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Road rage van driver headbutts cyclist before driving off

The cyclist’s bike was also damaged during the altercation in Bournemouth

Police in Bournemouth are appealing for witnesses after a van driver allegedly headbutted a cyclist and damaged his bike before fleeing the scene.

The cyclist, in his 40s, was riding up a hill on the Knyveton Road in the suburb of Boscombe on Wednesday 13 April, when he noticed the driver of a grey Iveco tipper van reverse towards him.

According to Dorset Police, the motorist got out of the van and engaged in a verbal altercation with the cyclist, before headbutting him and driving off.

The cyclist’s bike was also reportedly damaged during the incident.

> Cyclist punched repeatedly in the head by aggressive driver furious that group were riding two abreast 

In a statement, Dorset Police described the motorist as white, around six feet tall and bald. At the time of the alleged assault, he was wearing a grey Adidas hooded top, orange and blue shorts, and Nike Air Max trainers.

Dorset Police’s Community Support Investigator Dan Cammell said: “We are continuing to make enquiries into this assault, and I would urge anyone who witnessed what happened, or who has any information relating to the identity of the van driver involved, to please come forward.

“I would also like to hear from anyone who may have captured anything relevant on dashcam footage.”

Anyone with information about the assault is asked to contact Dorset Police through their online portal, by email (101 [at] dorset.pnn.police.uk), or by calling 101, quoting occurrence number 55220058354.

> No charges for road rage van driver who assaulted cyclist 

In September 2021, a motorist – enraged by a group of club cyclists riding two abreast – escaped with a caution after punching a cyclist multiple times in the face and knocking another off their bike.

One of the victims was told by Wiltshire Police that the driver ‘fully admitted’ the assault and claimed to be very remorseful.

In 2013 a cyclist in Birmingham, who sent helmet cam footage of a van driver assaulting him during a road rage incident to West Midlands Police, was told that Home Office rules meant that the police were unable to press charges because the driver, after being made aware of the video, admitted his guilt, and had no previous convictions.

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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17 comments

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Jenova20 | 1 year ago
1 like

I always find it odd when the only description the police give is of the clothes the person was wearing. Has anyone ever been identified this way? Do the police understand that most people change their clothes and wash them occasionally?

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brooksby replied to Jenova20 | 1 year ago
0 likes

I imagine its to try and jog people's memory of that particular time (ie. before they went home and changed).

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yupiteru | 1 year ago
7 likes

People do things for all sorts of reasons, row with girlfriend, lost their job, followed through with a wet fart etc, etc.

Some people will pick on and vent their anger on anyone they think is weak and vulnerable like a cyclist perhaps, but leave alone the 17 stone hells angel motor biker type.

At least I have been rammed by cars/vans and threatened by the occupants many times over my 50 plus years of cycling experience, when I have done abolutely nothing other than exist.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to yupiteru | 1 year ago
8 likes

During first post- lockdown, I was talking to my brother outside in the front garden with plenty of distance. WVM comes speeding around the corner of the bottom of the road and screeches to a halt half way down the hill. Gets out and runs into a house. 10 mins later we hear a wheel spin and he pulls away and drives past. Obviously the way he is driving we stare as he goes past. "What you looking at you C$$t?" from the driver. "A twat" I reply. Suddenly he screeches to a halt and shouts over a river of abuse. I just reply "you started behaving like a dick first". Suddenly he is out his van shouting "the way I feel someone is getting it today and it looks like it is you" whislt reaching for something which was either a stanley knife or a phone. He then seemed to notice my brother for the first time, mentioned something about lucky there are camera about and drove off. 
I did mention to the 999 operator about the knife, the worry that he was threatening to kill someone, and worried about the people in the house he just stormed out of. And was told someone will call me back the next day. 

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hawkinspeter replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
18 likes

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

I did mention to the 99 operator about the knife, the worry that he was threatening to kill someone, and worried about the people in the house he just stormed out of. And was told someone will call me back the next day. 

To be fair, 99 operators are only trained to stick a flake in at a jaunty angle

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chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
6 likes

Ha! Top that!

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belugabob replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
1 like
chrisonatrike wrote:

Ha! Top that!

Crushed nuts?

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Eton Rifle replied to yupiteru | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yes, it's noticeable how drivers don't close pass or sound their horns at the dog carts pulled by horses around my area.
It possibly has something to do with the six-foot traveller holding the reins.

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brooksby | 1 year ago
3 likes

I hope that there was more to this story...  As it stands, this van driver appears to be a danger to the population and a LOT of police resources ought to be thrown at catching him!

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matt_cycles replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Fully agree that there sounds more to this story. Such a random thing to do without some sort of previous altercation. Not saying the cyclist is in the wrong at all, but people don't get out of vehicles and do this for no reason.

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Steve K replied to matt_cycles | 1 year ago
9 likes

matt_cycles wrote:

Fully agree that there sounds more to this story. Such a random thing to do without some sort of previous altercation. Not saying the cyclist is in the wrong at all, but people don't get out of vehicles and do this for no reason.

Of course, what normally passes for a previous altercation is a cyclist shouting at a driver for a close pass or similar dangerous maneouvre.

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brooksby replied to Steve K | 1 year ago
3 likes

Steve K wrote:

matt_cycles wrote:

Fully agree that there sounds more to this story. Such a random thing to do without some sort of previous altercation. Not saying the cyclist is in the wrong at all, but people don't get out of vehicles and do this for no reason.

Of course, what normally passes for a previous altercation is a cyclist shouting at a driver for a close pass or similar dangerous maneouvre.

Or they saw a cyclist blatantly run a red light, this one time...

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Rendel Harris replied to matt_cycles | 1 year ago
11 likes

matt_cycles wrote:

Fully agree that there sounds more to this story. Such a random thing to do without some sort of previous altercation. Not saying the cyclist is in the wrong at all, but people don't get out of vehicles and do this for no reason.

They don't do it for no reason, unfortunately quite often the reason is that they are whacked up on amphetamines, coke or 'roids – just last Saturday morning I had a van driver come round a corner on the wrong side of the road towards me, as he passed quite close I called out "Use your eyes", he jammed the brakes on, was out of the van and screaming in apoplectic rage at me, bulging eyes, veins popping, inviting me to join him in a fistfight. I made my excuses and left… when you add aggression-promoting drugs to road rage and the male ego it's pretty common for things to kick off for virtually no reason.

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AlanMyles replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
10 likes

Yes, they will always have a 'reason' but it does not always invovle the person on the reciveing end e.g. the proverbial kicking the dog. 

When the pratfall guy tried to kick me, his reason was that I knocked on the window of another car, in his head he clearly saw trying to kick an actualy person as less a thing than knocking of a door. (Personally, i fear for his amazon delivery guy.)

An apparent unprovoked attack may well be exactly that to the victim.

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Rendel Harris replied to AlanMyles | 1 year ago
9 likes

AlanMyles wrote:

When the pratfall guy tried to kick me, his reason was that I knocked on the window of another car, in his head he clearly saw trying to kick an actualy person as less a thing than knocking of a door.

A certain type of person loves nothing better than being able to use being a "white knight" as an excuse to start something – not long ago a taxi driver started yelling at me for "having a go at a woman on her own you bloody coward, come and have a go here if you think you're all that" when I spoke to a lady in her car at the lights; in fact I was politely telling her that one of her brakelights was out and she might want to get it fixed before she got a fine.

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Eton Rifle replied to AlanMyles | 1 year ago
1 like

Buddy, was that you that captured the rear camera footage of the twat trying to kick a cyclist but fell on his arse instead?

If so, did you report it to the cops? Clear case of assault.

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Saw that last night. I'm sure there were various comments on the echo site but there is nothing there now.

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