Charges doubtful after driver clashes with cyclist

A driver who ran a cyclist off the road appears to be using his car as a weapon, Toronto critical injury lawyer Patrick Brown tells CBC News.

The cyclist posted a video of the incident online after the clash in Toronto which he claimed almost killed him. Meanwhile, the driver told the news outlet the biker’s aggression was excessive.

Brown, a partner with McLeish Orlando LLP and founder of Bike Law Canada, explains in the article that motorists can be ticketed for being closer than one metre to a bike.

“What I’m seeing [in the video] is a vehicle that is … not only violating the one-metre law, but actually is intentionally using his vehicle as a weapon,” says Brown, who frequently acts for cyclists and their families.

However, Brown says the driver is unlikely to face any formal charges, with a ticket being the most likely outcome.

Special status

“I think our society has given an attitude that if you’re in a car you get some sort of special status,” he says.

The 32-year-old cyclist tells the CBC he attached a camera to his handlebars and saddle after another accident two months previously.

“A lot of people have died on their bikes this summer and this year, and it’s just not acceptable to drive like that,” he says in the article. “It makes me angry, because I have every right to be on the street as other people. He wouldn’t ram another car off the road. Why would you ram me off the road?”

After the CBC traced the driver in the video, he blamed an illegally parked car that narrowed the space between the bike and the car. But he also hit out at the cyclist for his actions following the close call. The video shows two cyclists stopping the driver in the street and yelling at him.

“He literally punched my vehicle almost to the point of smashing my window and then he physically takes [his] bicycle and puts it in front of my vehicle,” the driver says.