NEWS

RUNNER YOU CAN’T MISS

Sir,

I feel I must bring to readers’ attention yet another incident regarding speeding drivers in Beech Road.

Many people see me out running in the village; I’m the guy generally wearing an Arsenal hat and yellow/green trainers, you can’t miss me.

And mostly drivers are very respectful; they slow down and acknowledge that I have stopped running (as I always do) and moved into the hedge.

This is not always the case. On Tuesday 31 March I was out running along the said road when two cars came past; a blue hatchback followed by a red Fiesta. Each had just one occupant.

The first driver was respectful; he slowed down and went past at an acceptable speed. I held my hand up to thank him.

Within a minute or so I heard another car accelerating towards me. Coming from the Kings Hill end, I could hear the engine revving as the driver pushed the car through its gears. Clearly the car was being driven differently to the blue hatchback and by the time it reached me, approximately ¼ mile from Laburnum Cottage, the driver was in top gear.

Having already got into the hedge, I was looking to find something solid to hang onto since the verge along the road is on an incline and I didn’t want to stumble back into the road. The driver meanwhile having seen me quite late didn’t even ‘lift’ as he went past. It’s difficult to judge just how fast he was going, the lane is obviously narrow and speed can be deceptive, but since he was in top gear and not slowing it must have been at least 50MPH. The vacuum effect created as the car passed almost rocked me back out into the road, so it must have been pretty quick.

There is no doubt that the driver was driving dangerously and without any regard to possible pedestrians/horses/pushchairs/runners etc being around the next bend or corner. After the car had passed, I furiously leaped out the hedge and started remonstrating. The driver must have seen this in his mirror and proceeded to carry out an emergency stop and began to reverse the car towards me. I jogged down the road and we met about 200yds from my house. He wound down his window and asked if I had anything to say!

I managed to splutter out that since he had nearly run me over because of dangerous driving and that it was amazing not to say extremely worrying that he hadn’t even noticed – YES I did have something to say!

“So? What you going to do about it?” came the reply from the arrogant juvenile driver.

I admit at this point I lost my temper. In sheer frustration at this guy’s attitude, and thinking how bad this incident might have been if it had been my daughter (or anyone else’s) out walking further down the road on one of the blind corners, I just lashed out and kicked the wing of his car.

The driver, distraught that his precious M reg. Fiesta was dented, then threatened that he was “going to come back and get me” as he disappeared at high speed (again) down Beech Road.

To be fair I didn’t take much notice and thought that would be last I saw of him. However, a few minutes later I heard a screeching of tyres and turned around to see his car this time parked outside my house. He emerged from the car together with another individual who I now identified as the driver of the blue hatchback earlier on.

He started to walk towards me and as he did I noticed he had a club hammer in his right hand. Luckily at this point various people emerged from their houses having heard the screeching of tyres; amongst them was my partner, Sarah, with our two children, and a few neighbours. They came out to witness the driver standing in the middle of the road looking like a lemon with a hammer in his hand hurling verbal insults and abuse.

Once he realised he was completely outnumbered and what a pratt he was looking he decided he had better exit the situation; he tossed the hammer back into his car and left the scene as fast as possible. Not however before continuing to threaten that “he knew where I lived and would be back”.

The Police were called straight away and they advised that they would visit to take a statement within 48 hours, but otherwise didn’t seem too concerned that there was a guy in the village quite happy to use a hammer as a weapon and driving like a madman down a narrow lane.

At about 9:45PM that evening I had a visit from the driver’s father. He said he wanted to discuss the incident before deciding what he was going to do about it. We had a fairly amicable discussion but unfortunately no meeting of minds. As any father might, he was viewing matters through rose tinted spectacles and held out that the problem had started with me kicking the car. Further, it was his opinion that it was acceptable to drive at up to 60MPH down Beech Road because the speed limit sign says you can. To me this was an incredibly worrying thing to say.

I believe any right thinking person would agree that it was the speeding issue that was the origin of the problem. Nevertheless he left by saying that if I didn’t agree to pay for the damage he would report me to the Police for criminal damage. I said I would agree to this if his son admitted to either dangerous or reckless driving and also to using a hammer in a threatening manner, and using foul language in front of children. None of this he was happy to do.

Despite several telephone calls to the Police, nothing further took place for 5 days.

When they did finally arrive, they advised that they were only prepared to look at taking action against me for criminal damage. It was suggested that there was no proof that the car was being driven too fast or dangerously, and that the fact that the driver went home, collected a friend and a hammer to come to my house and threaten me and my family did not matter because it would be difficult to prove that the driver meant what he said.

I am thus apparently left with two options: either to accept a ‘Caution’ which will go onto my hitherto clean record OR pay an £80 fixed fine which won’t.

All this of course is fairly typical and symptomatic of what is going on in this country. The Police seem to me to be simply tied up with paperwork and improving their stats rather than dealing with real problems, which in this instance (and aside from the threatening behaviour) is dangerous driving in a narrow lane.

I have lived at Laburnum Cottage for 10 years and have run up and down Beech Road on hundreds of occasions. In the main, drivers are very respectful and helpful, but there are some who through ignorance or recklessness are putting people’s lives in very real danger.

How many more times is this issue going to be discussed before something is done? We are no further forward in 2009 than we were in 1999.

I call on everyone in the village who believes in getting this situation addressed once and for all to challenge the Police and Local Authority for change as I have no doubt that sooner rather than later some poor person is going to pay for it with their life.

Yours etc.,

John King,

Beech Road, Mereworth