Police in Bristol have launched an appeal for witnesses after a female cyclist was assaulted by a motorist, who followed her before attacking her and kicking her bike after she gestured for the driver to give her space on the road, in a shocking road race incident.
According to Avon and Somerset Police, the 20-year-old cyclist was riding on Bristol’s Shaldon Road, at about 11.20am on Wednesday 10 April, when she attempted to warn the driver of a black Land Rover Discovery that he was driving too closely to her.
The cyclist’s gesture, however, appears to have incensed the motorist – a man in his late 50s or early 60s – who then followed the 20-year-old before getting out of his car and assaulting her.
> Police appeal over "serious assault" that saw cyclist pushed from bike by car passenger
The man also kicked the cyclist’s bike and shouted obscenities at her during the alarming road rage attack.
The motorist eventually drove off after three women came to the victim’s aid.
As part of their appeal for witnesses and footage of the incident, Avon and Somerset Police have described the attacker as white, 6ft tall, bald, and with a greying goatee beard. He was also wearing jeans and a t-shirt at the time of the assault.
Anyone who has any information has been asked to contact Avon and Somerset Police by calling 101 and providing the reference number: 5224099814.
Unfortunately, similar attacks on female cyclists in the UK are nothing new. In December, we reported that a passing motorist verbally abused and repeatedly swerved his vehicle at a female cyclist in an unprovoked attack in Pendle, Lancashire.
“The road in that location is both fast and wide and it’s very unlikely a passing motorist would even be slightly inconvenienced by the presence of a cyclist – not that this would be a valid excuse,” the cyclist’s husband, who was riding with her on the day of the alleged assault but had dropped back after experiencing a mechanical issue when the attack took place, told road.cc.
“Yet the driver pulled alongside my wife and leaned over the passenger seat of his car and began verbally abusing her for being a cyclist. Once he’d finished doing so, he then used his vehicle to swerve at her, forcing her towards the kerb, multiple times.
“My opinion is that this is not simply a public order offence, but under CPS guidelines would constitute assault with a vehicle.”
However, despite the severity of the incident, an error made by police staff at the time the incident was reported – which saw a control room operator mistakenly close the cyclists’ initial report, delaying the investigation – led to the driver escaping punishment for actions described by the cyclist’s husband as “beyond abusive”.
Last October, a West Midlands-based mum-of-two, who was cycling to school with her children, was assaulted by a driver who was apparently frustrated that he had been unable to overtake them on a road lined with parked cars, with the motorist telling the children that he was going to “beat up” their mother before attempting to damage her bike.
And in January, the shocking extent to which women cycling in London face a constant barrage of verbal and physical abuse, sexual harassment, and intimidation from motorists and other road users was laid bare in a revealing report from the London Cycling Campaign, which found that nine out of ten women who ride their bikes in the capital have experienced abuse, with over one in five claiming that such experiences forced them, at least temporarily, to give up cycling.
The report, titled ‘What Stops Women Cycling in London?’, was based on a survey of over 1,000 women who cycle in London, 77 per cent of whom say they experience harassment and intimidation at least once a month.
According to the report, “get off the road” was by far the most common form of verbal abuse aimed at women cycling, while taunts of “bitch” and “slut”, unsolicited photos and sexual comments, groping or slapping when stopped at traffic lights, and accusations of poor parenting when cycling with children were also appallingly prevalent.