Splish-splash - Deliberate spray from a car's windscreen-wash

robfitz

RainyDay wrote:

So where do I go from here? I'm not calling for capital punishment, but I do think he should at least get a visit from the Gardai. I was planning on calling the local community Gardai (I remember a newspaper article from some time back talking about his cycling experience) to see if he would follow up. Other suggestions are welcome.

Try calling Traffic Watch on 1890 205805 and make a compliant. It's not very prominent on [url=ttp://www.garda.ie/angarda/statlinks/misc.html]Garda[/url] website.

You could also press for a charge of assault:

Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997

Assault.
2.—(1) A person shall be guilty of the offence of assault who, without lawful excuse, intentionally or recklessly—
( a ) directly or indirectly applies force to or causes an impact on the body of another, or
...
(2) In subsection (1)(a), "force" includes—
...
( b ) application of matter in solid liquid or gaseous form.
...

Thinking about it I've had water thrown at on me by passing cars on two occasions (I think both times on the Goatstown Road) while cycling home at night. And another time I had a glass bottle throw at me which smashed and cut my leg, I really should have called the Gardai for that one.

daymobrew

Jeez lads, these are scary stories.
I've not been the victim of any unprovoked stuff like this, until this evening.
Cycling up Fassaugh Ave in Cabra. Firstly a guy throws something at me from across the road. Missed.
A few hundred metres up the road a car is flying down the road toward me, indicating that he is going to turn right, across me. He starts skidding and the car veering toward me. I stopped to avoid a collision. The guy then drives on - he didn't turn right.
As I pretended to ring the cops another in-bred throws something at me from across the road. It landed a bit closer than the other guy and it seemed like it was a small rock. WTF??

I dropped into Cabra Garda station and told them that there were lads "acting the bollix" (Garda's words) and he'd send a car out to move them along.
We give them dole money and they're still assholes. They should be grateful to show paying their way. :rolleyes:

mockerydawg

Similar thing happened to me in ballinlough, car pulled up slowly and threw a load of water over me. Took the reg, make and details and reported it to Trafficwatch. It felt extra good as it was a Learner car. I hadn't it in me to catch them so a call from the guards would have to do. Made me feel a lot better about it too

bionic.laura

Best story I ever heard was this guy I used to work with. A taxi driver nearly knocked him off the bike so he caught up with him and used his metal pedal to scratch the whole side of the car. The driver went mental and even tried chasing him up a one way street all the time screaming that he knew his jacket and that next time he saw him he'd kill him.
The guy got into work and told us the story and went off to buy a new cycling jacket that day

rubadub

uberwolf wrote:

lads I know tell a tale of carrying 2 water bottles on the commute, one filled with cement.

anyway, someone had received this advice and subsequently lobbed the bottle through the back window of an offender.

4 plains clothes hopped out

He threw it in the back window of the cop car? what had they done to him?

The point of a lot of these

no one giving out about 'oh you shouldnt damage cars thats not on...'

is that there is no way the motorists will report them, I wouldnt cause damage if I thought they would report me. If somebody did something really bad I would love to destroy the car, handlebar in the window, pepper spray in, then open every door and slam them the wrong way -wrecking each door, pretty much total it.

I expect nothing much will happen if you report water sprayed at you, is there anyway of finding out where the peron lives if you get the reg?

Vegeta

ok I don't want to be a kill joy here as these stories are class and the drivers in each case were tools but I wouldn't be so open to carrying pepper spray

as far as I know it is classed as an offensive weapon here and you could get in trouble with the law for it

rubadub

Vegeta wrote:

as far as I know it is classed as an offensive weapon here and you could get in trouble with the law for it

Fair enough, I am not sure if it is classed as such, but it is also described as a defensive weapon, lots of women carry it in the US. I would sooner carry it than a knife/knuckle duster/baton/lock. In a court it would not be seen as such a vicious attack since the effects wear off after 20mins.

These people in cars are scum, they could be carrying a knife, just like a bike thief could. I would not approach them unless I knew I could fully disable them.

Some people do carry knives or batons, but they might never have the balls to use them, or worse might half use it and have it snatched and used against them. Stab a guy in self defence and you could still get 5 years, I cant see the same with pepper spray- even though it can be far more disabling to the person, for 20mins.

Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997

( b ) application of matter in solid liquid or gaseous form.

They attack you with liquid/gas you defend with the same. Courts might not like vigilantes, but they hate scum worse- and as I mentioned I cannot imagine the scumbags reporting an incident if what they did warranted it. It also has the advantage that they cannot see so will not remember your face.

Another more discrete form is extra strong tobasco sauce in a perfume atomiser- would probably go down better in court than a specific imported pepper spray can. They threw eggs at him, he threw tobasco sauce on them- doesnt seem as big a deal.

Raam

is anyone here actually seriously considering carrying pepper spray?

rubadub

King Raam wrote:

is anyone here actually seriously considering carrying pepper spray?

I do, I know several women who do too, and some taxi drivers.

blorg

You need to get a proper delivery system, something like this (prototype, even comes with an optional laser sight accessory):



I know pepper spray is popular in places like the US, you can even get handy handlebar mounts for the stuff, but often (from a touring cyclist point of view) more to protect against dogs/larger animals than people. I have never really seen the stuff around here, not sure a Dog Dazer would really work against a scumbag ;-)

Raam

this thread is getting more strange by the minute!

cunnins4

pepper spray, water guns, sharp bar ends? Why bother? What's wrong with a good old fashioned kick to the door or like quigs snr, a spray of the ole water bottle?!!!:D

kenmc

cunnins4 wrote:

What's wrong with a good old fashioned kick to the door

you have to unclip

cunnins4

kenmc wrote:

you have to unclip

Hahaha! Very true!

blorg

kenmc wrote:

you have to unclip

On a similar vein no roadie is going to be carrying around a waterbottle full of cement ;-)

The U-Lock is "traditional" for these circumstances but that's not too favoured either unless you really need it, for much the same (weight) reason.

Hungrycol

blorg wrote:

You need to get a proper delivery system, something like this (prototype, even comes with an optional laser sight accessory):



I know pepper spray is popular in places like the US, you can even get handy handlebar mounts for the stuff, but often (from a touring cyclist point of view) more to protect against dogs/larger animals than people. I have never really seen the stuff around here, not sure a Dog Dazer would really work against a scumbag ;-)

These would be so much better with paint guns like the ones used for paintballing. Yee Haw...

E@gle.

every day i go out on bike i witness some motorists do something stupid, all i do is give the middle finger and carry on cycling,

Marathon Man

I've noticed this type of behaviour increases with it getting darker earlier. The feckers seem to do it more under the cover of darkness. On Monday at around half 8 some fecker threw a mars bar at me from their car. it missed. but they seemed to find it hilarious anyway. if it was the same time in high summer and it was bright i doubt the fecker would be so brave.
Motorists interfering with cyclists stems simply from cowardice anyway.

kenmc

E@gle. wrote:

every day i go out on bike i witness some motorists do something stupid, all i do is give the middle finger and carry on cycling,

Yeah but you have to reward the good ones - occasionally someone will overtake me but allow me to pass by again before turning left in front of me. These get a 'thank you' wave to teach them they've done something good. Kinda like teaching a dog I guess....

PeadarofAodh

I just remembered the time one of the lads showed up for training looking scared out of his mind. I asked what had happened and he says slightly dazed "Some lad just threw a hammer at me!" Naturally the entire changing room exploded in laughter

Apparently he'd been cycling through Dolphin's Barn and noticed some drugged-up madman attacking a car bonnet with a hammer. The guy looked up, noticed the cyclist passing on the opposite side of the road and thought "Hey, I'll take a shot at him!" The lad said he'd never cycled so fast in his life to get away, classic!

I suppose it wouldn't be so funny if it had hit him though...

Stereophonic

I was cycling home from Hurling training one night. On the racer at a normal pace... I knew something was going to happen when I heard the engine of the car slowing down. I felt a massive thump on my right shoulder... Then the eggs were lashed out the window. I kept my head down and noticed a rock rolling on the road. They hit me with a rock then threw a few eggs and drove of laughing. Didn't get the reg number but got the car make and model, reported it. Eggs was bad enough but throwing rocks is out of the question. Initially I though something fell from the tree. I was tempted to feck my phone at the car. I think I may need to bring a rock on board but ya can't think quick enough. It all happens so fast!!!

E@gle.

another funny story i have. we were out with the club again about 10 of us. we were going at a fast pace and caught up with a tractor and a trailer full of young lad who were trowing lumps of tuft mole at us. it was a bad road so we were behind them for about 5 minutes, then we were overtaking every emptied the contents of their water bottles at them. the young lads got soaked

daymobrew

kenmc wrote:

Yeah but you have to reward the good ones - occasionally someone will overtake me but allow me to pass by again before turning left in front of me. These get a 'thank you' wave to teach them they've done something good. Kinda like teaching a dog I guess....

Seconded. I'll give a wave when someone gives a wide berth when overtaking, moves right a bit in a line of traffic to let me pass easily (on the left), doesn't pull out of a junction until I've passed (when they could have dangerously gunned it) etc.

I never give the finger but I will swear like a docker and note the reg plate.

uberwolf

blorg wrote:

On a similar vein no roadie is going to be carrying around a waterbottle full of cement ;-)

don't see why not, my training bike has the seat tube stuffed with lead.

garo

I was thinking of starting a thread about this four weeks ago. Was at the end of a 100k training spin with three others when this woman driving behind us starting honking like crazy. We were on Baldoyle road and there was a DART crossing up ahead so no idea why she was in such a hurry. Anyway, she passes us and makes a point of slowing down and telling us "You guys are going to get yourself killed." Yeah, right! The only way we would get ourselves killed us by doing what dumb motorists want us to do, that is to ride single file so that they can do all their silly overtaking maneuvers. Anyway, none of us responded and then we caught up when she was stuck at the lights turning onto the coast road. So she started honking like crazy.

On my daily commute I go through East Wall and usually it is a breeze but yesterday there was a bunch of about 15 10-12 year old boys on the road who started jeering at me and making as if to push me off the bike. I was going at some speed - so as the last one made to come dangerously close I just stuck my leg out. He got a rude shock and immediately pulled out of the push. There was no contact as I did not intend to hit him, just give him a scare. But I sure could feel the rage rising in me.

RainyDay

garo wrote:

On my daily commute I go through East Wall and usually it is a breeze but yesterday there was a bunch of about 15 10-12 year old boys on the road who started jeering at me and making as if to push me off the bike. I was going at some speed - so as the last one made to come dangerously close I just stuck my leg out. He got a rude shock and immediately pulled out of the push. There was no contact as I did not intend to hit him, just give him a scare. But I sure could feel the rage rising in me.

Having been pulled off my bike many years ago by a driver who had driven ahead and waited for me, I've decided that if anyone ever tries to bring me down again, I'm going to drive straight at them and make sure two people go down, not just one.

Did anyone hear the 'cyclists vs drivers' debate on the Life programme on Newstalk 106 this morning? I managed to get on air to try to add a bit of balance to the 'drivers = good, cyclists = bad' stuff.

delta_bravo

RainyDay wrote:

Having been pulled off my bike many years ago by a driver who had driven ahead and waited for me, I've decided that if anyone ever tries to bring me down again, I'm going to drive straight at them and make sure two people go down, not just one.

Did anyone hear the 'cyclists vs drivers' debate on the Life programme on Newstalk 106 this morning? I managed to get on air to try to add a bit of balance to the 'drivers = good, cyclists = bad' stuff.

What show was it? Would like to hear the podcast of that

oobydooby

RainyDay wrote:

Did anyone hear the 'cyclists vs drivers' debate on the Life programme on Newstalk 106 this morning? I managed to get on air to try to add a bit of balance to the 'drivers = good, cyclists = bad' stuff.

I heard a bit of it. Those shows really pi$$ me off. The presenter was alright, explaining that she cycles from time to time, but like many of these phone-in shows they provide a dangerous platform for generalisations. Was it you who rebutted the 'cyclists don't pay road tax' argument with the retort that you have a car and pay road tax but you choose to cycle? If so, well done you made a very level-headed and sensible defence of our plight.

There are a lot of spiteful bullies in our society sadly, and some of them drive cars. This thread has shocked me - I had no idea this kind of gurrier behaviour was so common. These dangerous idiots (not to mention the incompetent and careless drivers) who get a laugh out of intimidating cyclists might feel some justification from hearing some of the gombeen views on these programmes, in just the same way that racists get encouragement from these stupid shows (and the odd taxi driver). Anyway well done for countering the thoughtless ignorant bigots on the airwaves.

Hungrycol

Yeah bugs be that cyclists are given such a bad rap when not only are we better for the environment because we're not driving unnecessary petrol guzzling 4x4's to work but we're also becoming healthier and potentially less of a strain on the creaking-at-the-seams health service. Unless, of course, the car drivers decide to put us in the hospital!

HJ Simpson

Jebus my blood is boiling at the momment. Had two gobsh1tes try to pull into the left as I cycled in this moring within about 50 feet of each other. Hello! Am I invisible hardly I wear a Hi Vis vest. The first one was at Fitzwilliam sq were a guy in a BMW thought he would nip down the inside of a line of cars as I cycled past the second was a taxi who as I was right beside him decided to pull in to the kerb to let out a passanger.
My advice of being calm earlier didnt work red mist decended and even though the taxi man waved sorry my bout of trourettes came back!