Commuting - Thrown objects

Riding to work last night i got nailed by a milkshake some kids threw at me from a speeding car.Anyone else had this experience where people are actually trying to injure you while you are riding.
Andre

Andre,

I had a whistling beer bottle go by my ear once. What goes around, comes around.

I am sure there are many fellow cyclists who will concur with your experience. Not ok.

Check this out:

www.chainguard.org/mainqr.html

See, "Cyclist Gets Last Laugh - in Court."

By the way, Lawrenceville, Georgia is basically "Atlanta."

:D

As mentioned in one of the other threads recently, I had some kids intentionally drive through and splash an enormous puddle on me once. It was like a mountain of water falling on me.

They looked through their rear window and screamed with delight.

I'll bet at least one of those kids must have thought how mean it was. I believe their memories will haunt them as they mature and that is worse punishment than anything the courts could administer.

On two unrelated occasions I had "men" in pickup trucks throw firecrackers at me when I was cycling. One hit was close enough that it scorched my hand briefly (no injury to the hand); I think both affected my hearing to some degree.

Originally posted by Andre
Riding to work last night i got nailed by a milkshake some kids threw at me from a speeding car.Anyone else had this experience where people are actually trying to injure you while you are riding.
Andre

If it ever happens again, take down the guy's # and go straight to the nearest police station. I did this a few months back when I took an egg to the back of my helmet (thread about it around here somewhere), the guy got a ticket, fine and substantial talking to from the guy he borrowed the car from. Apparently this guy didn't like being called by the police at 9.30pm.

Chris

Addendum: When you make the report to the police, decide exactly what you are going to say before you go to see them and deliver it calmly and rationally. Avoid ranting and raving as these things will not help.

Chris

I was talking with my wife this weekend about cyclists being injured by motorists throwing objects or hitting them as they drove past. She had never heard of anything like this and was appalled.

I hope most motorists are like my wife and wouldn't intentionally harm a cyclist.

Originally posted by RonH


I hope most motorists are like my wife and wouldn't intentionally harm a cyclist.

You know, to a bicyclist, an automobile looks like some terrible, loud, strong, mean, stinky monster running down the streets.

However, thar's REAL PEOPLE in them thar machines!!

I don't know that motorists themselves are so bad. It's just that we are exposed the temperments of so many drivers when we are vulnerably positioned with them on the streets.

The bullies and foolish sides of people are often reveiled when they take the mixed elixer of power and frustration.

Originally posted by mike
I don't know that motorists themselves are so bad. It's just that we are exposed the temperments of so many drivers when we are vulnerably positioned with them on the streets.


I think it is the motorists themselve who are the problem. They are the ones in control of the "big stinky monster" after all. For some reason, people seem to act differently when they get behind the wheel of a car. I know people who are perfectly rational outside the car, and as soon as they start the engine they start behaving like imbeciles.

People just need to realise that they still have to behave in a civil manner whether or not they happen to be driving at the time.

Chris

Riding to work last night i got nailed by a milkshake some kids threw at me from a speeding car.Anyone else had this experience where people are actually trying to injure you while you are riding.
Andre

Yeah I've been hit with a half a can of soda in the calf/shin area as a car of guys drove past me.

Sadly, I'm surprised it doesnt happen more often.

jeremyb

In over 35 years of riding the only thing I ever had thrown at me (besides cuss words) was a large plastic drink container filled with some sort of drink that bounced off my thigh but never discharged it's contents untill it hit the pavement. The large majority of people do not do this sort of thing, and the people in the car that did were a group of teenagers thinking they were having fun.

Any problem I run into while riding is the motorist who thinks bicycles should not be on the road or think they have the right of way, those are potentially more dangerious then some idiot throwing something.

Yeah, over the years I have had eggs, a coke can, someones slushee. Usually it's kids out late. When I work the 2-11 shift I am riding home at around midnight. I did have one small victory a couple of years ago. I had a car full of kids swerve and run me off the road. They were having such a good time that they didn't see the police officer behind them. I rode away listening to the officers first words to them. "What the F*#&@! do you think your doing"

Anybody happen to notice that this thread is 3years old?

Sadly, I'm surprised it doesnt happen more often.


It doesn't happen more often because it is not the way most people behave, plain and simple. It's only the brain-dead cowards who behave in this manner.

Anybody happen to notice that this thread is 3years old?

Thank you for making me laugh at 6 in the morning. I needed that.

Don't you guys have the right to bare arms :)

Don't you guys have the right to bare arms :)

Still a bit cold for short sleeves up North ain't it?

Nice one :)

I was hit on the right shoulder by an egg once.

It was at night time - miles from the nearest town - way out on a highway. I had my head down (the end of a 160km), and suddenly this amazing WHAM on the right shoulder. Did not really notice any traffic going past (there was only the odd car every so often), but I was hardly paying attention.

Pulled over, and felt my shoulder. Gooey stuff all over it. Since it was very dark, I could not see what it was, but it felt like blood. I thought I had been shot - but really I had no idea, but that sounded like a reasonable guess at the time.

After pulling myself together a bit (it was a real shock), I felt some eggshell, so felt a lot better - it was not blood!

But totally puzzled - how/why?? I had not experienced anything like this before, and could not really believe someone had thrown an egg at me on purpose. And we were miles from the nearrest town, so it could not really be drunken hoons driving around.

Anyway, after the ride, I mentioned it to my teenage son, and he was quite accepting. No problems. It is a common pasttime for bored car drivers it seems (first I had heard of it). They drive around and chuck eggs at joggers and the like. This made me feel a lot better actually - at least it was not ME they were after - it was just some stupid, drunken hoons being morons. It was not a personal thing.

This is a fairly rare thing here in Australia, although since then I have heard of beer bottles being thrown, etc. But fairly rare all the same.

But totally puzzled - how/why?? I had not experienced anything like this before, and could not really believe someone had thrown an egg at me on purpose. And we were miles from the nearrest town, so it could not really be drunken hoons driving around.

Happened to me once before, too. I took a number and paid a visit to my friendly local police officer.

I took a number and paid a visit to my friendly local police officer.

Unfortunately the problem here is that the car moves off so quickly it is hard to get the number. One guy in our club was hit by the side mirror of a car (on purpose). He actually chased after the guy in the car, and finally managed to get only part of the number. He did pass on as many details as he could to the police, but I do not think anything happened.

I live in an "established, upper middleclass law-abiding"
neighborhood, and one weekday evening headed homeward,
a car rolled by and a kid shot a pellet gun at me.
I didn't get hit, but they moved away, it was fairly dark and
I couldn't read the tag, and other than my screaming profane
invectives and ready to take on any number of people in the car,
what are you gonna do.
(Actually I was so enraged and ready to fight that I never thought
to attempt getting the tag#)

About ten years ago some kids ran me off the road. Luckily nothing since. However, years ago as an advisor to a high school aged youth group I was driving the group's bus on the return leg of a weekend outting. It was night time and we were on a two lane state highway.Out of the darkness in the opposing lane came a convertible. As it passed I saw a kid standing in the back seat throw something at the nose of the bus. It looked like an apple. Sure enough ten minutes later the bus was overheating, a huge hole in it's radiator. The little creeps even came by to survey their work. We reported them but they were never caught.

Four of my club's members were shot at with an air gun this last Sunday while riding, hitting three of them. The police responded to the call immediately, but I see one of our members has written the Editor of the local paper to find out why nothing has been reported. They had someone on a section of freeway here shooting other cars with a hand gun, and it made the front page.

Anybody happen to notice that this thread is 3years old?


Hey yeah man--i was just searching the archives of this forum cause im a new member of sorts and thought id bring the issue back up again. So blame me. You'd be surprised after going through the old threads/archives how many times things like "how far is your commute to work?" etc comes up---theres a lot of threads that are in contention for being a sticky thread.

later
jeremyb

I remember back in tech school in the mid-80's a runner told me some guy threw a pickle from a hamburger at him from the passenger car window while he was jogging.

I remember him sayin it cut his forehead!

Just yesterday I was cycling home from work when I felt something hit my back very hard, thinking part of the bike make have come off I stopped and looked back to see a small square white object bouncing up the road behind me, certainly nothing off the bike. Thinking no more of it I continued home and stripped off my cycling jacket brushing the wall with my back as I did so and to my horror there was a large red streak along the wall where I had touched it. Assuming it must have been blood I felt my back but no trace of injury, upon closer examination it turned out to be nothing more than 'barbecue sauce' ! Obviously some dickhead in a passing car had thrown the remains of his McDonalds/KFC dinner at me for a laugh, bastard, it took ages to clean it off my jacket :D


Cheers


FlakMonkey