Even though both cyclists and drivers share large portions of the open road, there are times when collisions and disputes rear their ugly head. In fact, according to recent statistics, while the number of cyclist accidents in the US is declining, the number of fatal accidents is actually increasing, per PPM. With that in mind, it’s fair to say that travelling by bike or car can be a risky endeavour, and a recent video shared to Reddit involving an aggressive driver and a cyclist is a timely reminder of this.
The incident reportedly occurred in Nordstrand, a borough of Oslo in Sweden, on a busy E18 main road. The 47-second snippet of footage appears to have been recorded by a passerby in another vehicle. In the video, we see a cyclist donned in high-vis riding along a path on the right side of a busy road.
Moments later, ahead of the cyclist, we see a grey van pull in front of the cyclist’s path. As the cycler attempts to carefully navigate around the vehicle blocking his path, a man jumps out from behind the van and kicks the cyclist, knocking him off his bicycle sending him into the middle of the road. Words are exchanged, but there is no way to make out what is being said. As the cycler gets to his feet, he realises a piece of his bike has broken off and goes to pick it up from the road.
The aggressive driver, meanwhile, proceeds to pick up the cyclist’s bicycle and throw it onto the pathway on the side of the road. There’s a short scuffle between the two men, and then the camera changes to a different perspective, which could potentially be footage from a roadside security camera.
The altercation doesn’t end there, however, as the two men continue pushing and shoving each other on the pathway. As the cyclist attempts to retrieve his bike on the ground, the irate driver grabs the cyclist by the neck and continues his assault, attempting to push him to the ground. Lastly, the driver angrily kicks the cyclist’s bike, before the footage ends.
What’s peculiar about the confrontation is the excessive aggression from the driver. In short, it seems like an incident may have occurred before the camera even started rolling. Adding some extra detail to the altercation, a user on Reddit called Sykkelmafiaen shared that the footage is a “screen recording from my Instagram.”
They go on to add, “Media have been in contact with the violent driver. Apparently the cyclist has hit his mirror when the car was parked further back, and that somehow excuse his attack. And there is nowhere to legally park back there, so my guess is the driver occupied the whole bike area with his car.”
The same Redditor added another comment in Swedish, which we’ve translated: “I have been in contact with probably 10 journalists yesterday evening and today. Sent rain numbers to them, and some have called the drivers and gotten their side of the story. Something in a newspaper in Oslo, for example. Take the driver’s story with a large grain of salt.“
Of course, the shocking snippet of footage has sparked much discussion and is making the rounds across various social media platforms right now. As expected, netizens around the globe are stunned by the aggressive behaviour of the angry driver.
No situation warrants this response. Road rage is road rage, stay in your car
SpecialObjective6175
Others, meanwhile, were confused by the driver’s behavior, and wanted to know why someone would behave in such an aggressive manner, with one commenter, writing: “I think he stopped there specifically to confront that cyclist, something must have happened before, he was already out of the vehicle.”
Lastly, a user who is seemingly local or familiar with the specific road, added: “this road (E18) has a LOT of traffic in/out of Oslo and very not ideal solutions for cyclist who has to merge and blend in and out of traffic. There’s a lot of accidents here between all sorts of traffic, but road rage like this is pretty uncommon around here.”
Ultimately, it’s clear that some other incident must’ve occurred before the camera even started rolling, which is likely what instigated the whole altercation between the driver and the cyclist. Nevertheless, while we may not be privy to all of the information at hand, it’s safe to say that there’s absolutely no justified reason to attack another person and vandalise their property.
