I’m writing this while it’s still relatively fresh in my mind…!
I was on my daily commute this morning and riding southbound down Hampstead Road i.e. approaching the BP garage on my left hand side. Google Streeview shows my whereabouts except I was on the other side of the road:
The lights for me were red and so I would have been roughly where the bronze car is on the streetview image.
A green Ford Mondeo (Y 702 OUD), which was a MINICAB, and a black KTM motorbike were turning right out of Granby Terrace i.e. to continue in the same direction as I was heading. There had clearly been an earlier altercation as the biker was telling the guy to pull over as they came out of the junction and shouting something along the lines that he had nearly knocked him off etc etc. His manner was not particularly aggressive but he was clearly disgruntled with the Mondeo drivers actions.
The lights went green and I continued down the road with all the other traffic. The biker was trying to get the attention of the driver and get him to pull over.
We reached the junction of Cardington Street and the lights were red. This is the streetview image:
The Mondeo would have been roughly where the blue Peugeot is, the biker on the left and a blue van in the left-hand lane. The Mondeo driver, in what I can only describe as a murder attempt, accelerated and steered directly into the biker and thus straight into the side of the blue van!!!
The bike span forward with the biker entangled amongst it. The mondeo REVERSED and then proceeded to drive straight over the top of bike + biker!! The mondeo literally left the ground at this point. There were various cars behind me so plenty of witnesses to this event and plenty of people at the scene to look after the biker.
The mondeo then sped off down Cardington Street and without a seconds thought I flew straight after him saying his number plate to myself again and again. I hit about 65mph to catch up / keep up with him and had to stand on the pegs over speed bumps etc. I flashed and flashed my lights and signalled for him to pull in. In hindsight given he had just ran over one biker, this probably wasn’t the best move, but I wasn’t going to let him get away easily. Eventually he got caught up in the traffic and I made him pull in on Melton Street at the Grant Thornton offices.
At this point I didnt know what he was going to do or what was going through his mind. Fortunately another biker who had seen this turned up on the scene and parked up in front of the car…followed by a black cab. The cabbie (nice man) got out and was rightfully calling the Mondeo driver every name under the sun. At this point I’m on the phone to 999 getting the police to attend where we had apprehended the driver and I was told that a car was already en-route to the scene of the incident. Then, two guys from Addison Lee turned up who were walking to their offices and saw this happen - they just leapt in a car and had seen me give chase so figured he would get caught up in the traffic.
Various police cars and bikes etc turned up and we all gave witness statements. The police asked if we were all satisfied he was driving dangerously. The response was a unanimous yes and the driver was cuffed. The police advised me that the biker was OK and after I’d given my statement I went back to the scene to find him still there, along with loads of other witnesses. He had clocked that I was the one that initially gave chase and was incredibly thankful.
I asked him what has initially caused the altercation and it was the driver changing lanes without signalling and nearly taking him off, and then actually trying to take him out by turning right from the left lane and cutting straight in front of him!!
I seriously cannot believe this happened. It is sheer luck that the biker is alive - a foot to the left or right would have initially crushed his whole torso into the van and likewise when he was literally ran over I just dont know how he came out unscathed.
My thanks to everyone else who assisted including the police who attended promptly and dealt with the matter efficiently. Rider has my details in case of any insurance problems etc. No doubt I’ll be attending court at some point to give evidence.
Ride safe!
