Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Doctor tells court: Bike saved me in road rage attack
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A cyclist claims a van driver deliberately drove over him during a road rage attack.
Dr Kevin Ward alleges Kurtis Malik ran him down in his Citroen Berlingo after he confronted him about two previous altercations.
Only his bicycle taking the brunt of the impact saved him from more serious injury, he told Canterbury Crown Court.
A jury heard Dr Ward was returning from working at Margate’s QEQM Hospital to his home in Preston, near Canterbury, when he says he was twice confronted by Malik.
He told the jury the first incident on June 30, in Plumstone Road near Acol, ended with the 26-year-old driver shouting at him.
But the doctor claimed the following day along the same road, Malik passed the cyclist and struck him on the elbow with a piece of plastic piping.
Later he saw Malik’s van stopped at the entrance of a farm in Broad Street, Monkton, and went to have a word with the driver.
“I was straddling the bike in front of his vehicle,” he said. “I looked at the individual. He looked at me. And the next thing I found myself on the floor because he had driven over me.
“I hadn’t said anything and the driver hadn’t said anything. There was absolutely no warning. He had driven very, very rapidly.
“He had flipped me around and the car drove over my legs. It was probably my bike which had saved me from more serious injury.”
Malik, of Vinton Close, Herne, has denied five charges, including driving dangerously and assaulting Dr Ward, but he has admitted driving carelessly.
Dr Ward told the jury: “I was fairly shaken and somewhat angry but I was able to get up, a lot of adrenaline was pumping. My bike was damaged.
“I told the driver that I thought he was in quite big trouble because of what he had done to me. It seemed to me to be a serious incident.”
The doctor said a woman motorist then approached Malik and told him: “I don’t believe what you’ve done. You just drove over him!”
After the incident Dr Ward was taken to the QEQM and treated for cuts and bruises and a torn cartilage.
He told the jury that his £700 bike was written off.
Malik told the police that the first incident had not taken place and that on the second he had struck the cyclist “accidentally”.
After the incident he claimed: “I was trying to shake his hand. I was trying to help.”
The trial continues.