'Bloody cyclists' driver Emma Way says she has been targeted by online bullies after being fined

 
Guilty: Emma Way was convicted of driving offences
Chris Radburn/PA Wire
Robin de Peyer21 November 2013

A driver who tweeted "bloody cyclists" after hitting one with her car has said she found him "disrespectful" for riding on "my side of the road".

Former trainee accountant Emma Way, 22, was convicted of driving offences after hitting cyclist Toby Hockley on a road in Norfolk.

She told the court yesterday that the "spur of the moment" tweet was "the biggest regret of my life".

But speaking on ITV's Daybreak this morning, she said: "I was quite angry at the mannerism of the cyclist on the road.

"My point of view is that he was on my side of the road. That's not the way you drive so I found that quite disrespectful in a way I guess."

The tweet - which led to her losing her job at Norwich accountancy firm Larking Gowen - read: "Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier. I have right of way - he doesn't even pay road tax!" using the hashtag #bloodycyclists.

Police investigated after they were alerted to the message. Way was handed a £337 fine, ordered to pay £300 costs, and given seven points on her licence after being found guilty of failing to stop after a collision and failing to report an accident at a hearing at Norwich Magistrates' Court yesterday. She was cleared of a further charge of driving without due care and attention.

Way told Daybreak that since she posted the message she had been subjected to cyber-bullying and "malicious threats" from people in the street.

"It has been really tough," she said. "The malicious communications I've received and the person I’ve been made out to be is as far from who I am as it could possibly get, really.

"I am 22 so, not generalising a 22-years-old, [but] sometimes you do just put things and it's not actually intended."

The cyclist involved in the collision, Mr Hockley, told the programme the tweet was "silly and dangerous".

"It just makes drivers look quite disrespectful to cyclists and it doesn't do much for the mutual respect that we all need to have on the roads," he said.

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