SW London mum drives 4x4 at cyclist and crashes into shop Locked

[Cyclist]

A mother with a car full of children mounted the pavement, deliberately ran into a cyclist, and demolished the front of a beauty salon in a road rage row, a court heard.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/mo ... 83701.html

[peasepudding]

And another cyclist accident...

http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news ... e_station/

[MatSnow]

Not being a driver myself, I can be pious about this kind of thing. What I have noticed is the insidious psychological damage 4X4s inflict on their owners.

Research in the US has shown that the average 4x4 owner is not, as the stereotype might suggest, some rugged, all-action he-man but rather a person of timid, nervous and fearful disposition who craves above all to feel powerful. Their 4x4 gives them just the sort of battle tank to do that. They are higher off the road than anyone else, armoured against whatever threat might be posed by other road-users, and increasingly tempted to dominate and domineer under the false impression of impunity.

A 4x4 is the transport equivalent of a handgun, and its possession is often defended just as furiously as is gun ownership by the US gun lobby — never mind the hundreds of innocents, many of them children, who meet their deaths every year at the hands of losers given delusions of apocalyptic glory by their firearms.

Even in the UK, a nation less steeped in violence than the US, we see more and more incidents where 4x4 owners lose the plot and succumb to ungovernable rage. I am pretty convinced this simply would not happen were they at the wheel of a Morris Minor. My advice to 4x4 owners is to convert the damn thing to a hen-house and invest instead in therapy to build personal confidence.

The territory extending from South Ken and Chelsea south west over the river all the way to Twickenham and Richmond is hardly a Mad Max-style badland, and you really don't need a tank to do the shopping and school run.

[atbattersea]

I am in the fortunate position of being a car driver, a motorcyclist and a cyclist (and I have driven fairly large commercial vehicles as well), and what I can tell you is that most people on the roads would probably be banned or given orders for further training if their road use were properly monitored. Additionally, as this story details, many vehicles on the road are not roadworthy due to faults that range from the minor (light bulb out) to the quite serious (in this case illegal front tyres).

The cause of the first problem is that people don't seem to be able to remember what they were taught when they were learning to drive, or they never really read the highway code to start with. Or, as with many cyclists, they've never had any training at all in road use.

The cause of the second problem is that many people only seem to worry about the maintenance of their car once a year or so when they need to MOT it – where the testers are happy to fail the vehicle on the basis of really minor things that should constitute regular checks (like bulbs and wipers) or more serious things (like tyres and brake wear).

Car drivers cut-up motorcyclists and cyclists (and each other), cyclists have no road sense, don't know where they should be positioning themselves on the road and ride along without lights, motorcyclists (and especially scooter riders) cut-up cyclists and car drivers.

Things I have seen/experienced in just the past few days: cyclists trying to overtake on the left when I'm signalling to turn left, cyclist riding down the Mall late at night with no lights whatsoever, car driver on Tooting Bec Road overtaking other cars (for no apparent reason other than he/she wanted to get in front) by going the wrong way around a keep left sign island, scooter rider overtaking me in a car by going the wrong side of a keep left sign/island (while I'm driving at or close to the legal limit on a fairly narrow road), 4x4 driver bumping into me on my motorcycle (and then trying to blame me for cutting across him - when I was previously well in front of him and he hit me from behind).

[Cyclist]

She's been found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm, dangerous driving and damaging property in the incident in June last year.

She also has a previous driving offences.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/wo ... 88011.html

[Doman]

I think the fact that she has a previous conviction for drink driving tells you exactly what sort of person she is. I hope they come down on her really hard.

[Hyde Ranger]

Completely agree with AtBattersea. Ever since my husband was hit by a car that mounted the pavement at speed, we've both been really aware of how carelessly, agressively and selfishly a lot of drivers behave on the road. (To be fair, we also see a good deal of silly, 'death-wish' behaviour as my dh calls it, from pedestrians and cyclists). I think a lot of drivers could do with taking a course in courteous and safe driving, and with having it drawn to their attention that when they are behind the wheel, they are in control of a machine that could kill or injure if they are not careful. And all other road users need to be aware of this too!

[sixfootredhead]

Not being a driver myself, I can be pious about this kind of thing. What I have noticed is the insidious psychological damage 4X4s inflict on their owners.

Research in the US has shown that the average 4x4 owner is not, as the stereotype might suggest, some rugged, all-action he-man but rather a person of timid, nervous and fearful disposition who craves above all to feel powerful. Their 4x4 gives them just the sort of battle tank to do that. They are higher off the road than anyone else, armoured against whatever threat might be posed by other road-users, and increasingly tempted to dominate and domineer under the false impression of impunity.

A 4x4 is the transport equivalent of a handgun, and its possession is often defended just as furiously as is gun ownership by the US gun lobby — never mind the hundreds of innocents, many of them children, who meet their deaths every year at the hands of losers given delusions of apocalyptic glory by their firearms.

Even in the UK, a nation less steeped in violence than the US, we see more and more incidents where 4x4 owners lose the plot and succumb to ungovernable rage. I am pretty convinced this simply would not happen were they at the wheel of a Morris Minor. My advice to 4x4 owners is to convert the damn thing to a hen-house and invest instead in therapy to build personal confidence.

The territory extending from South Ken and Chelsea south west over the river all the way to Twickenham and Richmond is hardly a Mad Max-style badland, and you really don't need a tank to do the shopping and school run.

MatSnow - you are presenting a sensationalist and ridiculous argument. I am the owner of a 4x4 and a cycle and I use both (cycle more than car). I am neither timid, nervous nor fearful and I certainly don't crave power either behind the wheel of my car or on my two bicycle wheels. Yes, I like that I feel safe in my car (and that it feels safe for my two young children) as it has all the safety features one would expect of a modern SUV but I am acutely aware of road and other dangers - as any responsible driver should be and I behave accordingly. Like many 4x4 owners, I have never hit a cyclist, pedestrian, animal or otherwise and I am a responsible driver with a clean licence and a clean conscience.

I am pretty sure that if you do analyse some meaningful statistics (rather than ones that you invent for the purposes of your argument) you will find that most road deaths are caused by non-4x4 vehicles. Being an idiot in a car is not the exclusive domain of the 4x4 driver - it has to do with the person, not the vehicle.

The comparisons to handguns above is just offensive. Your attitude is immature and ill-informed.I am delighted that you are not a driver on our roads.

[sixfootredhead]

Not being a driver myself, I can be pious about this kind of thing. What I have noticed is the insidious psychological damage 4X4s inflict on their owners.

Research in the US has shown that the average 4x4 owner is not, as the stereotype might suggest, some rugged, all-action he-man but rather a person of timid, nervous and fearful disposition who craves above all to feel powerful. Their 4x4 gives them just the sort of battle tank to do that. They are higher off the road than anyone else, armoured against whatever threat might be posed by other road-users, and increasingly tempted to dominate and domineer under the false impression of impunity.

A 4x4 is the transport equivalent of a handgun, and its possession is often defended just as furiously as is gun ownership by the US gun lobby — never mind the hundreds of innocents, many of them children, who meet their deaths every year at the hands of losers given delusions of apocalyptic glory by their firearms.

Even in the UK, a nation less steeped in violence than the US, we see more and more incidents where 4x4 owners lose the plot and succumb to ungovernable rage. I am pretty convinced this simply would not happen were they at the wheel of a Morris Minor. My advice to 4x4 owners is to convert the damn thing to a hen-house and invest instead in therapy to build personal confidence.

The territory extending from South Ken and Chelsea south west over the river all the way to Twickenham and Richmond is hardly a Mad Max-style badland, and you really don't need a tank to do the shopping and school run.

MatSnow - you are presenting a sensationalist and ridiculous argument. I am the owner of a 4x4 and a cycle and I use both (cycle more than car). I am neither timid, nervous nor fearful and I certainly don't crave power either behind the wheel of my car or on my two bicycle wheels. Yes, I like that I feel safe in my car (and that it feels safe for my two young children) as it has all the safety features one would expect of a modern SUV but I am acutely aware of road and other dangers - as any responsible driver should be and I behave accordingly. Like many 4x4 owners, I have never hit a cyclist, pedestrian, animal or otherwise and I am a responsible driver with a clean licence and a clean conscience.

I am pretty sure that if you do analyse some meaningful statistics (rather than ones that you invent for the purposes of your argument) you will find that most road deaths are caused by non-4x4 vehicles. Being an idiot in a car is not the exclusive domain of the 4x4 driver - it has to do with the person, not the vehicle.

The comparisons to handguns above is just offensive. Your attitude is immature and ill-informed.I am delighted that you are not a driver on our roads.

[atbattersea]

sixfootredhead wants to take up double the space on the forum, as well as on the road.

[sixfootredhead]

sixfootredhead wants to take up double the space on the forum, as well as on the road.

Congratulations atbattersea - you have made the second most idiotic post on this thread, after MatSnow - you guys should hang out and read the Daily Mail together.

PS - Sixfootredhead hardly drives the car but cycles most places so I reckon I take up less space on the road than you think (and probably less than you).

[MatSnow]

A six-foot redhead at the wheel of a 4x4: now I am frightened!

[MatSnow]

Leaving aside the repartee, sixfootredhead, my research is not fabricated, as you say, but was undertaken by The New York Times' Keith Bradsher, based on interviews with senior figures in the US auto industry whose job it is to understand their customers.

Here is a link to a full review in Washington Review of the resulting book:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/featur ... cimer.html

If you fancy some choice quotes from the book, try:

According to market research conducted by the country's leading automakers, Bradsher reports, SUV buyers tend to be "insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors and communities. They are more restless, more sybaritic, and less social than most Americans are. They tend to like fine restaurants a lot more than off-road driving, seldom go to church and have limited interest in doing volunteer work to help others."

Or, according to David Bostwick, Chrysler's market research director: "If you have a sport utility, you can have the smoked windows, put the children in the back and pretend you're still single."

And there's the former Ford market researcher who says that SUV ownership is "about not letting anything get in your way, and at the extreme, about intimidating others to get out of your way."

And there is plenty more where that came from, including the statistic that far from protecting your kids from accidents, the 4x4's proneness to rolling over makes it statistically more likely to kill occupants than ordinary saloons.

In short, sixfootredhead, you're driving your kids around in a death-trap, for them as well as everybody else.

[atbattersea]

sixfootredhead wants to take up double the space on the forum, as well as on the road.

Congratulations atbattersea - you have made the second most idiotic post on this thread, after MatSnow - you guys should hang out and read the Daily Mail together.

PS - Sixfootredhead hardly drives the car but cycles most places so I reckon I take up less space on the road than you think (and probably less than you).

You really should calm yourself down, I was only making a little joke at you posting the same response twice.

BTW, being a cyclist doesn't immunise you against road rage - in some ways they are some of the worst: pumped-up on all that adrenaline.

[juliantenniscoach]

I'm really over about being lectured to about what vehicle I should drive. I have one of the biggest 4x4's going and it's great for many things including my business.

I don't think I'm insecure or want to be single (God forbid ). I also possess bikes for all the family and a pair of useable feet. Given that, I don't feel conflicted either.

Whatever mode of conveyance we all choose, we have a duty of care to each other to act responsibly. It's just sometimes we 'fall from grace' do we not? No one is perfect, we just have to try a little harder don't we?