This dramatic footage shows a road rage driver who rammed a cyclist onto his bonnet in Swindon – before being dragged from his car by police.
Ahmed Al-Rawi, 55, was caught in shocking footage repeatedly ramming into a cyclist, in Devizes Road, Old Town, after he clipped the victim further down the road.
The unnamed cyclist is repeatedly heard screaming ‘STOP’ in the video as Al-Rawi drove two or three car lengths with the victim on the bonnet.
Shortly afterwards Al-Rawi is dragged from his car by police during the incident on July 28, 2020.
This dramatic footage shows a road rage driver who rammed a cyclist onto his bonnet in Swindon – before being dragged from his car by police.
FULL STORY: https://t.co/6Sm1DLU1zA pic.twitter.com/uZGqHreUaY
— Wiltshire 999s (@Wiltshire999s) August 4, 2022
The former Iraqi-national was handed a 12-month sentence suspended by 18 months and banned from driving for a year after the incident in Swindon, Wilts.
Al-Rawi will also pay the victim £500 in compensation and must re-complete his driving test.
However, Judge Richard Parkes QC said that post traumatic stress disorder-suffering Al-Rawi posed “absolutely no danger to the public”.
Winchester Crown Court heard during June that after initially clipping the victim, them and Al-Rawi had become “enthralled” in a verbal altercation.
After Al-Rawi threw the victim’s electric bike out of the way of his car, the victim remained standing in front of it before Al-Rawi began to drive.
Prosecutor Leigh Hart explained: “The defendant I believed kicked or threw the bike out of the way, and [the victim] remained in the street in front of the bonnet.
“Some verbal words were exchanged and the defendant ended up driving away, resulting in [the victim] being carried on the bonnet for about three car lengths.
“Officers intervened and stopped and arrested the defendant, who disputed the driving was dangerous.”
In interview, and again in trial, he said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Iraq, when he was tortured.
“[He] thought he was going to be attacked so wanted to go away,” Ms Hart continued.
The victim’s electric bike that Al-Rawi hit and later threw away was damaged, she added.
At the trial in June 2022, defence barrister Gareth James told the court that Al-Rawi managed to escape Iraq, coming to the UK and claiming asylum.
Al-Rawi plead not guilty and claimed that he had given the cyclist ‘plenty of space’ – an argument the Judge said the Jury likely rejected.
He added: “Driving at someone is always dangerous and driving on once he hit your bonnet is plainly a dangerous thing to do and could have resulted in a serious injury to [the victim].
“This is clearly an offence which passes the custodial threshold.”
