Watch as road rage driver rams cyclist onto his bonnet while the rider screams in terror
THIS is the shocking moment a road rage driver rams a cyclist onto his bonnet with the rider left screaming in terror.
Ahmed Al-Rawi, 55, was caught repeatedly driving into the victim after he clipped them along a road in Swindon, Wiltshire.
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.
Footage then shows Al-Rawi being dragged from his car by police before being arrested on the scene during the incident on July 28, 2020.
The former Iraqi-national was handed a 12-month sentence suspended by 18 months and banned from driving for a year.
Al-Rawi will also pay the victim £500 in compensation and must re-complete his driving test.
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He pleaded not guilty to one count of dangerous driving but was convicted by a jury after just under four hours of deliberations in June.
Winchester Crown Court heard that after initially clipping the victim, them and Al-Rawi had become “enthralled” in a verbal altercation.
Al-Rawi threw the victim’s electric bike out of the way of his car, but the victim remained standing in front of his vehicle to stop him driving further.
But he decided to drive anyway, forcing the cyclist on top of his car and not stopping for several car lengths down Devizes Road.
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Prosecutor Leigh Hart said: “The defendant I believe 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 being tortured in Iraq.
“[He] thought he was going to be attacked so wanted to go away,” Ms Hart continued.
She added that the victim’s electric bike that Al-Rawi hit and later threw away was damaged.
In the June 2022 trial 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].
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“This is clearly an offence which passes the custodial threshold.”
However, Judge Richard Parkes QC asserted that while the offence “clearly passes the custodial threshold”, Al-Rawi posed “absolutely no danger to the public”.