The Vidette dangerous van driver has been fired after the footage showing him forcing a cyclist off the road has gone viral.
Insane driver! ?? pic.twitter.com/5NnZvHAc1H
— Cycling Today (@CyclingTodayEn) 5 mai 2017
The Director of Vidette has posted an apology on the company’s Facebook page in relation to the incident:
I am writing this letter to express my sincere apologies to the cyclist that was very unfortunate to experience a very irresponsible and dangerous move by an engineer driving one of Vidette’s vehicles on Sunday 30th April.
My wife and I are both very keen cyclist ourselves so fully appreciate the impact/trauma that a near miss like this would have on anyone in this situation.
I have now interviewed the driver and can honestly say the he is so full of remorse and fully understands how lucky he and the cyclist have been on this occasion and swears to never let himself get into a position like this again.
He stated that he was having personal problems with his family and his mind “was all over the place” and that he is so sorry.
I do believe him and could tell his apology was genuine, however we cannot condone nor let this behaviour have any place within our company.
We have decided to make an example here and to promote driver awareness going forward. He has been dismissed from immediate effect!
This experience has made me realise that I can do something to help reduce this sort of behaviour on our roads so have decided to introduce a driver awareness course into our already busy H&S training matrix for all our employees.
The AA seem to have a nice one called Driver Alertness Education, I have actioned this to be investigated & organised immediately.
Adding to the above, I have had full backing & agreement in these decisions from all of our management team.
I hope this letter will also be of comfort to the other road users & cyclists who have written their concerns.
I was on holiday until early this morning which made an immediate answer nigh on impossible.
I understand that the vast majority of mails and social media comments are from concerned genuine people however, we received some really hurtful mails wishing all sorts of medical curses on our office staff which swayed me into taking down the access from our web site & social media pages.
Sincere apologies,
Ian Frazer
Managing Director
Vidette UK
Well Said Judy – Brian if you passed me close enough for me to hit your car you would have no wing mirror and a nice dent in the side of your car from my shoe ! NO CYCLIST ASKS TO BE RUN DOWN! you turd !
What was the cyclist doing in the middle of the lane. I normally defend cyclists against retarded anti-cyclist countrymen, but this cyclist was asking for it.
Brian Branch. The cyclisi was in the lane to discourage the kind of same lane passing that occued when he moved left when the center line became dashed to indicate that it was safe to pass.
He should bave continued in the full lane so that the truck would move fully out of the lane. even on the extreme left there is not enough safe passing space in the lane. Sharing the road doesn’t mean sharing the lane side by side. There is not enough room in the lane ti pass and motorists must move completely out of the lane to pass when safe. You need a course in driving as you not only are ignorant of the law and safe driving bit your attitude can get people killed. Cyclists have the right to the full lane for their safely just as any other vehicle. It’s the passing motorists job to pass safely by changing lanes when sight lines are good.