Road rage is still a very real and very scary problem, but portable video cameras may slowly be turning the tables on enraged motorists.
A cyclist in Australia captured terrifying footage of a man threatening him with a knife in the street of a quiet suburban neighborhood near Perth.
The dashcam-esque video, posted to Youtube on Tuesday, shows the cyclist’s bike and a white car nearly collide as the automobile suddenly switches lanes to try to overtake the bike in a roundabout. After the bike appears to clip the car, prompting a “What the fuck are you doing?” from the cyclist, the eventually car zooms ahead of the bike, stopping in the middle of the road.
As the cyclist nears the stopped car, a middle-aged man (wearing shorts, flip flops and sunglasses) emerges from the vehicle brandishing a knife.
The enraged driver then steps toward the cyclist in the street with his knife lowered.
“You fucking dickhead, why the fuck did you— you fucking touched my car, fuck off. You pull out, you’re a fucking idiot.”
The stunned cyclist, breathing heavily, apologized as he backs away from the enraged maniac.
After one last angry protest of, “I could have charged you for that you piece of shit,” the knife-wielding driver gets back into his car and drives away.
The cyclist, who had cameras attached to both his helmet and the frame of his bike, reportedly turned in the video to the police. According to the cyclist, the police gave the driver a $1,500 fine for carrying a weapon in public.
According to 9 News Perth, the 45-year-old cyclist and father (who opted only to be identified as “Mark”) was so shaken by the ordeal, he didn’t bike again for a month. He originally chose to use the particular stretch of road where the incident occurred to a avoid a busier street for his morning commute.
