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.

How is it dangerous to kick a 2-tonne lump of metal? Might be damaging to his foot.

Fideline: We don't know how much time there was in between the argument and the collision. It could have been at the last set of traffic lights, or anything. But for her to have run over the back wheel of the bike, hit a van and then gone through the hairdresser's bay window she must have had a fair bit of speed.

I think the weight, size and 4x4-ness of the car is relevant because a reliant robin would probably have ground to a halt when it hit the van.

rina don't be ludicrous. All she had to do was hit the central locking button and drive away to be quite safe, even if he did kick a tyre.

How is running him over with a small tank on purpose in any way comparable?

No ones said he's innocent in the sense of he shouldn't be accountable for his actions at all

But he may or may not have mis interpreted a situation or reacted appropriately, the way an NT adult would.

BUT she was in a car and had her kids with her. She should have left it.

CharmQuark If there was any time lapse she has even less of a defence, I would think.

"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."

Yes. Thanks for that. I'm not asking about the size, weight, power or impact of various cars in accidents on the passengers of smaller vehicles.

I'm asking how the fact that her car was an Audi Q7 is relevant to the story, which is surely about the behaviour and actions of those concerned. Do you think her behaviour would have been more acceptable if she'd been driving a Reliant Robin?

Because otherwise it just sounds like you are impersonating a Daily Mail journalist and using entirely irrelevant details to embellish your story and make it seem more outrageous.

Someone's gotta be the bigger person and walk away. She could have done that.

I think that psychologically in that vehicle, you would feel almost invulnerable. I don't think it's reasonable to assess an angry man on a bicycle as a threat in that scenario.

It's relevant because they type of vehicle may well have given her the idea that damage would be minimal whatever she did. And that it would keep her kids safer.

Article says that kids would have been killed in a different kind of car

I'm asking how the fact that her car was an Audi Q7 is relevant to the story, which is surely about the behaviour and actions of those concerned. Do you think her behaviour would have been more acceptable if she'd been driving a Reliant Robin?

No 4x4 experience here but, if anything, I am even more careful when driving an MPV than a little 1.2 because one is conscious of the added weight, power, momentum one is weilding. That's the point surely?

I suppose if the argument had taken place there and then she could have tried to accelerate away very fast - and lost control.

The type of car is still relevant, to have had the 'oomph' to accelerate fast enough in a v short distance to hit cyclist, van and shop.

wielding^

Accelerating away at sufficient speed to damage the van and still cross pavement and damage shopfront would sound quite reckless enough but she wrecked his bike in the process which seems significant.

"Article says that kids would have been killed in a different kind of car" To be fair the hairdresser offered that opinion.

The pictures of the car don't really suggest that children sitting in the back seat, wearing seat belts, would have died.

I.e. she wasn't accelerating away from the cyclist was she? She must have accelerated OVER him.

Yes, running over the bike is pretty damning. I'm just thinking of how she can have done all that damage from a standing start after an argument.

We need an alleged-crime reconstruction.

I feel very sorry for the cyclist and for the people who were in the shop at the time. Must have been terrifying.

But... years ago, a driver lost control of their car and drove into the front entrance of the building I used to work in. No other car involved. It was a situation involving accidentally pressing the accelerator instead of the break, and I think a great deal of panic. The driver did the wrong thing in the circumstances (and yes, I think they should have lost their licence over the accident, I don't know if they did) but none of it was intentional.

If she'd got all het up and upset having an altercation with someone, I think it's not outside the realms of possibility that she put her foot down a bit more than usual in order to drive off, lost control of the vehicle, nearly hit a few people and ended up hitting a shop. She may have tried to run him over, but I really hope that wasn't the case with 5 children in the car.

Just very glad that no one was hurt.

Whatever his role in the row, the cyclist must have been terrified.

Well I am trying to see another side here but I'm honestly struggling to come up with a plausible version from which she emerges as an adequate motorist/fit mother/reasonable human being/innocent victim of circumstance.

Whatever his role in the row, the cyclist must have been terrified.

Agreed

Well part of him I'm guessing everlong. We know the back wheel of his bike was mangled and we know he was hospitalised, so it's fair to guess he was hit and also fair to provisionally contradict the notion that she was speeding AWAY from him.

"adequate motorist/fit mother/reasonable human being/innocent victim of circumstance."

It will be interesting to hear what she says in court.

And will the police interview the children, I wonder?

"...and then Mummy said the F word and shouted 'your toast' which we thought was silly because we had asked for a packet of crisps, not toast.."

Not necessarily everlong. A bus ran over a man locally a couple of years ago and he lost both his legs but didnt die.