Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Uber driver 'knocks out disabled cyclist' in Central London

Hand-cycle rider allegedly hit the car in frustration when it pinned him against a parked vehicle

Metropolitan Police officers have arrested an Uber minicab driver accused of knocking out a disabled cyclist in a road rage attack.

The 27 year old hand-cyclist argued with the driver, who was trying to overtake him in a narrow road in Holborn, central London.

The silver Prius driver jammed him between his car and a parked vehicle, forcing the cyclist to pull himself free. The driver allegedly got out of the car and punched the cyclist in the face as retribution for banging his hand on the car.

A spokesman for Uber told the Evening Standard that a private hire driver had been suspended from using the app while the company investigated.

A witness to the incident said: “After the cyclist became jammed between the parked car and the Prius, he managed to force his way out and slapped his hand on the bonnet which aggravated the driver.

“The driver jumped out of his car and went down on top of him. As I was jumping out of my car to stop it, his car rolled forward into two other parked cars.

“I ran round and pulled him off. And everything was calm for a couple of seconds. But then the driver noticed that his car had rolled into the parked cars. He shouted ‘look what you made me do’ and threw a punch straight into his face and he was knocked out cold.

“He was out cold for about 30 seconds. I stepped in between them to stop him from doing anything else and somebody else called the police.”

A Met Police spokesman said: “Police were called to a report of an assault of a 27 year-old male, on Endell Street, near the junction with Shaftesbury Avenue on Thursday January 26 at 4.25pm.

“The victim sustained facial injuries. LAS attended and the victim was taken to a central London hospital.  

“A 38 year-old male was arrested on suspicion of GBH.  He has been bailed to return on a date in March.”  

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called at 4.43pm on Thursday, January 26 to reports of a road traffic collision at Endell Street.

“We sent an ambulance crew to the scene. We treated a patient at the scene and took them to a hospital in west London.”

An Uber spokesman said: “We are currently investigating these shocking reports. Whenever there is a serious incident it is our policy to prevent the licensed private hire driver from using our app while we investigate."

Helen Chapman, Transport for London’s general manager for taxi and private hire, said: “These are serious allegations and we are working with the police to urgently investigate them.”

Add new comment

16 comments

Avatar
dottigirl | 7 years ago
0 likes

On a related note, if any fellow disabled cyclists are reading this, there's a survey here for you:

https://twitter.com/WfWnews/status/824923092485025792

Previous surveys have indicated that cycling is much easier than walking for many with mobility restrictions - I certainly agree with this. 

 

Crippledbiker - hope that you can get back on wheels ASAP. I know the frustration of being housebound.

(I'm fortunate that my bike is a standard, off-the-shelf number, although I'm currently struggling with the fit - been riding it for years and started to get aches and pains I've not had before. Not sure what's gone wrong - probably my body throwing another spanner in the works.)

Avatar
WillRod | 7 years ago
0 likes

My view is that Uber and minicabs should be banned. Taxis should be heavily regulated and should have their private hire licenses temporarily suspended if they have a collision etc. but also have permanent bans across the whole country so they can't just move to a different area. 

As a nation we need better public transport, especially in rural areas but also for disabled and elderly people. Get them out of cars and onto the buses or bikes!

Avatar
CygnusX1 | 7 years ago
1 like

@CrippledBiker

Three months without wheels - that's a bummer. Titanium and carbon fibre?  Sounds like it was a pretty specialised chair.

As psling says, be careful what you post and good luck with the court case.

 

 

Avatar
Crippledbiker | 7 years ago
7 likes

I am the cyclist in this incident.

It was not an accident that he drove me into another car, it was intentional.

Just before this, at the part where you cross the A40 over to Endell Street, he had come into my lane and drifted progressively further left, before coming close enough, ignoring my horn and the horn of the taxi behind me, that I felt it necessary to slap the side of his car to warn him I was there. I have almost a meter of bike in front of me, if I can slap your car then you've knocked a normal bike over.
He then stopped at the top of Endell Street, waited until I passed him, the rammed into my wheelchair and got out to attack me.

I did not slap his bonnet. But I did use it to pull myself out and the push off.

Bastard destroyed my wheelchair, currently stuck at home.

Avatar
psling replied to Crippledbiker | 7 years ago
0 likes

Crippledbiker wrote:

I am the cyclist in this incident. It was not an accident that he drove me into another car, it was intentional. Just before this, at the part where you cross the A40 over to Endell Street, he had come into my lane and drifted progressively further left, before coming close enough, ignoring my horn and the horn of the taxi behind me, that I felt it necessary to slap the side of his car to warn him I was there. I have almost a meter of bike in front of me, if I can slap your car then you've knocked a normal bike over. He then stopped at the top of Endell Street, waited until I passed him, the rammed into my wheelchair and got out to attack me. I did not slap his bonnet. But I did use it to pull myself out and the push off. Bastard destroyed my wheelchair, currently stuck at home.

 

Loving your user name !!

If this is likely to go to court (which I sincerely hope it does) then better to be careful what appears on social media beforehand?

Hope you're not too badly injured / shaken up by the incident and that you're back out on the road as soon as possible.

Avatar
Crippledbiker replied to psling | 7 years ago
2 likes
psling wrote:

Crippledbiker wrote:

I am the cyclist in this incident. It was not an accident that he drove me into another car, it was intentional. Just before this, at the part where you cross the A40 over to Endell Street, he had come into my lane and drifted progressively further left, before coming close enough, ignoring my horn and the horn of the taxi behind me, that I felt it necessary to slap the side of his car to warn him I was there. I have almost a meter of bike in front of me, if I can slap your car then you've knocked a normal bike over. He then stopped at the top of Endell Street, waited until I passed him, the rammed into my wheelchair and got out to attack me. I did not slap his bonnet. But I did use it to pull myself out and the push off. Bastard destroyed my wheelchair, currently stuck at home.

 

Loving your user name !!

If this is likely to go to court (which I sincerely hope it does) then better to be careful what appears on social media beforehand?

Hope you're not too badly injured / shaken up by the incident and that you're back out on the road as soon as possible.

Cheers!

Believe it or not, this is me being careful; there are other details I'd like to share but cannot at this time. I will say I'm bloody glad I had the presence of mind to put myself back in the middle of the road to stop him leaving, and also that I grabbed his lanyard with his TfL licence on from his neck.

Unfortunately, the court case doesn't happen till at least March; even if I get a full payout for the value of everything, it takes three months minimum for RGK to build a titanium and carbon fiber chair like that one.
Bike is almost off the shelf, though it did have a custom paint job and a specially reinforced steering tube. But the chair is the main problem.

Avatar
PsiMonk replied to Crippledbiker | 7 years ago
0 likes

Crippledbiker]
</p>

<p>[quote=Crippledbiker

wrote:

Unfortunately, the court case doesn't happen till at least March; even if I get a full payout for the value of everything, it takes three months minimum for RGK to build a titanium and carbon fiber chair like that one. Bike is almost off the shelf, though it did have a custom paint job and a specially reinforced steering tube. But the chair is the main problem.

If you're a member of LCC, British Cycling or Cycling UK etc. then you can access their free legal helpline. Just in case you need somethin like that. Good luck!

Avatar
OldRidgeback replied to PsiMonk | 7 years ago
0 likes

PsiMonk]</p>

<p>

[quote=psling

wrote:

Crippledbiker wrote:

Unfortunately, the court case doesn't happen till at least March; even if I get a full payout for the value of everything, it takes three months minimum for RGK to build a titanium and carbon fiber chair like that one. Bike is almost off the shelf, though it did have a custom paint job and a specially reinforced steering tube. But the chair is the main problem.

If you're a member of LCC, British Cycling or Cycling UK etc. then you can access their free legal helpline. Just in case you need somethin like that. Good luck!

 

Good luck with the case. From now on you're probably best saying you can't comment further as the case is ongoing. Having a witness will be a big help.

Avatar
Mark_1973_ | 7 years ago
3 likes

As soon as I saw the article I knew it would be a Prius. It's not the cars themselves but they are the biggest danger to cyclists in London. I used to complain every time I cycled to work that a Prius or two had nearly taken me out and then someone told me that they were all Uber drivers. I had to remonstrate with one last week who u-turned in my path and then claimed that he "was indicating" and therefore it was my fault that I had to brake hard and swerve to avoid him. The guy just had no concept of right-of-way.

I'm guessing he never passed a UK driving test either....

Avatar
arfa | 7 years ago
9 likes

What I really dislike about uber is that it washes its hands of responsibility when it owes a duty of care to all road users in putting so many more bad drivers on the road.

I was hit by one of them last june when the guy saw me and decided to pull out of the junction and turn right across me in a sort of "might is right manouevre" and knocked me off. He then drove off  and tried to make a getaway but thankfully the incident was witnessed by the police and he was reeled in pretty quickly.

He was prosecuted and I offered him the chance of retaking his test and no further action. The unrepentant bastard declined, plead not guilty and was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident (the met couldn't be arsed to prosecute him for dangerous driving). He got fined a few hundred quid and given 5 points but he's still on the road and no better driver for any of this.

I very much doubt that the man concerned had ever passed a test in the UK (he appeared to have no awareness of his obligations at all) yet he is still able to ply his trade.

My point is that it is past time uber are allowed to just look the other way when it comes to safety and standards and I hope that someone takes them to court sooner rather than later or we'll keep getting more repugnant stories like this one.  Above all, I hope that the cyclist recovers soon and is able to resume his daily life after a deeply unpleasant incident.

Avatar
SingleSpeed | 7 years ago
4 likes

“I ran round and pulled him off. And everything was calm for a couple of seconds"

 

 

Snigger

Avatar
Paul_C | 7 years ago
8 likes

‘look what you made me do’

standard excuse of a psychopath...

Avatar
beezus fufoon | 7 years ago
2 likes

"...cyclists are clusterfucking this guy like I've never seen before. It's like a swarm of bees."

this guy has very unusual taste in nature porn!

I'm unsure why the second story is tacked onto the first one, maybe to lighten the heavy tone with this comedy account from a total knob - bit inappropriate.

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
5 likes

No doubt the culprit will get a 40 hours community service order at worst. It wouldn't surprise me if he's one of those long history of violence types that goes to court and gets told it's his last chance every time because they can't be arsed sending people to jail anymore. 

I'd also erased that 'geezer' literature from my mind until you reprinted the Guy Richtie of blogs. It's like the script for some shit betting advert. 

Avatar
DaveE128 | 7 years ago
3 likes

That is seriously low  2

Avatar
Grahamd | 7 years ago
13 likes

Well done to the intervening witness, let's hope we have a judge with the balls to dish out an appropriate sentence.

Latest Comments