A woman has attempted to run over an autistic man riding a bicycle with her Audi Q7 but instead destroyed a hairdressers

[AgaPanthers]

www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/motorist-arrested-on-suspicion-of-attempted-grievous-bodily-harm-after-autistic-cyclist-is-knocked-off-bike-in-road-rage-crash-9511055.html

Basically woman driving £££ Audi 4x4 tank around Richmond, with children in the back, has argument with autistic cyclist, and drives her car at him in attempt to kill or seriously injure. Succeeds only in demolishing the front of the hair salon.

Hopefully she gets an appropriate sentence commensurate with using a deadly weapon. Doubt it though.

Anyway I doubt she actually tried to hit him, probably just lost control of a large, unwieldy great car in the stress and kerfuffle of the situation.

So maybe an unlicenced driver?? Is that what you mean forago

Well I agree with the PP who said she should lose her licence if she drove at him aggressively - driving is a privilege - hence the word licence to drive - not a right
Also time that car drivers realised that they share the road with others, cyclists and pedestrians, they don't own it!

yes I agree. If she deliberately did that, which I doubt (the salon owner doesn't appear to think so from her tone).

I'll wait for the court case I think.

I would think she will be fined, given points and made to go on a driver awareness course.

The hairdressers will likely make a claim against her insurers for the damage done to the shop.

don't get the unlicenced bit??? Lots of people with licences drive like twats?

What does his disability got to do with it anyway? if she was driving like an idiot it makes no odds that she could see his badge or not. And she said she was sorry to the salon owner - meanwhile the cyclist was in hospital.

"What has the make of her car got to do with the price of fish?"

These cars are like tanks, they are high up, they are heavy, and they are very powerful. There's a big difference between an Audi Q7 and a Reliant Robin.

Collision testing shows that when a big car impacts with a smaller one, the occupants of the smaller vehicle are much more likely to die.

The witness reports the same, that the kids might have died in a less imposing vehicle. And perhaps it affects the psychology also. Isn't it the plot of a Simpsons' episode? Marge gets one of these things and develops road rage?

It's an appalling thing for her to done if it was deliberate but you seem slightly obsessed with her perceived wealth and seem to want to have her punished for that even more.

I can't see that 'kerfuffle' would cause you to lose control to that extent if you were licenced and in any way competent. Most people know where their brake pedal is and remember to step on it promptly if there's a problem.

My money is on temper. I hope they throw the book at her if it turns out to be so.

Also not only the cyclist but the woman herself and the 5 children are all bloody lucky that no-one was seriously hurt here. Could so easily have been many lives changed for ever by a moment of anger.

Don't like cars like tanks. Don't like road rage. Don't like people getting hurt deliberately or by accident.

But we don't actually know what happened. There's a lot of putting two and two together to make five here.

The autism is relevant because he may not react or understand things in the same way. That he may not be being rude intentionally he might just not have the skills to express himself tactfully.

What Giles said.

If she deliberately drove her vehicle at a cyclist she should be charged with attempted murder!

"It's an appalling thing for her to done if it was deliberate but you seem slightly obsessed with her perceived wealth and seem to want to have her punished for that even more. "

No, not the wealth, the tank-like car.

Agreed giles, but HE isn't the one who has a case to answer IMO. He isn't the one driving a car up the pavement, over a bike with a cyclist in place, and into a shop window. He could have been swearing like a trooper at her and calling her all the names under the sun and she would still be in the wrong.

How disgusting. I hope the poor man gets over this quickly AND her poor children! As a cyclist this is my greatest fear...that some motorist will lose the plot with me...I'm very careful not to go too slowly or to hold drivers up but now and then it can't be helped...I always pull in to let cars go past me...but I ride in the countryside so it's easy...she has NO excuse....even if she didn't know he had Autism.

Irian I think that is what Giles is getting at.

The question is what has taken us from a possible exchange of words to an appalling and lifethreatening piece of driving involving a crushed bike and a damaged shop-front?

Her loss of temper at his demeanour seems a possibility.

After all, they must have been at a halt (or very nearly) to have verbal altercation, so it isn't as though she has lost control at speed.

I don't think that the fact the cyclist is autistic is relevent. An adult is expected to control their temper. It is unnacceptable to attempt to drive a car into someone even if provoked. Her behaviour was totally and utterly out of proportion to any provocation.

She needs to go to jail and learn to control her temper. I agree that she should never be allowed behind the wheel of a car again.

I wasn't saying he had a case to answer for

Even if he had been deliberately rude or whatever (we don't know do we) I'd still say it was up to the woman without a disability and in a vehicle much more likely to hurt someone, to be the one to walk away.

Well drive safely away

So a man kicked a car with a woman and 5 children in it after an argument and he's innocent because he's autistic? Reasons aren't excuses, just like if that woman really did drive at him she has a reason, yet it doesn't excuse it.

They both sound dangerous to me. Those poor kids to witness it and I hope the hairdresser's business doesn't suffer too much.

If she saw the badge and drove at him regardless it is a further aggravating factor in an already inexcusable crime.

As the mother of a DC with AS fast approaching adulthood I am worried by stories such as these though. It is hard enough to read a situation quickly when you are NT, particularly when you have the misforune to stumble across a complete lunatic in the course of minding your own business.

Who said he was innocent?