Road rage motorist arrested for dangerous driving after knocking cyclist over and throwing bike away

A cyclist in London has told road.cc the story of how challenging a motorist following some dangerous driving on their commute escalated into a road rage incident that ultimately saw the driver taken away in handcuffs by the Metropolitan Police for dangerous driving.

The road.cc reader was cycling in Muswell Hill, north London, on the morning of the 23rd November, at around 7.50am, when a driver cut them up while moving away from a set of traffic lights, leaving him with "nowhere to go" and pushing him towards oncoming traffic on a road made narrower by parked cars.

"He'd seen me, but he turned his steering wheel to deliberately force me into oncoming traffic," the road.cc reader recalled.

Coming to a stop in stationary traffic, the cyclist tapped on the driver's window to question the manoeuvre, but was met with abuse and complaints about the rider touching his car.

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With the scene escalating, a passing cyclist who had seen the incident unfold stopped and placed himself in front of the vehicle, a pedestrian who had witnessed it beginning to record on their phone.

"He was extremely offensive," the road.cc reader said. "The police considered what he did to me and the other cyclist as assault. He drove over the [other] cyclist. He stood in front of the car and thumped the bonnet, asking 'What are you doing?' But that just seemed to inflame the motorist even more and he started shouting 'You've damaged my car'.

"He accused me of scratching the side of his car as well, even though I had literally just tapped his window as he was forcing me into oncoming traffic. The interesting thing is, he shouted at me 'You can film all you like, but I've got it on my camera'. So I hope the police is able to retrieve his dash cam footage because it would show him driving alongside me.

"In a way I was okay, just a bit shaken, but the other cyclist was run over. His knees were scratched, his bike was damaged and the man ripped his backpack off to get him out of the way. He got out of his car, approached the cyclist, grabbed his backpack to get him to move, spilling all its contents on the road. Then as the cyclist was picking up his stuff, he grabbed his bike and threw it on the pavement. 

"He got back into his car, at which point I was trying to hold the door, saying 'you can't go', but he slammed it shut, and put his foot down on the accelerator, running the cyclist over who was standing in front of the car. And all the while he was shouting: 'You bloody cyclists, you damaged my car!'

"He called the police, but a bystander said they were already on their way, but he was trying to complain about us to them. And while he was on the phone, he looked at me and said, 'I'm going to smash your f*****g face in.' I said, 'That's great. You're on the phone to the police, they can hear all of this'.

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"So he was really quite charged up, determined to blame us. Even as he was being taken away in handcuffs, I heard him say 'I want their details, they damaged my car'. The pedestrians and the by-passers were really good too. I saw someone posted on the Muswell Hill neighbourhood group saying that they were a witness and they could tell the police what had happened."

The road.cc reader praised the Metropolitan Police's response, saying the situation was "well handled" by the six officers who arrived on the scene.

"They told me clearly, he deliberately shoved me into the oncoming traffic, then used his vehicle to drive over the poor witness cyclist who'd come to help me, and then he pushed me," the road.cc reader recalled from what officers told him at the scene. "So that's three incidents of assault, and then there was threatening behaviour as well."

When contacted for comment, road.cc was told by the Metropolitan Police that the driver had been arrested "on suspicion of dangerous driving" and enquiries are ongoing.

"Police were called to Tetherdown, Muswell Hill, N10 at about 08:00hrs on 23 November 2023 following reports that a car was driving dangerously," a force spokesperson explained. "It was reported that a cyclist and the driver of the car had been involved in a verbal altercation before the car collided with the bike. The cyclist suffered minor injuries as a result of the incident.

"Officers attended and it was later reported that a second cyclist has also witnessed the same vehicle driving dangerously. The driver of the car, a man aged in his 50s was arrested at the scene on suspicion of dangerous driving. He has been released under investigation. Enquiries continue."