Cyclist ‘could have died’ in disturbing push attack
A CYCLIST who was the victim of a horror attack when he was pushed off his bike by a passenger in a speeding car has said he could have been killed.
A video of the traumatic incident has been shared online and shows at least three people in the vehicle: one driving, one filming and one in the passenger seat.
The person in the passenger seat can be seen leaning out of the car, up to their waist.
‘I could have broken my neck’
As the vehicle overtakes the cyclist, he is pushed off his bike, and is seen hitting the grass at the side of the road before tumbling over the handlebars.
The cyclist named John, who didn’t want to give his surname, appeared on RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday to speak about the ordeal after seeing the video.
He said that incident occurred on Saturday at around 12.30pm as he was cycling through the DublinWicklow mountains area. ‘After seeing the video, I was shocked. I don’t know how I didn’t break my neck,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t take much when you are on the bike, and clipped into Spoke out: Liveline’s Joe Duffy the pedals, to knock you off balance, and once he pushed me, I went up onto the grass verge and I wasn’t coming back from it.’ He continued: ‘I couldn’t believe it. I could sense a car coming behind me and I just thought they were going to overtake me. But as I said, I ended up tumbling over. ‘Eventually, the bike disconnected from me and I ended up on the road and the bike was gone into the ditch. I was flat out on the road and they just kept going.
‘They didn’t care, I could have been dead, I could have broken my neck. An oncoming car could have ran over me then.’
John said the person with the camera would have seen his head nose-diving into the ground, but they still didn’t stop.
After the incident, John was helped by a passer-by. He said that his wife, daughter and son have seen the video and told him he is not going up there on his own again. Gardaí now have copies of the video and have been in contact with John.
According to Liveline host Joe Duffy, in the full unedited version of the video, the people involved are ‘easily identifiable’.
Calling into the show, Mike Burke said what happened to John was ‘savage’, adding that it was an ‘absolute assault’.
‘I’d like to thank John on behalf of cyclists... for going ahead and pressing charges because those guys will just go on and do it to the next cyclist and the next cyclist,’ he said.
Mr Burke said that he has endured a number of incidents of his own while out cycling, including a man leaning out of a car to smack him on his backside, who went off laughing, as well as having drinks thrown at him from cars. The video has sparked outrage online with many people saying that all three people in the car should be punished.
Mr Duffy himself shared the video on Twitter, writing: ‘This is an act of savagery.’
The Dublin Commuter Coalition remarked on Twitter: ‘There is a perverse culture in our society that gives people the tenacity to commit acts of violence like this against people on bikes.’
John said he does want to press charges against the individuals, but that he would be ‘fearful’.
‘This is an act of savagery’