A female cyclist has suffered a broken collarbone, which will require surgery, after she was pushed off her bike and into a ditch by a car passenger who leant out of the vehicle’s window and shoved her while laughing and jeering.

Katie Good, an immigration lawyer who competes in Ironman and Half Ironman events, was training with friends in Kent yesterday morning, when – according to her boyfriend, fellow triathlete Olivier van den Bent-Kelly – at 11.17am a motorist “deliberately drove behind her”.

In an Instagram post (link is external), Van den Bent-Kelly said that one of the people in the vehicle then “leant out the window, and pushed her off her bike, before laughing and jeering at her as they drove away.”

The push forced Good over her handlebars and into a ditch, where she was covered in mud. The cyclist also broke her collarbone in the crash, and she will undergo surgery at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

“To be involved in what is effectively a hit and run incident or assault, and for the culprits to act in such a premeditated, malicious manner is abhorrent,” Van den Bent-Kelly said, in a post which has been shared by Good with the caption “Pretty awful day”.

“I’m furious, upset, and appalled at what happened to her. Cyclists are already vulnerable road users who are frequently unfairly treated by vehicles. To be deliberately targeted in such a way really makes me ask the question: how could aiming for a young, female cyclist in this manner ever be acceptable to anyone?

“The lack of empathy, thought or awareness shown towards Katie and her life really highlights that more drivers need educating on how dangerous their vehicles are.”

He continued: “Maybe if they knew that Katie is a seriously talented athlete: a county tennis player, county hockey player, U23 5K national champion, multiple 70.3 podium-winner, sub 10hr Ironman finisher (on debut), they’d have realised she’s an incredible human with an incredible story, and thought twice about attacking her in this way.”

Van den Brent-Kelly also said that Good was building towards this year’s Ironman World Championships, which will be held in October in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i, but that the injuries she sustained in yesterday’s crash “will impact her build towards that”.

He nevertheless added that, despite the horrifying experience, Good has remained in “amazingly high spirits so far” and that she’s “one tough cookie”.

He also confirmed that the police have been contacted and are currently investigating the attack. road.cc has contacted Kent Police for further information.

Unfortunately, Good’s traumatic incident isn’t the first time that cyclists have been targeted by car passengers in recent months.

In January, a man was fined £200 by Kilmarnock Sheriff Court for leaning out of an overtaking vehicle and hitting a cyclist with a tub of hair gel, after becoming frustrated that the cyclists were not “moving fast enough”.

Last September, a cyclist in Yorkshire feared that he could have been killed when a passenger in an overtaking car opened one of the vehicle's rear doors, hitting him on the hand.

Fortunately, Trev Walker escaped relatively physically unscathed, suffering swelling and bruising to his right hand, but said it “could easily have ended with serious injury or fatality” after a passenger sat in the rear of a passing car opened the door into him as the vehicle’s driver passed on the B6248 near Wakefield.

And in April 2021, another cyclist, this time from Ireland, said that the occupants of a vehicle “could have killed me” after he was pushed off his bike by one of its passengers – who later posted footage of the shocking incident, which happened on a mountain road near Dublin, afterwards to social media.

https://road.cc/content/news/female-cyclist-pushed-bike-laughing-car-passenger-302717

On 23/07/2023 02:45 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> A female cyclist has suffered a broken collarbone, which will require surgery, after she was pushed off her bike and into a ditch by a car passenger who leant out of the vehicle’s window and shoved her while laughing and jeering.
>
> Katie Good, an immigration lawyer who competes in Ironman and Half Ironman events, was training with friends in Kent yesterday morning, when – according to her boyfriend, fellow triathlete Olivier van den Bent-Kelly – at 11.17am a motorist “deliberately drove behind her”.

"DELIBERATELY DROVE BEHIND HER"

[Is there something with that, then? Isn't that what drivers are
expected to do when the chav on the bike "thinks" there isn't enough
room to be overtaken?]

> In an Instagram post (link is external), Van den Bent-Kelly said that one of the people in the vehicle then “leant out the window, and pushed her off her bike, before laughing and jeering at her as they drove away.”

Considering that the driver was (allegedly) "deliberately [driving]
behind her", that passenger obviously has unfeasibly long arms.

[ ... ]

> https://road.cc/content/news/female-cyclist-pushed-bike-laughing-car-passenger-302717

Ah... that lot again.

Cycloid | 355 posts | 51 min ago
0 likes
The passenger must be an absolute psycho. The drver must have been complicit and shares the guilt by joint enterprise.

Should all drivers have pass psychometric testing before getting a licence to kill?

On 23/07/2023 04:41 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
> Cycloid | 355 posts | 51 min ago
> 0 likes
>
> The passenger must be an absolute psycho.

And not only that. If he could reach the cyclist with his arms, through
the passenger window while she was travelling IN FRONT OF the car, he
must be... rather unique...

Well, either that or there's something pretty suspicious about the claim.

> The drver must have been complicit and shares the guilt by joint enterprise.

And, if any of it were true, the driver as well, perhaps.

> Should all drivers have pass psychometric testing before getting a licence to kill?

You wouldn't pass it. No chav-cyclist would. But being so unconcerned
with the safety of others that you were willing to drive across a
continent in a faulty and unsafe vehicle would rule you out at the first
hurdle.

Wouldn't it?

Owd Big 'Ead | 331 posts | 49 min ago
0 likes
Had something similar happen to me while riding out on the edge of the Peak District, near Ashbourne, last weekend. Luckily I managed to keep the bike right side up. They weren't laughing when I caught the imbeciles up a mere 5 minutes down the road at the only traffic lights in town.

To say I lost my shit would be an understatement!