Near Miss of the Day 565: A very aggressive white van man

randonneur wrote:

What was the outcome from the Police?

I'm betting on "no action taken"...And that's if they bothered investigating at all.

Nope, it's fair game. Deliberate actions have consequences. He actually increased speed and closed the distance heading into the pinch point. He will have seen the car immediately in front of him overtake, and his high driving position means he will have seen the cyclist for quite a while. If you look at the start of the clip there's a skip lorry that clearly was able to overtake without issue. He chose to intimidate the cyclist and then chose to brake test him (the latter is incredibly dangerous, I've experienced that and crashed as a result). Deserves what's coming to him, and if the police won't fine him hopefully a few lost customers will hit him in the pocket instead.

Mob mentality. Always the first point of call for justice from the brain dead.

> You have no idea how many people may work there or who was actually driving the van.

Then its incumbent on that business to make a public announcement on the matter.  Not edit their Google Maps entry to "A?" while removing their Facebook profile too.

It's a one-man band and he's been caught out.  Fuck him and his business, I hope it tanks.

"Incumbent" Using a posh word doesnt make it a real thing.  We have law and order so numbskulls aren't parading around with severed heads on pikes and pitchforks. 

We don't have law and order though, because Lancashire Police routinely ignore incidents like this.  So I say if the police won't do their job, let's do it ourselves.

If you don't like that, tough shit.  PS - dictionaries are free and online.

Mob mentality. presumably you're happy for you and your famiy to be subject to that as well as to be handing it out.

nicmason wrote:

"Incumbent" Using a posh word doesnt make it a real thing.  We have law and order so numbskulls aren't parading around with severed heads on pikes and pitchforks. 

We do indeed have law & order but my firsthand experience of reporting incidents to Lancashire Constabulary is that essentially they don't give a toss so what do you suggest the next step is?

nicmason wrote:

"Incumbent" Using a posh word doesnt make it a real thing.  We have law and order so numbskulls aren't parading around with severed heads on pikes and pitchforks. 

Nobody is doing that (that's argumentum absurdiam even for you Nic), and neither is anyone breaking the law by publicising poor corporate behaviour.

<pedant>If you meant argumentum ad absurdum, that's a valid form of argument - demonstrating that a position must be false by showing that it leads to absurd conclusions. This would be more of an ab absurdo (appeal to absurdity) or a straw-man fallacy.</pedant>

mdavidford wrote:

<pedant>If you meant argumentum ad absurdum, that's a valid form of argument - demonstrating that a position must be false by showing that it leads to absurd conclusions. This would be more of an ab absurdo (appeal to absurdity) or a straw-man fallacy.</pedant>

I love a pedant me! Granted on both counts, and I'll defintitely stow that away for future use. Thanks MDF!

nicmason wrote:

thats very poor . You've got a nice clear film. You should definitely report it.

What people shouldn't do is start using their keyboard warrior skills to attack the business etc.

You have no idea how many people may work there or who was actually driving the van.

I agree that the police should be the first port of call and hopefully they'll take appropriate action. Targetting the business' reputation should be a last resort, but if they're happy to drive around with the business name on the side of the van, then they should expect their business reputation to suffer if they deliberately drive dangerously.

I don't see how the number of employed people is relevant to anything otherwise big businesses could get away with whatever they like (forcing employees to pee into bottles or something).

I agree that the police should be the first port of call and hopefully they'll take appropriate action.

Unfortunately, the police (Lancashire, at least) define 'appropriate action' as whatever action they took, which is almost always none. The recent LC reply ffrom an anonymous person at 'Force Control Room" to a question about the action taken over an indisputable red light crashing offence by PE70 DWJ was:

Good Morning, 

The log was passed to the relevant department who will have taken any appropriate action in relation to the incident.

And they refuse to say anything else, so there is no doubt the online report was immediately filed in the bin. It is almost impossible to fail to despise the police.

Unfortunately, it varies a lot between different areas.

I submitted three close passes (all on one ride) to Avon & Somerset the other day and they came back with positive outcomes on all three though they don't specify exactly what action - either a warning letter, a fixed penalty or a prosecution. One of them was a BMW with a dodgy number plate and the officer confirmed that that would also be dealt with.

Their responses no longer include the "not a victim" bit which I think is a good move although they aren't giving any more information than before. I'm okay with knowing that they'll be taking action and it doesn't make much difference to me what action they decide to do, but at least they're confirming that they agree with my opinion of the standard of driving. (They weren't the worst close passes that I've had, but I can imagine that less jaded cyclists would be intimidated by them)

Unfortunately, it varies a lot between different areas

On your report, A&SC is good and on mine LC definitely isn't. Both of these riders went through on red. No response. No action. 

Yeah, I also submitted a couple of red-light transgressions about a month ago which had the same response (action will be taken). One of them involved me having to brake sharply as the woman decided to turn left instead of going straight on and went through her red light into my lane (which was green). The other one wasn't dangerous but just a really stupid bit of unnecessary overtaking and running out of road space.

Maybe if you keep on raising your complaints they'll realise that it's easier (and far better) to work with you rather than ignore you.

Maybe if you keep on raising your complaints they'll realise that it's easier (and far better) to work with you rather than ignore you

Lancashire Constabulary has many dodges at the ready. My present complaint about failure to act on multiple red light crashing incidents was made on 28.1.21- 2 1/2 months later it still hasn't been 'allocated to a case officer'. They say they will communicate monthly about complaints- but they don't. They will delay for months longer in the hope I will lose heart (they don't learn very quickly at LC!) and the response will be very stupid (like the 'we must have confirmatory video from the offending vehicle' dodge). I will then complain to the PCC and it seems very likely that they will take months to say 'we can't interfere with police operational decisions'- thus proving what many of us suspect: PCCs are useless and are really just another department of the police. With Lancashire, you have to be ready to just keep going!

wtjs wrote:

Maybe if you keep on raising your complaints they'll realise that it's easier (and far better) to work with you rather than ignore you

Lancashire Constabulary has many dodges at the ready. My present complaint about failure to act on multiple red light crashing incidents was made on 28.1.21- 2 1/2 months later it still hasn't been 'allocated to a case officer'. They say they will communicate monthly about complaints- but they don't. They will delay for months longer in the hope I will lose heart (they don't learn very quickly at LC!) and the response will be very stupid (like the 'we must have confirmatory video from the offending vehicle' dodge). I will then complain to the PCC and it seems very likely that they will take months to say 'we can't interfere with police operational decisions'- thus proving what many of us suspect: PCCs are useless and are really just another department of the police. With Lancashire, you have to be ready to just keep going!

This is absolutely bang on the money as far as Lancashire Constbulary is concerned.

Rightly or wrongly I can't be ar*ed reporting incidents any more unless it is really bad.

nicmason wrote:

thats very poor . You've got a nice clear film. You should definitely report it.

What people shouldn't do is start using their keyboard warrior skills to attack the business etc.

You have no idea how many people may work there or who was actually driving the van.

It's fair game.  I presume you are not suggesting that freedom of expression should be curtailed in order to cover up a business owners' poor behaviour in public.....

because complete twats end up creating situations like this.

https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/18582574.mistaken-identity-rap...

That's an example of mistaken identity; not the case here; fyi, every transport company in Australia encourages the public to lodge complaints about poor driving with them and/or the police; members of the public are free to use social media, as they see fit, to publicise poor driving they have witnessed.

nicmason wrote:

because complete twats end up creating situations like this.

https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/18582574.mistaken-identity-rap...

 

What a horrible situation.

However, the argument that we must stop bringing poor corporate behaviour to public notice in case some tw*t makes rape threats to an unconnected person seems sketchy to me. 

I have no problem with reporting it to the police and contacting the company involved who may be not aware of the drivers conduct. I've done it myself several times In  London. I do have a problem with the mob pile on let drive them out of business tash their online reviews etc mentality we see here.

nicmason wrote:

I have no problem with reporting it to the police and contacting the company involved who may be not aware of the drivers conduct. I've done it myself several times In  London. I do have a problem with the mob pile on let drive them out of business tash their online reviews etc mentality we see here.

Look at the comment on YT when someone spoke to him, the guy clearly is a danger to cyclists & doesn't give a toss.

IME Lancs Constab won't be interested either so as I asked you before what's the alternative?

nicmason wrote:

I have no problem with reporting it to the police and contacting the company involved who may be not aware of the drivers conduct. I've done it myself several times In  London. I do have a problem with the mob pile on let drive them out of business tash their online reviews etc mentality we see here.

Good for you, so have I.

In addition I have no issue in publicly declaring poor behaviour. You clearly do,  and that is for you. You are free to ignore negative reviews.

I for one do not want to provide custom to unethical businesses of any shape or size, and I would hope that folk who have had poor experiences would sing up and so help me make an informed choice - it's what business reviews are for.

One person works there and he was driving the van. There supplied the info so anyone who wants to review how bad his profesionalism is in that clip, what is wrong with that? 

I personally would prefer to know how companies treat people in vulnerable positions before I employ them and this is the perfect opportunity.