GlennR

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/06/...-in-manhattan/

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/06...its-bicyclist/

DrIsotope

The video posted to Twitter is nothing less than amazing, the dude in the car pushes the bike probably 25-30 feet.

Naturally, well over half of the responses on Twitter support the dude in the car. Everything from "Cyclist at fault" to "I'm all for running over the biker."

Ah, what a time to be alive.

mcm44

Just read the story in today's NY Post...car driver is an off-duty NY firefighter and police apparently didnt do anything at the scene letting the driver go, no ticket, no arrest. Though after video is getting publicity they filed a reckless endangerment report.
BS

nomadmax 

Where I come from, THAT is a felony. No one should skate for that kind of criminal behavior.

mcm44

pushing that cyclist wih the car is more like attempted murder

indyfabz

Hope he files a civil suit for assault and battery.

GlennR

Under public pressure the driver has been arrested.

BTW, he's a off duty FDNY. I wonder if that had anything to do with him not being arrested on the spot?

bikemig 

You think? That's just outrageous.

GlennR

Not the first time.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/04/...-with-a-crime/

leob1

It had EVERYTHING to do with him not being arrested on the spot! It's called assault with a deadly weapon.

ChiroVette

Attempted murder would likely never stick. The reason is that the car the idiot motorist was driving was surely powerful enough that if the intent was to kill the guy on the bicycle, all he had to do was gun it. The driver was going slow enough that he was able to sort of forcibly back the cyclist up for the entire length of that video. Had he really slammed on the gas, he would have run over the cyclist and his bike, probably crushing him.

That said, what the driver did was absolutely a felony. Felony assault on top of the reckless endangerment would be what I would push for if I were the ADA on the case.

Now, without any victim blaming, and knowing very little about the actual accident, I do have few comments about the cyclist's choices. First, I live in NY and 99% of my rides are here in the Big Apple. I have learned, after a lot of useless and potentially dangerous confrontations, not to allow near misses by idiot drivers to bait me into escalating in these situations. Drivers prone to road rage simply aren't rational or reasonable enough to have a cyclist yell at them and critically evaluate their own behavior, even if the cyclist is 100% right. The moment you start dismounting your bike to attempt to teach the ******bag a lesson he so richly deserves, you are creating huge amounts of risk for your own safety. Yes, I get the cyclist was pissed that the driver cut him off like that, and he had a right to be mad. I even understand yelling something at him as you and he ride by one another.

But in my experience nothing good has ever come of doing something so overtly challenging as getting off your bike seat, and going over to an open car window to give a motorist a piece of your mind. Another thing I can't understand is that the motorist was going slow enough that the cyclist could have easily moved himself and his bicycle out of the way of the car. Instead, the cyclist seemed to choose to stay on the front bumper for the duration of the assault against him. While I don't blame the cyclist for being attacked, can we at least agree that when you have a meathead, road-raging motorist, that intentionally standing in front of his 3,000 pound WEAPON as the driver slowly pushed you forward is perhaps not a good plan?

I think he did this because, as one of the article says, the motorist took his cell phone. Still, though. Your phone is not worth your life, should the driver's rage escalate even more and become genuinely homicidal.

justtrying

The driver is a knucklehead,and judging by the video the charge of reckless endangerment would probably be the proper outcome. As far as the cops not arresting him at he scene, they didn’t have access to the video at the scene. The video was made public after the fact. It was a case of one individuals word against the other. After the facts came out he was arrested.