Video: Motorcyclist knocks down Irish rider in London, films it and then posts it online

The rider is knocked to the ground on a junction, with the motorcyclist shouting over him, "what the hell are you doing?" and filming it on his helmet camera for posting on YouTube later.

 

 

 

The video clip below has caused a storm on social media since it was posted in the last 48 hours, depicting a motorcyclist colliding from behind with an Irish bike rider in London near Buckingham Palace.

The footage was captured on the motorcyclist's helmet camera and posted on YouTube before others urged him to take it down, suggesting it was incriminating.

However, a copied and edited version, included below, has now surfaced on YouTube and has gone viral.

The clip shows the cyclist, who is on his mobile phone at the time, initially riding in a bicycle lane, with the motorcyclist behind and a black cab to their left.

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As the cyclist enters a junction, the bike lane comes to an end and the motorcyclist squeezes into the gap between rider and taxi.

On his way, his right hand hits the cyclist, knocking him from his bike, which almost goes under the motorcyclist's wheels. Thankfully nobody seems injured.

 

Not even the arrival of a police officer forces any great change in the driver's attitude, although his comments suggest he has a general issue with cyclists.

 

The driver remonstrates with the cyclist, blaming him for what has just happened. He at first cites the fact the cyclist was on his phone, with the floored rider suggesting the driver seems to have knocked him to the ground effectively as punishment for using the phone.

He then blames the cyclist's positioning on the road, and rather than helping him up he seems at one point to push the cyclist's front wheel away from his own machine. All the while he engages in a forceful exchange, completely unwilling to take the blame.

His tone changes slightly, but not much, when a police officer arrives on the scene, apologising for their “coming together” and saying he does not want to cause “aggro" between himself and cyclists.

But when the cyclist has apparently moved on, the driver complains to the police officer about the general behaviour of cyclists on the roads.

"Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to matter with cyclists, because they seem to think they have different rules to all of us other roads users," he says.

 

 

However, he does not take into account that he was in a cycle lane, that the cyclist was in that section of the road where the road markings took him and that he went for a gap between car and bicycle, to undertake the cyclist, that simply was not there.

Most interesting is the slow motion footage at the end of the clip. The motorcyclist seems to flick his hand to rev his engine immediately before impact.

He also appears to slightly push his right hand into the cyclist at the moment of impact in a manner that suggests he anticipated hitting him and was essentially bracing for impact.

The whole thing is recorded by the motorcyclist's helmet camera. And he later posted the footage on YouTube.

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The clip was posted via a motorcyclist's group in the UK, Ducati Dragons. And according to reports there, a user of the group's forum who posted the clip was urged by others to take it down, which he did.

The group on whose YouTube channel the clip was published have since deleted the channel. The clip below is an edited version published by another YouTube user who clearly sees things from a cyclist's point of view

Have a look and see what you think.

 

 

 

 

The cyclist is clearly in the cycle lane, with the motorbike left of centre of the same lane.

 

The motorcyclist is closer now as the cyclist is just about to exit the cycle lane outside Buckingham Palace.

 

With the bike lane now over, the motorcyclist is on top of the bicycle and attempting to pass on the inside, or undertake, despite the non existent gap between cyclist and black cab to the left.

 

The moment of impact as the right side of the motorbike's handlebar hits the cyclist, who appears to have just switched from his right ear to his left a mobile phone held in his right hand. The slow motion footage of this moment is interesting.

 

The cyclist goes flying, his front wheel just about visible on the right of shot in mid air as its owner is knocked to the ground.

 

The motorcyclist is looking down on the felled rider, and shouting over him, "what the hell are you doing? as the stunned cyclist tries to get up off the ground. At one point, the driver appears to try and push the bike's front wheel away off his machine.

 

The cyclist, wearing hi-viz and a helmet, tries to untangle his bike from the motorbike while being shouted at.

 

A police officer arrives on the scene. Her full role is not clear as the clip is edited. However, some reports in the UK suggest the motorcyclist was, at some point, arrested.