A dash cam just happened to catch the moment a cyclist was assaulted by an angry motorist this past week.
As a man was pulling up to a stop light, he noticed the driver of a truck walking toward a cyclist in front of him, then suddenly, he punched the man in the face.
The entire minute-long altercation was uploaded to YouTube:
The website AshevilleonBikes.com first released the video and details about the encounter after speaking to the cyclist;
“The cyclist had been riding legally within his lane on a two lane section of Sand Hill road. Because the section of road just prior to this intersection is a long downhill, the cyclist was able to ride at the pace of traffic and was not, to any degree, causing a backup of traffic. The driver of the truck tailgated the cyclist during this time, and, because of line painting crews in the oncoming lane, was unable to pass until he neared the intersection in the video. While accelerating around the cyclist, the driver attempted to run the cyclist off the road by aggressively entering the cyclist’s travel lane to the point the cyclist had to brake and swerve to avoid being hit. Moments later the truck and cyclist rolled up to the red light that is shown in the video. The only words spoken occurred after the punches were thrown, when the driver said, “Get off the f****** road.””
The video and license plate number of the driver was then reported to the Ashville Police Department.
According to the APD, the motorist, Claude Donald Watson, was arrested Sept. 29 and charged with simple assault and reckless driving to endanger (misdemeanour charges).
Please watch out for and be patient with cyclists – the roads were built for them too!