Story of an assault suffered on a bike that ended “well” for me (legally)

Story of an assault suffered on a bike that ended well for me (legally)

This is the story of a curious story that happened to me on a bike (5 years ago), while I was with two other friends, and it ended just the other day, with the final sentence of the appeal court. The cyclist friends were/are two gentlemen, one in his 40s who was in the military in some special force that I don’t remember, and the other a lawyer in his 50s (so not kids, and I was 30).

If you want you can read everything or just the

tl;dr: The two people who attacked me/us were sentenced, one to 9 months, the other to 4 months, and both ordered to pay €2,500 + compensation for damages (broken glasses, broken helmet and a broken wheel).

Long story

We were riding our bikes on a road near Udine, 3 of us, in single file and I was in front, at a certain point on a side road that we had decided to take there was some construction work in progress with a sign and the usual barrier in front. At which point I turned to the others to say/ask: “but shall we try to pass anyway, maybe it’s closed only for cars?”, the others replied “no no go straight and follow the deviation”.

In the meantime I turned around it is possible that I moved those 20/30cm towards the center because you don’t notice it when you look behind. However the others later told me that I had not moved, I did not swerve and we were absolutely not side by side.

Also because I have a radar for cars that when a car approaches 4/500 meters away it makes the computer/speedometer sound and shows you the car approaching. Obviously when a car approaches I don’t move (to avoid a pothole in the asphalt for example) and if there are two of us/coupled we get in line.

Anyway, I hear the horn honking “massively” (pressed for 5 seconds, basically), so I immediately put it straight and wait for the car of the “exalted person on duty” to pass by. When the car passes by a few seconds later, they started honking again and there were two cars that passed us with their windows down, their heads out, shouting everything and doing the middle finger. By the way, one was a young girl with pink hair (and in 2019 it wasn’t as trendy as it had been in the last 1/2 years). The two cars were a Focus C-Max (the minivan, basically) and the other a slightly “tacky” Passat estate, that is, lowered, with ‘Fake Taxi’ written on the sides, spoiler and that kind of bullshit.

At which point we were not completely surprised and we said to ourselves “are they crazy? What have we done?”. Oh well! Anyway we continued (I remember that I didn’t even respond with the gesture of the arm like telling them to go to hell, because I was so surprised that I was speechless).

Anyway, a few hundred meters later there was a mobile traffic light (the one for the diversion) where they stopped, we saw them and passed them on our bikes to get close to the traffic light, and obviously we shouted things like “oh you’re crazy, what the fuck are you doing, we were even in line, etc..” the usual stuff. They responded with their various insults and that was it, I thought. The usual scene, in short, but no…

…we continued on until the traffic light, waited for the green light and set off again on a narrow road (the kind of road with detours, in other words).

Obviously we were in line and very careful not to do strange things so as not to give these people an alibi to make other scenes.

…the first car passes us (we’re going really slowly because of the detour) and I think, “Okay, he got by without being an idiot, without honking his horn for 10 minutes or shouting stuff.”

But I was wrong, he overtook me then stayed slightly close to me (about 3/4 of the rear pillar), slowed down and started to squeeze me towards the right, that is, off the road in short (there was some grass and a wall).

When I saw what he was doing I banged on his window and yelled “oh move” that usual stuff when you’re about to be knocked off the road.

At which point he heard, he slammed on the brakes, I slammed on the brakes, put my foot down, backed up a meter and passed him on the left (in the middle of the road, basically), I didn’t say anything (also because I didn’t have time to get close to his window), and here he suddenly opened the door, I managed to avoid it but he suddenly got out of the car and tried to stop me by pushing me or picking me up and throwing me across the street.

At which point a car (a Dacia) belonging to a gentleman and his wife was coming from the other side/road, and I found myself against the hood/door of the car, taking a good hit on the head (I was obviously wearing a helmet) and breaking the sunglasses I was wearing (i.e. they had broken in half and I only had one lens).

I recovered completely stunned, in the meantime the gentleman from the Dacia had gotten out of the car to understand what was happening.

I only saw that my friends had stopped with these guys and were arguing on the side of the road, in the meantime the wife of the guy I was pushed into had gotten out and was helping me, and the guy had noticed that I had dented his whole car and so he was rightly pissed off.

I didn’t follow the scene well but they told me that one of my friends took the phone to call the police, one of the two threw it on the ground while he was on the phone, in short the police heard and arrived shortly after. Also because with my friends they almost “came to blows”, luckily the soldier of the strange bodies did not react (otherwise it probably became his fault) but did the right thing: call the police.

In the meantime, these guys had gotten out of the cars and they were two guys of about 35/40 years old with their respective partners/wives and their children 5/10 years behind them.

It was an incredible scene because there was the girl with pink hair who was particularly agitated and was ranting about everything while her children asked her what was happening and she said “no nothing go back to the car”.

Or rather, these people shouted everything at us with their heads out the window while their children were sitting in the back… “”a really nice environment””.

Anyway, the police and the ambulance arrived afterwards because, again, this girl with pink hair said she felt bad because of the scene, she was about to faint, etc… a scene in short.

The ambulance didn’t do anything to her, it picked me up and took me to the emergency room nearby.

By the way, when I arrive there was always this girl who was making a racket in another room, I could hear screaming and doctors talking to each other. So I asked him “what’s going on” and one of them answered “there’s a girl who says she had an accident and she’s screaming at the doctors”, I asked “but not one with pink hair?” They “yes yes”. I “ahhh understood, don’t let me pass near that one when I go out or you’ll hear her scream even more” 🙂

Anyway, after that an ex of mine came to pick me up by car and I went back home (also because my bike was damaged).

A few days later, with the lawyer who was with me, we decided to file a complaint, also because he told me that the other car (who was behind me when I got squeezed) slammed on the brakes in front of him, he hit it and broke the front wheel.

The cause

After months the police called me to ask me various things about the fact and then nothing for 3 years, from 2019 to 2022, when the hearing was set.

Except that I received a registered letter written by the lawyer of the gentleman of the Dacia (the car I was pushed into) asking a me damages of approximately €2000 (I don’t remember the exact figures).

In all this I would have been willing to remit the complaint if they had paid me back for the helmet, glasses and the car of the man where they threw me. However I discovered that one of the two (I think the one who attacked me), had a criminal record and in these cases you cannot remit the complaint (even in the case of an agreement between the parties), which goes forward automatically.

In 2022 we went to the hearing, they were not there, there was no one to tell the truth. Only after a long delay did their lawyer arrive making a strange scene because he was late, he made the mistake of asking for some things, it seemed like he didn’t know much about the fact.

Anyway, after a few months the sentence arrives that condemns them to 8 and 4 months in prison, pay me a certain amount of money (I don’t remember how much, about 2000 euros from memory), pay the legal fees and repay the damages for the broken objects (glasses, helmet and wheel, plus the car of the poor man on which they threw me).

After a few months, these people, not satisfied, appealed… and after another 2 years, finally the final sentence arrived confirming the previous one (and they also had to pay higher legal costs).

Furthermore, an article about this fact was also published in the Messaggero Veneto, which I leave you with the photos together with the final sentence.

The end

I don’t know about you but I find it absurd that for a story like this it took 5 years of legal proceedings, I’m not saying a month but 2 years for a process like this seems enough to me, not more than double… I don’t even remember how much money they have to pay me, it’s been so long! Then you understand why for serious processes it takes 20/30 years, it’s absurd but the problem is known to everyone

Moral: if you are also in a car, in a hurry, excited, angry with cyclists, whatever… be careful because in 90% of cases the driver is wrong and cyclists in recent years have radars with cameras/dashcams on the back. And if you try to make him fall, you pass too close, you insult, etc… this is a story of what happens.

If there are two cyclists side by side, which annoys me too when I ride obviously and it’s wrong, honk to warn them and wait, or if you have a clear path pass but I don’t advise you to pass close to them “to annoy them” or yell at them. Because if you do something else and some mess happens I think you’ll have a worse time if the cyclists weren’t doing anything. Also because in pairs you can.

Then if you find a group of 15 people scattered in the middle of the street who won’t move even if you play, well you can shout anything at them.

That is, it’s not as if because two cyclists make a mistake and should ride side by side, you make an even bigger mistake to make them understand.

If a man/woman is old and slow when crossing the street, then you hit him/her to make him/her understand that “you are stronger because you are in the car”.

An incredible scene once happened to me: I was driving (with two police friends) slowly up a hill in the middle of nowhere, two of us talking side by side, at a certain point we heard a car coming so we got in line but this guy kept honking, we were shocked, well he immediately overtook us, pulled up alongside us with his window down and said to us: “what the fuck are you doing standing in single file like sheep?”… I was so surprised by the fact that he was complaining because we were in line that I couldn’t even answer, haha, I thought to myself “what the fuck… incredible”.

Then one of my friends pulled up alongside him and they talked about things from the window but from what I understood this guy was a little drunk already at noon, probably coming back from a round of bars/osterie. Luckily he didn’t iron us.

Okay, let’s get the cyclist VS motorist rage going in the comments 😁

(I wrote quickly with my phone while walking, there may be mistakes but the meaning is clear)