Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Almost Doored From Behind

This was a first.

almost doored from behind from Bikesafer on Vimeo.




A little Honda comes up behind me, moves over what seems like a safe distance, until the passenger decides to open the door just as he passes me.



He got close enough to scare the crap out of me which I'm sure was his intent. Then they turn into the gas station 150 feet up the road, so I pull into the station behind them to try and get a license number and ID the passenger. The driver doesn't even get out of the car, but genius passenger gets out and tells me that since I don't have a license plate, I can't be on the road and that I was in the way of his door so too bad for me. I'd like to think if I went to the police with this something would come of it other than me getting another ticket, but my experience tells me otherwise. It seems pretty clear by his actions and his statements to me that it was his intent to force me off the road. Let's see using the door of a 1000 pound car to push someone off the road going 20 mph. I think that's recklessly endangering safety at the least. I'm still debating whether to file a complaint.

11 comments:

Grendel said...

File the complaint!!! And the car weighs closer to 3000 to 3500 pounds--definitely assault with a deadly weapon.

Il Bruce said...

Do it. You have video evidence. THe cops will find it hard to ignore that.

Swerdna said...

File a complaint.

Swerdna said...

No. On second thought...
Do what you want to do.
For me, that would be filing a complaint with the police. The police will not pursue it, but there will be some ticker somewhere that will get incremented... Increment the count of incidents of violence against bicyclist: check.
After the police fail to pursue it and admit as much... then you take the video to the local newspaper and suggest a story on the police failing to follow up.
After the newspaper tells you that they will do no such thing, you write a letter to the editor.

I'm glad you are okay. I don't envy you the experience that you had.

Anonymous said...

File the complaint on behalf of all the other cyclists this idiot has tried the same thing with.

Apex_Commuter said...

Don't think twice about it!!! File a complaint immediately!

Invisible Hand said...

If you have the time, please file a complaint.

Anonymous said...

Did you ever file the complaint?

Anonymous said...

Wow. That is frightening. I read about your other experiences with the police, so I don't blame you for being hesitant in wanting to deal with them again. However, as a cyclist (and father and husband) I have to ask you to bring stuff this bad to the police. This isn't a case of a bad or aggressive driver, but someone who is out to intentionally hurt other people as a "joke." One day he will hit somebody. Even if the police just talk to him it may prevent him from doing some harm. Again, I understand your reservations, but we can't let people like that get away with something so dangerous.

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone else, file a complaint or key his shit!!!!!

Unknown said...

Complaint is definitely warranted. The maliciousness of this passenger's gesture is unacceptable.