Police in Scotland are investigating after the passenger of a passing white van allegedly reached out and punched two cyclists on a rural road before fleeing the scene yesterday afternoon.

Emergency services were called following the incident, which took place on Lunan Bay Road, between Montrose and Arbroath, Angus, at around 2pm on Saturday.

Police Scotland say a man reached out of the window of a small white van as it passed a man and woman riding their bikes on the road, before punching the pair.

The driver of the van then continued towards Lunan Bay following the alleged assault. The condition of the cyclists is currently unknown.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said that officers are “appealing for anyone who may have witnessed this or may have CCTV or dash cam footage around the time of this incident”.

Witnesses are asked to contact police using the reference number CR/0259515/23.

This weekend’s alleged assault is not, unfortunately, the first time that the passenger of a moving vehicle has attempted to confront or harm cyclists on Scotland’s roads.

Earlier this year, a man was fined £200 for hitting a cyclist with a tub of hair gel, which was thrown from a moving vehicle by its passenger.

Following the incident, which took place on the coastal Greenock Road, towards Skelmorlie, in August 2022, 22-year-old Barry McCammond admitted to police that he had “lost his temper” after becoming annoyed that two men who were cycling on the road ahead had continued – albeit briefly – to ride two abreast, and that they were not, in his eyes, “moving fast enough”.

He then leaned out of the open passenger-side window of his mother’s car and threw a small tub of hair gel at them, hitting one of the cyclists in the calf and causing “pain but no injury” to the rider..

Meanwhile in Wales, in October 2022, we reported that an A&E nurse was hurt when she fell off her bike after being pelted with eggs by a car passenger as the vehicle’s driver close passed her at speed.

“It was disgusting behaviour,” Megan Brown said after the attack, which occurred on the Horseshoe Pass in North Wales.

“I was minding my own business when the car came past at speed – it must have been going 60-70mph. I looked down and saw eggs smashing. I lost my balance, swerved, and came off my bike, most likely due to the shock,” she said.

Two weeks earlier, a Yorkshire cyclist said 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”.

https://road.cc/content/news/cyclists-punched-white-van-passenger-304921