2011-09-29 - Rider Assault, Notting Hill Gate

I was just rolling up to the ASL at the Notting Hill Gate junction, heading east, when a fight broke out between a cyclist and some car drivers.

I had heard some honking and had seen a cyclist swerve as I was coming up to the junction but as I got there, two guys had got out of the car that swerved and were going for the cyclist. The cyclist pushed one of them away and into another car, at which point that car drive came out and went for the cyclist. I stepped in to pull them apart and luckily for me a massive South African guy stepped in as well to pull them apart.

The police aren't taking any action against either party as although the car drivers started it, the cyclist pushed back.

Unfortunately, one of the car drivers then started holding his lower back (really poor acting but injurylawyers4u will lap it up) and I think they're going to try to take the cyclist through civil proceedings. I had enough time to get everyone's details and pictures of the bike / car etc as well as locations of CCTV so hopefully they will show the full story.

What annoyed me most (other than the obvious behaviour of the car drivers) was the fact that apart from myself and the Saffa, everyone else who witnessed it just walked, drove or cycled away.

TL;DR - Punch up between cyclist and motorists.

good on you for being supportive. and taking photos. its suprising that none else tried to help

Not surprising, most people are complacent cnuts who will complain but do sweet fnck all to help.

Well done for getting involved.

Good man for backing him up. The fact that the cyclist pushed back is immaterial - he has the right to use reasonable force to defend himself. If he's reading this I'd advise lodging a complaint with the police. Might also be worth contacting the chap who writes The Cycling Silk as he's a) a QC and b) been taking an interest in assaults on cyclists.

Thanks all. Even Hippy didn't help... to be fair, he cycled past about 25 minutes after it had happened. Fuckin' Aussies eh?

Good man for backing him up. The fact that the cyclist pushed back is immaterial - he has the right to use reasonable force to defend himself. If he's reading this I'd advise lodging a complaint with the police. Might also be worth contacting the chap who writes The Cycling Silk as he's a) a QC and b) been taking an interest in assaults on cyclists.

I agree and so did the other witness / Police but I can understand the position the Police were put in given that neither myself nor the other witness saw the original altercation.

Thanks all. Even Hippy didn't help... to be fair, he cycled past about 25 minutes after it had happened. Fuckin' Aussies eh?

Ha! I was just reading this thinking "shit, I wonder if that was on my commute?".

I certainly wouldn't have stood by and done nothing...

I would've stolen the guys bike while he was fighting.

Did any of these drivers step out of a Jaguar?

More seriously, it's totally rubbish that he had the misfortune to encounter such people.

I'll post up an account of a court case that I wrote up recently.

good on you for being supportive. and taking photos. its suprising that none else tried to help

Not surprising, most people are complacent cnuts who will complain but do sweet fnck all to help.

Well done for getting involved.

^ this

No one gives a fuck & goes into their shell, rarely will someone genuinely wanna help

DA: The cyclist could've hit the car, tried to flee and failed.

repped for being a stand up guy.

Just seen this,
Good on you Soul for having the guts to step in to such a situation.

You are a proper gentleman

Not surprising, most people are complacent cnuts who will complain but do sweet fnck all to help...

...until it's their own loved one they're appealing for and they'll turn up tearful in front of cameras snivelling begging for others to do the right thing.

Nice one Soul for doing that - luckily I've only seen one incident like that and initially the cyclist was fronting up to the car driver, and then realised he'd bitten off more than he could chew. Anyway, lots of cyclists stop and were filming/ calling the police on their mobiles or in my case and another bloke just making sure it wasn't going to end up in fisticuffs by trying to calm the situation down. That court write up where the cab driver said that cyclists "all stick together" - WTF - what do they expect?