Random Talk

[Rendle]

Was in my friend's car 4 hours ago and suddenly my friend says "holy shit that car just clipped that cyclist". I look up and see there is a cyclist who has just crashed, sprawled out on the ground with his bike on top of him, so my friend being the nice guy he is pulls over and we go check on this guy. As i'm walking up to him there is a bottle of water rolling towards me, and this is at least 10 seconds after he's hit the ground, so I figure he must have had a lot of momentum. It rolls directly towards my feet and I pick it up as i'm jogging up to him. The guy is able to get to his feet, his cycling shirt and pants have holes in them from friction with the ground and his knee has some skin scraped off but somehow he is not bleeding and doesn't seem to have major injuries. The bike seems unbroken but the chain has fallen off. I tell the guy "my friend saw you get clipped" he replies "I got clipped?" He seems dizzy so I hold his bike for him so he can catch his breath. I try to hand the water back to him "that's not mine". I instantly realise what has actually happened. The car didn't just accidentally clip him and fail to stop, they've intentionally driven right next to this guy (hence my friend thinking he was clipped) and thrown a bottle (it's a 1L Maximus that has been refilled with tapwater) at the cyclist or his bike, and he's crashed. I'm instantly livid with myself that we stopped to help this guy instead of pursuing the car. I know there is no possible way we can catch up to them now. My friend tells me the car was white and had a red P plate. I instantly remember the crappy white Subaru in front of us at the last stop light about 50 seconds ago, with a red P plate and a missing "R" so the Subaru decal just says "SUBA U". Despite my memory autism, my friend parked too close to the other car so the number plate was out of line of sight. There's no way that the police will door knock every white Subaru owner with a missing R on their decal, so the cyclist will recieve no justice for this random assault. What is the lesson here. If I had instantly yelled "CHASE THAT CAR" to my friend which was my gut instinct (my gut intinct is comfrontation and retribution) we could have gotten the license plate. Unfortunately my friend's gut instinct was to pull over and help this guy. I didn't see the guy's crash only the aftermath, so when my friend said he's pulling over I had no idea how badly the guy was hurt so it seemed more immediately important than helping the cyclist get even. If we had gotten the license plate... all they would have to do is deny it. And I wouldn't have known it was deliberate, because we wouldn't have stopped and I wouldn't have seen the rolling water bottle, which even the cyclist seemed unaware he'd been hit by. And so I guess that's the lesson, buy a dashcam. If my friend had one, it would have caught the license plate and the guy throwing the bottle at the cyclist, the driver might even be in a police interview room right now ratting on his buddy in the passenger seat. The most compelling argument I can think of for stopping and helping this guy is that he knows even though some random assholes tried to hurt him for fun, some random assholes were also willing to immediately stop and make sure he was okay. That sounds sappy but maybe that will help him feel less depressed about it later. I wish I had given him my name, or something. Or at the very least told him if I see that white Subaru again in a parking lot i'm going to pop it's wheels with my pocket knife and pour coke in the petrol tank. I know that would make me feel less depressed if I were in his position. THE END. Anyway dashcam recommendation anyone? Preferably one that is cheap and simple, like me?