Author Topic: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?  (Read 4460 times)

"Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« on: 02 May, 2019, 08:19:16 pm »
A shocking case of what is being described by the police as a "hit and run" (but looks to me more like attempted murder) captured on CCTV.  This is especially disturbing for me as it's on a stretch of my routine training route.

A telling piece from the article:

The police are investigating but at this time have not made any arrests. After being told to obtain the CCTV himself, Josh immediately passed it to investigating officers.

Warning:  the video is truly horrific

https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/swain-s-lane-hit-and-run-shocking-footage-revealed-as-injured-archway-cyclist-speaks-out-1-6027987
The sound of one pannier flapping

hellymedic

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #1 on: 02 May, 2019, 08:36:50 pm »
I read of this story before you posted it.

You have a good point though I hadn't considered this possibility.

Pingu

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #2 on: 02 May, 2019, 10:11:56 pm »
Quote
The video – which you can watch above, some may find it distressing – shows the black convertible BMW coming down Swain's Lane towards the roundabout at its junction with Highgate Road.

Driving on the wrong side of the road, it smashes into Josh, sending him flying, and barely slows down.

Another one of those rogue driverless cars  :demon:

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #3 on: 02 May, 2019, 10:20:27 pm »
Bloody hell!

I expected someone swerving at a cyclist after an argument or altercation but that video's something else entirely.

That's scary. No apparent reaction from the driver which makes it seem like it was intended rather than 'drifting' into the wrong lane by accident. Not that a drift of that magnitude wouldn't be a scary bit of driving anyway.
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Pingu

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #4 on: 02 May, 2019, 10:33:41 pm »
When using an object that weighs a tonne or more in such a manner, surely one of the predictable outcomes is the death or serious injury of the victim?

Jaded

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #5 on: 02 May, 2019, 10:46:50 pm »
We need HSE standards applying to people driving cars.
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #6 on: 02 May, 2019, 10:58:55 pm »
...

The police are investigating but at this time have not made any arrests. After being told to obtain the CCTV himself, Josh immediately passed it to investigating officers.

...

Another recent case of having to aid a failing police service? 
Mum found CCTV of daughter's hit-and-run in Northampton  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-48066573
Quote
She said it was "fairly disheartening" police had not contacted the shops as they said they would.

 :-\



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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #7 on: 03 May, 2019, 09:25:18 am »
I think it was accidental rather than deliberate - the driver swerved back onto the correct side of the road immediately after the impact, rather than continuing on the wrong side as they could easily have done. Distraction, drugs, booze, who knows.
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ian

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #8 on: 03 May, 2019, 10:01:04 am »
Honestly, I think we know what will happen. The police will either fail to trace the driver, or the registered owner will claim to not know who was driving the car, and if it gets to court, the driver will be of 'good character' who through a momentary lapse of attention thought he'd hit a large pigeon, but didn't stop to check because he was off to visit is mum (bless her) in hospital were she was recovering after a bunion-removal operation. And anyway, I'm sure the cyclist was somehow at fault or came out of nowhere. If, on the off-chance, there's a prosecutorial success then it'll be mere 'careless' driving and a minimal sentence and concurrent driving ban. The driver will back on the road within a year.

But, to be honest, the Met probably couldn't find their own packed lunch in the station fridge, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #9 on: 03 May, 2019, 10:08:50 am »
Momentary lapse of the Nokia kind.

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #10 on: 04 May, 2019, 08:10:52 am »
“Accidental”? Never in a million years. Whilst the driver may not set out to kill the cyclist, that was no accident.
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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #11 on: 04 May, 2019, 10:54:18 am »
I don't think a murder charge would stick, because that requires premeditation  I think. The driver couldn't have known that particular cyclist was going to be coming round that corner at that time. Maybe a prosecutor could argue that the driver set out intending to kill a random cyclist.

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #12 on: 06 May, 2019, 10:59:13 pm »
Honestly, I think we know what will happen. The police will either fail to trace the driver, or the registered owner will claim to not know who was driving the car, and if it gets to court, the driver will be of 'good character' who through a momentary lapse of attention thought he'd hit a large pigeon, but didn't stop to check because he was off to visit is mum (bless her) in hospital were she was recovering after a bunion-removal operation. And anyway, I'm sure the cyclist was somehow at fault or came out of nowhere. If, on the off-chance, there's a prosecutorial success then it'll be mere 'careless' driving and a minimal sentence and concurrent driving ban. The driver will back on the road within a year.
This.

Makes you wonder whether we should stop campaigning, donating for the cause and instead just chip in to pay a hit-man to deal with instances of  "careless" driving.
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Torslanda

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #13 on: 07 May, 2019, 08:50:48 am »
If you're serious then hit them where it hurts.

Just burn the car ...
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #14 on: 07 May, 2019, 09:55:37 am »
They've arrested someone:

http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-charged-following-fail-to-stop-collision-in-swains-lane-368195

Name and address are there if fd3 wants to move things along.

ian

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #15 on: 07 May, 2019, 12:26:23 pm »
I don't think a murder charge would stick, because that requires premeditation  I think. The driver couldn't have known that particular cyclist was going to be coming round that corner at that time. Maybe a prosecutor could argue that the driver set out intending to kill a random cyclist.

That's the thing though – drivers don't intend to cause harm when they drive too fast, give a cyclist or pedestrian a fright, make a phone call, have a faff in the glove compartment etc. but it's an unfortunate corollary of operating tonnes of metal at speed, something the law (and society) seem unwilling to accept. Everything around driving is about the mitigation of perceived risk to the driver, from the absent-driver reportage that has cars themselves rampaging to those 'careless driving' fatal oopsy moments.

Facetiousness apart, now this driver has been arrested, you can pretty much write the rest of the story and the ending won't be a surprise.

Redlight

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #16 on: 07 May, 2019, 12:56:38 pm »

Facetiousness apart, now this driver has been arrested, you can pretty much write the rest of the story and the ending won't be a surprise.

Being kept in custody, if I have understood the report correctly.  I imagine that's quite unusual. 

(But we should probably all stop commenting now, at least on an open part of the forum.)
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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #17 on: 08 May, 2019, 03:17:35 pm »
If you're serious then hit them where it hurts.

Just burn the car ...
I think in the Netherlands they have a system whereby fines for bad driving scale with the cost of your car, too war on motorists for Blighty.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #18 on: 09 May, 2019, 02:37:18 pm »
One or more Scandiwegian nation has a scheme whereby traffic fines are scaled according to the driver's net worth, such that some chap clocked at R17 in a Konigsegg got landed with a bill for ~ €250k.  That'll learn 'im.
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Regulator

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #19 on: 15 May, 2019, 04:27:29 pm »
One or more Scandiwegian nation has a scheme whereby traffic fines are scaled according to the driver's net worth, such that some chap clocked at R17 in a Konigsegg got landed with a bill for ~ €250k.  That'll learn 'im.

It was a Swedish driver, who got caught in Switzerland, and fined €650,000.
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handcyclist

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #20 on: 15 May, 2019, 08:16:57 pm »
I think in the Netherlands they have a system whereby fines for bad driving scale with the cost of your car, too war on motorists for Blighty.

Nope, similar here in theory.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/16/ant-mcpartlin-arrives-court-face-drink-drive-charge-crash/
Doubt is is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #21 on: 15 May, 2019, 08:21:44 pm »
This has been the case (sort of) in the UK for a long time.
In about 1992 I was done for speeding (70.x in roadworks on the M5 where there was a 50 limit).
Due to my marriage having just broken up, I was staying with friends, so had no living expenses to speak of. On a salary of ~15k I was fined ~£250. (and 5 points)
When I phoned my insurers to tell them the woman on the other end of the phone was most surprised at the size of the fine until I explained.
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Wycombewheeler

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Re: "Hit and run" or attempted murder?
« Reply #22 on: 22 May, 2019, 10:05:54 pm »
If you're serious then hit them where it hurts.

Just burn the car ...
I think you mean decommission the lethal weapon

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