Police nab woman for hitting cyclist after reading her tweets

Everyone knows by now to be careful what you tweet: parents could read it, employers could read it, and in the case of a rash tweet made by a British woman, the police are reading it, too.

21-year-old Emma Way has ended up in hot water after tweeting about hitting a cyclist earlier this week.

“Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier – I have right of way he doesn’t even pay road tax! #bloodycyclists” Way tweeted from her now-defunct (or at least private) Twitter account @EmmaWay20 on May 19.

Shortly after sending that tweet, the Norwich Police department contacted Way to tell her that they had been made aware of her actions by other Twitter users, and encouraged her to get in contact with them.

Toby Hockley, the 29-year-old cyclist that Way allegedly hit, had been participating in a 100-mile bike ride called the Boudicca Sportive, and told the BBC that she came speeding down a blind corner on the country road they were sharing, and nearly hit another cyclist before coming in contact with Hockley.

“She hit me hard, really hard. I am lucky to be alive,” Hockley said to the BBC. “But I managed to get out of the hedge and stand up. The car was nowhere to be seen. She hit me and she was gone. All I know is that it was a blonde girl driving.”

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CNET reports that prior to the BBC interview, Hockley had taken to Facebook to say that he wasn’t really that injured. They report him as posting: “Oh hi! That was me you hit and FYI, you didn’t knock me off, I’m too hard to be hurt by a pissy micra or whatever it was you were driving.”

Regardless of how the events actually transpired, the whole incident was enough for Way’s employer to temporarily suspend her from her position at an accountancy firm.

In an interview with ITV, Way spoke out about the incident, taking more of a “I’m sorry everyone actually cares about this” tone than an actual apology for hitting Hockley:

“I just want to say sorry for the discomfort this has caused anybody, and if I could take back doing that tweet, I would,” Way said in her ITV television appearance. “My whole career is at risk now, and any damage caused to the cyclist. I don’t want any cyclist to think I have hatred against them because I’m a cyclist myself. All I can do is apologize.”

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