
- Loin of Beef (not well hung) -
- Mashed Cyclist (topped with cnut) -
- Humble Pie -
To Follow
- Porridge -
10% discount will be applied to all clients wearing a full gimp outfit
(with apologies/acknowledgement to Private Eye - feel free to copy to Brew Cafe twitter/facebook as I don't use either..)
Don't worry the Met will apologise for their failure to take the appropriate action in a couple of years same as normal
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