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Statue of Justice, Old Bailey (licensed CC BY 2.0 on Flickr by Ronnie Macdonald).jpg4x4 driver hid behind hedge then jumped out to push cyclist off bike
A 4x4 driver who drove ahead of a cyclist following an altercation between the pair hid behind a hedge then jumped out to push the rider from his bike, a court has heard.
Thomas Eckersley, aged 46, was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in connection with the incident in Mobberley, Cheshire on 11 May 2020, reports Mail Online.
He was also ordered to pay the victim, Johnathan Williams, who sustained a separated shoulder in the attack, compensation of £900.
Tameside Magistrates’ Court heard that the cyclist had been riding through roadworks as Eckersley was exiting his driveway in his Volvo XC 40.
Mr Williams, who had not realised that Eckersley’s wife and three-year-old child were nearby waving him off, told the court: “I carried on riding as I thought it was my right of way but the driver gave me a very small gap to cycle through.
“I used nasty language at him as I had very little room then I saw his child and felt really bad that I had sworn in front of a child.
“But I felt vulnerable I carried on riding and thought that's it it's over but then noticed a car revving behind me and saw it was the same Volvo.
“He pulled up alongside me in the middle of the road and was having a go at me. He said, ‘Listen here!’' and I told him to ‘f*ck off’.
“He then tried to stop me by pulling in front of me and then tapping on the brakes. We got to a T-junction and I said: ‘F*** off and die’ and then as we went up a narrow country lane he was leaving me not very much room.
“It was fight or flight, and I lashed out with my arm. I hit his wing mirror. He said he was going to ‘f*cking kill me’ then sped off.”
That appeared to be the end of the incident, but shortly afterwards Eckersley jumped out from behind a bush and pushed Mr Williams, who had been checking his bike computer, from his bicycle.
“I was feeling numb as I hit the ground and then heard him shout at me, ‘You're not f*cking hurt. You deserve this!’ He tried to lift me and grabbed my shoulder.
“He said if I had just apologised, this would not have happened. I was in quite a lot of pain. I remember getting into the ambulance and feeling shocked, and afterwards, I was angry.”
When police arrived, they found Mr Williams lying in the road, shouting at them to “get that man away from me. I don't want him near me.”
“I was really angry at the defendant and myself,” continued Mr Williams, who is still undergoing physiotherapy for his injuries and has left his job as a cycling customer sales manager.
“This aggravated my previous shoulder injury and it meant not being able to move my arm for a month and for six months, I couldn't lift any heavy objects.
“To this day, I'm still having some difficulty with that.'
Eckersley, who denied the charge, told the court: “I had left my house to go to work when I saw Mr Williams and he started to raise his fingers at me and was swearing in my direction. He told me I was a ''f*cking idiot'' and raised his middle finger at me. My wife and young son, who was three, were outside.
“I said to him ‘listen here, mate. You've got this very wrong’ but he gave me a barrage of abuse. That’s when he said, ‘Stay two metres away from me’ and that's when he hit my wing mirror. He told me to ‘F*ck off and die!’ and I was just in disbelief.
The motorist claimed that he had stopped his car to adjust his wing mirror and just wanted to have a word with Mr Williams, denying that he had pushed him.
“I was standing in the road, saw him coming and put my hand up and he swerved and fell,” he said.
“I did not touch him at any point and asked him if he was okay but he told me I was a ‘psycho’. I am remorseful of the fact that Mr Williams has been injured but I wanted to get my point across to him,” he added.
Justice of the Peace John Lee, chairing the bench, told Eckersley: “There are not just the physical injuries that Mr Williams sustained, but also the psychological impact upon him after the incident.
“Whilst we believe there was a degree of provocation at the time, you did continue the altercation when you had ample opportunity to let it go,” he added.
Besides the fine, Eckersley has also been ordered to pay £865 in costs, handed a 12-month community order and told to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work.
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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32 comments
As soon as I read about the cyclist hitting his wing mirror, I lost all interest in his plight - play stupid games like that, win stupid prizes, like getting pushed off your bike; don't initiate road rage with a motorist, as the outcome can be very unfavourable for the cyclist.
Its not a very proportionate response, though?
I drive too close to you; you touch my car and/or swear at me; I knock you off your bike and beat you up.
Or do you think that cyclists should dismount and wait until our lords and masters have passed by, just in case we incite their rage? ("Please sir, would you like to hit me again? ")
Those 4x4s are delicate vehicles, they're just not built to take the knocks. That's why their drivers often drive so aggressively.
Let's be clear, the road rage was initiated by the careless (dangerous, really, but everybody seems too frightened of suddenly realising it applies to them, too) close pass and the lack of attention. Knocking on the car or wing/door/vanity mirror is a last-chance action to alert the driver how dangerously close his car is.
I may be outraged at the time, but that is not the exclusive purpose of banging on his precious possession. And if the driver is offended by that percussion, it is a wonder that he is not equally - or more greatly - embarrassed by his own actions that brought his vehicle so close as to be percussed.
Difficult in these situations to know exactly what happened with out lots of camera footage. I dare say driver might be an ar$e but I myself really try not to swear at other road users when remonstrating with them as it just inflames everything so quickly. I often get traction by telling them I dont want to go to hospital and surely they must have children dads family memebrs who cycle and would they want to hurt them with inconsiderate driving?
Other times you just have to give way to folks and smile. Roadies especially cannot expect a clear roadway in all circumstances.
Problem is that so many motorists seem to believe that they are bl**dy well entitled to that clear roadway, "so get on the pavement!"
Look at the recent horse rider v gammon argument for that exact sentiment of a car user.
There seems to have been an assault, a serious one, and the court accepted that. I cannot fathom a situation that would justify a premeditated assault at a later time. Provocation in these circumstances is not acceptable as mitigation. Swearing at someone (although unpleasant, and is covered by law in itself) is not, cannot be, a mitigating factor in an assault. In addition, circumstances may be mitigation for use of bad language.
There is absolutely nothing that can excuse or explain this away as rational or acceptable behaviour.
[edit] Sorry, I know you weren't siding with the driver, and you are absolutely correct about de-escalating on our side. I'm just glad this w*nker got found against.
I dont think anyone is trying to excuse what happened here, but what the law says in these cases is largely irrelevant as its applied after the fact. The law ends up simply dealing with the consequences and choices made by those involved, it doesnt suggest a right method of dealing with these types of confrontations or prevent those willing to break the law from doing harm to you.
So is it any comfort to know getting pushed off your bike is classed as an assault and the law will eventually deliver a form of justice for it ? Probably not much.
No absolutely right, clearly it would be better not to have happened in the first place. and I completely get your point about hte law in effect always being retrospective
Now that it has happened though, I'm glad the w*nker got found against.
Did you miss the bit where the cyclist hit his wing mirror? this is a favourite tactic with motorcyclists against car drivers and I've seen the resulting instinctive reaction by a driver to swerve into the biker.
I saw the bit where the rider lashed out (causing no damage) against an encroaching vehicle for fear of his own safety.
Especially when considering that the vehicle had deliberately been driven in an aggressive intimidating manner, I can't see how that justifies, excuses, or even generates empathy for, a premeditated ambush revenge attack at a later time that occasioned serious injuries with long term debilitation.
I just can't rationalise a violent assault in retaliation against harsh words. Maybe that's just me though....
Yes, we cannot make full accounts comments, however the authorities decided there was a case to answer and they then decided, with the evidence, that the defendent was guilty.
However based on my experiences both on a bike and in a car I can probably attempt some hypothesis on what happened. Road works forced a dual track into single track and probably light controlled. Cyclist goes through on right of way. Driver leaves drive whilst also looking and waving at wife and child who were seeing him off. (I always hate when family and friends decide to do this as always distracting). Either he didn't see the cyclist due to distraction of family or the barriers, or worse, did see cyclist and decided to pull out anyway due to being in bigger vehicle. Cyclist is almost knocked off and throws the usuals effs at almost killer driver which MOST of us do at these points. Driver is upset as he couldn't see what he did wrong as well as being called an incompetent fuckwit infront of wife and child. He then drives dangerously close to cyclist who doesn't want to converse with said fuckwit who is causing even more dangerous situations as he drives close by whilst remonstrating. Driver then drives off, pulls over with his car out of view and then hides and jumps out at cyclist. Even if the driver didn't push him (a claim dimissed in court), he still jumped in front of the moving cyclist which forced him to swerve and crash).
That seems as if it is a likely scenario; maybe we should all be grateful that the court found the right way.
That's a regular route for me, I'll have to keep a look out for Volvo XC 40s, although as massive 4 x 4s are compulsory around there I'll just have to beware of one with a damaged 'wing' mirror.
Having said that I haven't had any problems with drivers in the area.
Lots of "wing" mirrors about on these vintage cars these days, even though they look like door mirrors to me.
well, yes the etymology of the commonly used words doesn't quite reflect the current position on the car but lots of words change meaning. Welcome to the English language.
Technically they are side mirrors but common usage makes the term relevant.
“I did not touch him at any point and asked him if he was okay but he told me I was a ‘psycho’. I am remorseful of the fact that Mr Williams has been injured...."
Remorseful, even though you didn't touch him?
"....but I wanted to get my point across to him,”
Well you certainly did that sweet pea, left us all in no doubt that you're a psycopathic twunt.
Of COURSE you did, sweetheart...
Unsurprisingly the Daily Mail readership still managed to take the driver's side in this dispute...
“Whilst we believe there was a degree of provocation at the time...”
Yes, once you began a course of poor driving and physical assault, we believe the victim provoked you by objecting to it.
Disbelief that driving right next to a cyclist close enough that they can knock the wing mirror out of alignment might cause the cyclist to curse?
I don't imagine Eckersley could even relistically claim this was a "simple" case of seeing red - he went ahead, hid, and waited for Williams to come past (talk about premeditated, eh?).
Well he did claim just that including he didn't push him and the experienced cyclist just fell off for no reason. And he didn't stop to confront the cyclist but to just adjust the mirror that the cyclist had knocked without being provoked.
Luckily the judge / cps / Police believed the cyclists account this time around as there doesn't appear to be mention of other witnesses.
Why get out your car and punch someone when you can just stay in the car, run them over and claim you simply didn't see them?
If they had done that, they wouldn't be charged, let along found guilty and punished.
Not a good idea giving cowardice scrotes behind the wheel such ideas⚠
I see the motorist was trying to play the innocent victim of the cyclist he had endangered, repeatedly and then later physically attacked. Still probably thinks he didn't do anything wrong.
Thankfully he didn't kill him; though he'd have got an equally pathetic sentence in that scenario too.
Only if he had stayed in the car and run him over and may be left the scene for good measure. Once you get out of the car you seem to lose the protection the law seems to give you as a driver.
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