Screamed at by passing car.

Chiparus

Was out for a cycle today , my 12 year old son and wife cycling behind me ( 40 mt).

Close to home I hear this scream/shout. My wife and son tell me that one of the cars a rear seat passenger put his head out the window and had shouted something to scare /frighten my son.

I have the incident recorded on camera, ( fly6) and now have the reg of the car .

What would be the best next step?

rollingscone

Chiparus wrote: »

Was out for a cycle today , my 12 year old son and wife cycling behind me ( 40 mt).

Close to home I hear this scream/shout. My wife and son tell me that one of the cars a rear seat passenger put his head out the window and had shouted something to scare /frighten my son.

I have the incident recorded on camera, ( fly6) and now have the reg of the car .

What would be the best next step?

Garda traffic watch.

kneemos

Doubt the guards will give a Shoite in fairness.
It happens from time to time,ignore it would be my advice.

CarrickMcJoe

Depends on the guard. He/she may just call to driver just to give them a scare.

t'bear

Chiparus wrote: »

Was out for a cycle today , my 12 year old son and wife cycling behind me ( 40 mt).

Close to home I hear this scream/shout. My wife and son tell me that one of the cars a rear seat passenger put his head out the window and had shouted something to scare /frighten my son.

I have the incident recorded on camera, ( fly6) and now have the reg of the car .

What would be the best next step?

As above. Traffic watch. What they did was dangerous if they follow up and warn them it will stop it from happening to someone else

Chiparus

Cool , will ring the guards tomorrow, if nothing done I will upload the video then.

HivemindXX

t'bear wrote: »

As above. Traffic watch. What they did was dangerous if they follow up and warn them it will stop it from happening to someone else

Agreed. You need to report dickheads like this. I wouldn't expect very much to come of it but you never know.

minterno

I got squirted yesterday from the back of a car,its also caught on my roam cam,I also get a few screams from passing cars now and then,got a wolf whistle from a gang of women a few years ago,(was 50 and fat at the time,not 50 anymore but still a bit fat) and caught up with them a mile out the road,there was roadworks outside killeagh at the time,the women were driving a sport car with the top down and were very sorry for their behaviour:pac:

fat bloke

Report it. It'll take em a while but they do follow up and give you a shout back. It's a small step further for that imbecile to graduate to sticking his arms out to strike or push a rider from behind

Tenzor07

Chiparus wrote: »

Cool , will ring the guards tomorrow, if nothing done I will upload the video then.

Best thing to have done is call the local station, they would have radioed the nearest squad car to pull over the car and have a word...
Would be extremely doubtful that anything will come of it by the next day..

Idleater

Aside from the good advice to ring the guards, I would cycle behind your son with your wife in front. That is assuming you are comfortable on the bike and are able to hold your own just on the outside of the other two.

Was out with the wife on the latest additions to the family and had the usual overtake over solid lines with oncoming traffic and got the usual "learn to use the road or you'll be killed" 200m from stopped village traffic :rolleyes:

Seweryn

If you report it, make sure you get the Garda Officer's name and you need to follow up your enquiry at least once - twice a week with a phone call to the Garda station. All you want is Garda to contact yer man and tell him he was in the wrong.

CatFromHue

Report it.

These knob heads who do this ****e will get bored of just shouting at people soon enough and will escalate their stupidity.

531

Report it to the Gardai. These incidents are potentially very dangerous. The Gardai WILL get involved.

A couple of years ago an idiot passenger put his hand out and touched my bike. The fright was more dangerous than the physical force. I took the reg no and reported it. The Garda asked if i wanted to press charges. I asked that he ring the owner of the car and warn them.

If you have it on camera, all the better, but please report it. It might just deter them from doing it again and save some innocent cyclist from potential danger.

Diarmuid

I'd report it to traffic watch. They will follow up with the local station.

Dredd_J

Do you have the actual incident on camera, with the scream and all?
If not you dont really have anything.
Even if you do, nothing will come of it.

eeeee

This happens to me all the time on the bike, especially in warm weather. I thnk the heat goes to their heads :pac: I have had cars cross lanes of traffic to pull in beside me and should at me. Annoys the fúck out of me. I never once thought of reporting it. I'd have a path worn to the Guarda station! It should't happen though, ignorant little scrotes. Report them. Is it illegal/reportbale though? I never thought it was.

James 007

Chiparus wrote: »

Was out for a cycle today , my 12 year old son and wife cycling behind me ( 40 mt).

Close to home I hear this scream/shout. My wife and son tell me that one of the cars a rear seat passenger put his head out the window and had shouted something to scare /frighten my son.

I have the incident recorded on camera, ( fly6) and now have the reg of the car .

What would be the best next step?

Chiparus, I had a similar incident with a black car in the wicklow area. I think I was coming down the Sally Gap or Wicklow Gap at the time. Ridiculous imature arseholes as far as I could make out.

Diarmuid

Dredd_J wrote: »

Do you have the actual incident on camera, with the scream and all?
If not you dont really have anything.
Even if you do, nothing will come of it.

That's not true. I've reported traffic incidents to TrafficWatch previously with no video evidence and action was taken.

rollingscone

gadetra wrote: »

This happens to me all the time on the bike, especially in warm weather. I thnk the heat goes to their heads :pac: I have had cars cross lanes of traffic to pull in beside me and should at me. Annoys the fúck out of me. I never once thought of reporting it. I'd have a path worn to the Guarda station! It should't happen though, ignorant little scrotes. Report them. Is it illegal/reportbale though? I never thought it was.

1. This was done to a child who is a particularly vulnerable road user (under proper adult supervision, to be clear I have zero issue with the OP).

2. If spitting on someone can be classed as assault then I can't see why doing something similarly malicious with considerably greater risk of harm can't be. Gardai are allowed a lot of discretion in how they handle things and often come up with creative means to deal with anti-social behaviour, for instance threatening to prosecute the driver as they are ultimately held responsible for the actions of their passengers.

fixie fox

Dredd_J wrote: »

Do you have the actual incident on camera, with the scream and all?
If not you dont really have anything.
Even if you do, nothing will come of it.

He has three witnesses. There was justice before video.

Chiparus

Dredd_J wrote: »

Do you have the actual incident on camera, with the scream and all?
If not you dont really have anything.
Even if you do, nothing will come of it.

Yep I have video , and my wife and son saw it, I only heard it. The scream does not sound as loud on the video though but it was loud and designed to scare.

Wife will call the guards tomorrow.

charcoal blue

Hope your son's ok Chiparus. You should report it but based on my experience I doubt much will come of it.

Somebody attempted to kick me off my bike last week, I could see something was coming so had braked as hard as I could and then swerved up onto the grass verge so he missed me. I had just passed a Guard on traffic duty about 20 ft away so I went back to him - his response as I pointed to the guy (who was an adult): "well he didn't make contact with your bike so there's not much I can do"...after seeing my reaction, and me blathering about this guy potentially killing somebody, he then said he'd "radio and send a car over to look for them" at this stage they were hopping a fence.

I've had a few incidents of people shouting and throwing things that missed etc, the only other time I've contacted the Guards was when I had eggs thrown at me and I nearly came off the bike, one leaving a bruise for weeks (who knew eggs could do damage!). The Guards did, apparently, drive out to the place it happened, found the kids who did it and said that as they were under age there was nothing they could do.

I totally understand the Guards are busy and probably have better things to be doing but this kind of messing could definitely end up with somebody getting killed and it seems to be tolerated and just looked on as "messing".

Dredd_J

Diarmuid wrote: »

That's not true. I've reported traffic incidents to TrafficWatch previously with no video evidence and action was taken.

I had the gardai call to my house about a complaint made about my driving once. I just said, have you any proof that an offence was committed other than another road user accusing me? No they said. So why are you here, I said, and before you go accusing me, please provide proof of the offence. They made their excuses and left.
Im sure they got back to the person who made the call and told them that action had been taken.

Im just saying that proof of the offence is required. Either film or independent witnesses.

markpb

Dredd_J wrote: »

Im just saying that proof of the offence is required. Either film or independent witnesses.

That's not entirely true - they _could_ decide to prosecute based on the testimony of the witness and leave it up to the judge to decide.

CatFromHue

Dredd_J wrote: »

I had the gardai call to my house about a complaint made about my driving once. I just said, have you any proof that an offence was committed other than another road user accusing me? No they said. So why are you here, I said, and before you go accusing me, please provide proof of the offence. They made their excuses and left.
Im sure they got back to the person who made the call and told them that action had been taken.

Im just saying that proof of the offence is required. Either film or independent witnesses.

That's still better than nothing happening though.

I'm sure the people who did this never thought that there'd be any chance of them being caught so a Garda calling out to them might cop them on a bit.

Dredd_J

markpb wrote: »

That's not entirely true - they _could_ decide to prosecute based on the testimony of the witness and leave it up to the judge to decide.

So how likely do you think that is?

tenifan

Upload it to youtube, and publicly post it to facebook. Ask people to share it and to identify the owner of the car.

cython

tenifan wrote: »

Upload it to youtube, and publicly post it to facebook. Ask people to share it and to identify the owner of the car.

If you have any hope of pursuing this through legal channels, do not do the above!! If you report this and for whatever reason it was pursued to prosecution (unlikely by all accounts, but still), posting the video online could be viewed as prejudicing the case (probably not the exact correct term, but the idea should come across).

Besides, if the reg is visible, the Gardai can already identify the car, so unless you plan on some vigilante justice, or just public shaming instead of proper channels, the above will achieve nothing.

Jawgap

Dredd_J wrote: »

I had the gardai call to my house about a complaint made about my driving once. I just said, have you any proof that an offence was committed other than another road user accusing me? No they said. So why are you here, I said, and before you go accusing me, please provide proof of the offence. They made their excuses and left.
Im sure they got back to the person who made the call and told them that action had been taken.

Im just saying that proof of the offence is required. Either film or independent witnesses.

Report it. You're entitled to and the Guards will weigh up the evidence you provide and decide if an offence has been committed.

I had a situation where I was run off the road, and the Guards (Traffic Corps) were very straight up about it. They said it was unlikely they could get him for what he did to me (lack of witnesses), then he added "but we can always get him for something else."

Jawgap

markpb wrote: »

That's not entirely true - they _could_ decide to prosecute based on the testimony of the witness and leave it up to the judge to decide.

Dredd_J wrote: »

So how likely do you think that is?

Quite likely. In fact it happens fairly regularly.

I was in the District Court last year (as a witness for something else) and a guy was being prosecuted for failing to stop for a warden controlled crossing (a lollipop man / lady) - the warden was the sole witness.

The driver started some spiel about wardens not being entitled to stop traffic and the judge cut him off at the knees (you do have to stop for them).

He was about to fine him €250 when the Guard who had investigated the offence chipped in to tell the judge there were kids on the crossing when laddo went through - judge doubled the fine and gave him 4 points for his trouble.

seamus

Dredd_J wrote: »

Im just saying that proof of the offence is required. Either film or independent witnesses.

Not necessarily. If a Garda considers you to be a credible witness, he can proceed with a prosecution based on your statement and nothing more, and Gardai have been successful in the past on this basis.

Rare enough though, in general Gardai can and do just arrive down to the person's house to tell them that their driving has been reported and they are choosing not to proceed with a prosecution this time, but that the person will go to court if they're reported again. This is basically legal willy-waving from the Garda with zero meaning in reality, but it's commonly referred to as a caution.

If not a prosecution this time, it could make the difference next time - if this is a typical gob****e, then having a previous complaint on file might be the difference between a Garda choosing to proceed with a prosecution or not.

triggermortis

I'd definitely report him. If you do nothing, then nothing will happen

superelliptic

triggermortis wrote: »

I'd definitely report him. If you do nothing, then nothing will happen

^^This

Always report these kind of incidents. Have the Traffic watch number saved on your mobile for when these kind of things happen. The Guards may not do something about it right away but if you don't report it then its guaranteed nothing will be done.

If enough people complain about these stunts then the Guards will begin to take notice. What those guys did to you was potentially very dangerous even though to them they were just "having the craic". 100% report them for it though.

Traffic Watch: 1890 205 805

Link: http://garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=111&Lang=1

Zzippy

Dredd_J wrote: »

I had the gardai call to my house about a complaint made about my driving once. I just said, have you any proof that an offence was committed other than another road user accusing me? No they said. So why are you here, I said, and before you go accusing me, please provide proof of the offence. They made their excuses and left.
Im sure they got back to the person who made the call and told them that action had been taken.

Im just saying that proof of the offence is required. Either film or independent witnesses.

That's not true, and you bluffed your way out of it that time. A person reporting your dangerous driving may have been an independent witness unaffected by what you did but concerned enough to report it. The gardai are well entitled to prosecute based on one statement from a credible witness. Consider yourself lucky..

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Dredd_J wrote: »

Do you have the actual incident on camera, with the scream and all?
If not you dont really have anything.
Even if you do, nothing will come of it.

This is the sort of attitude that allows these gobshítes to continue their wreckless activities.

yop

Report it for sure, remember that this could have caused your wife or child to crash with the fright. Guards are definitely taking these more serious.
There was an incident last weekend with our club race, driver pulled up along side of one of the groups, had about 12 to 14 cyclists including a few juniors, lobbed a bottle into the middle of them and then pulled up behind the lead car flashing and stuck his middle finger up as he passed.
The driver wasn't held up, then as he passed some of our marshals he and his passenger gave the "Banker" salute to them.

Guards will be visiting him now this week, car is his parents. Might teach him a lesson.

keano25

Seweryn wrote: »

If you report it, make sure you get the Garda Officer's name and you need to follow up your enquiry at least once - twice a week with a phone call to the Garda station. All you want is Garda to contact yer man and tell him he was in the wrong.

That's typical of someone looking for cheap law and rarely anything gets done.

It's like this, if you want something done about it make a statement to the Gardai and go to court and let the judge sort them out.

If you don't want to go to court don't waste your time going to the Garda station. Guards can't just go knocking on people's doors accusing them of things without a statement to back it up. That day is gone thanks to the ombudsman.

Jawgap

keano25 wrote: »

That's typical of someone looking for cheap law and rarely anything gets done.

It's like this, if you want something done about it make a statement to the Gardai and go to court and let the judge sort them out.

If you don't want to go to court don't waste your time going to the Garda station. Guards can't just go knocking on people's doors accusing them of things without a statement to back it up. That day is gone thanks to the ombudsman.

the couple of times I've been involved (one ended in a prosecution for the driver, but that was actually witnessed by a Guard), the Guard will listen to your story and ask you if you are willing to make a statement and go to court if the matter goes that far.

In the first instance (ran off the road) the Guard was honest enough to say he couldn't prosecute but that he could go have a word with him (and maybe get him for something else) - he said he paid him a visit and I've no reason to doubt that he didn't. He also said the driver seemed genuinely anxious when the Traffic Corps jeep rolled into his yard.

Second time, Guard saw the driver almost wipe me out - he chased after her, stopped her, and as I arrived up he asked me to wait while he finished getting her details. He asked if I'd make a statement, I subsequently did, and when the matter went to court she eventually pleased guilty to driving without due care and attention - this was pre-penalty points so she got a fine (€400, iirc)

Then there was the piece de la resistance - out with a group one day and got severely cut up by a jeep who blew the horn, made all kinds of gestures and revved the engine. In fairness we were taking up a bit of the road.........unfortunately for the driver it was a group from the Garda cycling club and one of the chaps at the front was a Traffic Corps inspector.....one of the Traffic Corps' cars was waiting for the driver when he got home.