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A minibus driver who knocked a cyclist off his bike on purpose has been told that he could be jailed.
Charles Yorston, aged 60, was taking passengers to a wedding in Grangemouth in his Ford Tourneo when he rammed the rider off the road, reports the Falkirk Herald.
The cyclist’s bike was destroyed in the crash and his glasses broken as he was thrown across the road, and three years on he still suffers from pain from his right elbow, which was broken in the incident.
Yorston, who spent 19 years as a taxi driver but now works in a call centre, was convicted by a jury at Falkirk Sheriff Court of causing serious injury through dangerous driving, having denied the charge.
Sheriff Derek Hamilton told him: “The jury found you deliberately drove at the cyclist. It is fortunate the consequences were not more tragic. This could easily have resulted in a fatality.”
The cyclist had banged on the back of the vehicle with his hand after Yorston cut him up at as they moved off from a set of traffic lights, with the driver subsequently veering towards him, knocking the rider from his bike.
“Your attitude to driving almost beggars belief – that something could hit the back of your vehicle and you would think nothing of it,” the sheriff told him.
“It could have been a toddler coming out from between parked cars, it could have been the cyclist hitting your vehicle and going under your wheels. Your attitude was not to bother, not to stop.
“This was a terrible episode of driving. Given the nature of the driving and your complete lack of remorse or acceptance of any blame, I really have to consider a custodial sentence.”
Giving evidence in court last Friday, the cyclist said that after slapping the back of the vehicle, he shouted at the driver, saying “What are you playing at? You nearly put me into the back of that car.”
He said: “I can recall looking in the driver’s eyes and seeing the look of anger in his face. I saw the beginning of him turning the steering wheel towards me.”
Minibus passengers said that Yorston “jerked the wheel with an unnatural movement” to knock the victim from his bike.
But when they challenged him over what he had done, Yorston said: “Why would I jeopardise my job?”
He also complained that having to wait around after the crash would cost him lost income.
The sheriff handed Yorston, who will be sentenced on 29 June, an interim driving ban.
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