Post by acnedriver on Sept 1, 2022 5:29:57 GMT
A taxi driver has been handed a suspended prison sentence and disqualified from driving for two years after deliberately striking and injuring a cyclist who had slapped his car bonnet and called him a “fat f**k” during an argument concerning the motorist’s dangerous driving.
57-year-old Martin Godfrey drove into cyclist Paul Doody, throwing him off his bike and over a wall, in what the former taxi driver’s barrister described as a “moment of madness” in Cardiff last year, WalesOnline reports(link is external).
The road rage incident, which took place on 27 June 2021, occurred after Mr Doody, who was cycling on Colchester Avenue, Penylan, in the east of the Welsh capital, sensed that the motorist – in the words of prosecutor Ieuan Bennett – “was driving far too close to him, giving him no room at all”.
On Tuesday, Cardiff Crown Court heard that, after stopping at a set of traffic lights, the cyclist slapped the wing mirror of Godfrey’s Jaguar to draw the motorist’s attention to the lack of distance between the two road users. However, that warning failed to deter the taxi driver, who continued to drive alongside Doody in a manner the cyclist found “intimidating”.
Doody then smacked the bonnet of Godfrey’s car, prompting the taxi driver to shout: “Don’t touch my f*****g car”.
The cyclist replied, “You’re too f*****g close, move away, move the f**k away”, before reportedly calling the motorist a “f*****g c***” and a “fat f**k”.
Footage was then played to the court of Godfrey pulling his car to the right, away from the cyclist, before swinging to his left into Mr Doody, who was thrown over his handlebars and a nearby wall.
The cyclist suffered tenderness to his left collarbone and left shoulder joint due to the collision, as well as swelling and reduced movement in his arm.
Godfrey initially drove off after striking Doody before later returning to the scene, where he claimed to witnesses that the cyclist attacked him first. One passer-by, however, told him that “he hit your vehicle, he didn’t hit you”.
road.cc/content/news/taxi-driver-hit-cyclist-who-called-him-fat-fk-295615
57-year-old Martin Godfrey drove into cyclist Paul Doody, throwing him off his bike and over a wall, in what the former taxi driver’s barrister described as a “moment of madness” in Cardiff last year, WalesOnline reports(link is external).
The road rage incident, which took place on 27 June 2021, occurred after Mr Doody, who was cycling on Colchester Avenue, Penylan, in the east of the Welsh capital, sensed that the motorist – in the words of prosecutor Ieuan Bennett – “was driving far too close to him, giving him no room at all”.
On Tuesday, Cardiff Crown Court heard that, after stopping at a set of traffic lights, the cyclist slapped the wing mirror of Godfrey’s Jaguar to draw the motorist’s attention to the lack of distance between the two road users. However, that warning failed to deter the taxi driver, who continued to drive alongside Doody in a manner the cyclist found “intimidating”.
Doody then smacked the bonnet of Godfrey’s car, prompting the taxi driver to shout: “Don’t touch my f*****g car”.
The cyclist replied, “You’re too f*****g close, move away, move the f**k away”, before reportedly calling the motorist a “f*****g c***” and a “fat f**k”.
Footage was then played to the court of Godfrey pulling his car to the right, away from the cyclist, before swinging to his left into Mr Doody, who was thrown over his handlebars and a nearby wall.
The cyclist suffered tenderness to his left collarbone and left shoulder joint due to the collision, as well as swelling and reduced movement in his arm.
Godfrey initially drove off after striking Doody before later returning to the scene, where he claimed to witnesses that the cyclist attacked him first. One passer-by, however, told him that “he hit your vehicle, he didn’t hit you”.
road.cc/content/news/taxi-driver-hit-cyclist-who-called-him-fat-fk-295615