The taxi driver has spoken out and put forward his reasons for driving the way he did.
Taxi driver chasing Dublin cyclist in video speaks out
The taxi driver filmed pursuing a cyclist through Dublin streets has claimed the rider had moments earlier broken the wing mirror of his car.
Furthermore, the driver said he hoped that by breaking a red light and driving in the way he did it would attract the attention of gardai.
He wanted gardai to intervene to speak with the cyclist about the alleged damage to the taxi wing mirror.
The driver, identified in The Daily Star newspaper as Felix Ukachukwu, was filmed on the dashcam of another car in Dublin’s city centre.
Both cyclist and taxi driver were picked up on camera at the junction of Belvedere Place and North Circular Road.
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They went through a red light, with the taxi driven after the cyclist and then into a bike lane.
The cyclist, followed by the taxi driver, then went across the road onto the wrong side and up onto a pavement.
In what were incredible scenes in the video (below) published online, the taxi ended up on the same pavement.
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Ukachukwu’s car was facing the wrong way into the junction with Dorset St and so drove up onto the pavement to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.
He claimed the incident began on Talbot St in the north inner city. He had driven there from St Stephens Green.
He alleged that when he pulled in to drop off a passenger on Talbot St a passing cyclist stretched out his arm and broke his car mirror.
“So I followed him, I tried to get his attention and there was no police,” he said, adding they later went through the lights when they reached North Circular Road.
“(I was) hoping that the police would see me and say what’s going on here,” he explained.
Ukachukwu also claimed the cyclist was goading him, saying he would never catch him in a car.
“I was really infuriated. I was willing to go any length to get him. I was hoping that the horn and by crossing the line the police would see me but they didn’t.”
The incident ended when the cyclist turned the corner from Belvedere Place onto Dorset St on the pavement and the taxi was unable to follow.
Ukachukwu claimed if the cyclist had done nothing wrong, he would have stopped when he saw a taxi pursuing him.
“You saw how the cyclist was manoeuvring around me,” he said of the video. “If you’re a cyclist and a taxi man comes to you and blocks you in the road, you would stop and say sorry.”
He added if he had caught up with the cyclist he would have called the gardai. The cyclist has not been identified and no complaint has been lodged by him with gardai.
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