Video footage is circulating today of a heated altercation between two men along Toronto's western waterfront — one of them in a car, the other on a bicycle.
Called "Toronto driver hits cyclist on purpose, drives off," the almost three-minute-long clip was uploaded to YouTube on Monday evening, not long after the incident took place.
It was shot with what appears to be a helmet camera from the perspective of a cyclist as he travels westbound along the Martin Goodman Trail between the Argonaut Rowing Club and Boulevard Club.
Near the beginning of the video we see see a black car blocking the bike path between the Royal Canadian Legion parking lot and Lakeshore Boulevard.
The cyclist, later identified as Mazda Amiryar, shakes his head at the driver as he rides by (in a manner that some on Reddit are calling unsafe). Not even one minute later, the same car turns into a different parking lot along Lakeshore, hitting Amiryar's bike in the process.
Worse still is what happens next: The driver takes off without so much as stopping to ask the bike rider if he's okay — or rather, he tries to, but gets stuck at the parking gate of a private club that he isn't a member of.
Amiryar runs after the driver while shouting "I've got you on f*cking camera! Are you f*cking kidding me? You just hit and run!"
The driver proceeds to apologize and offer up money.
"You're going to f*cking jail," says Amiryar before walking back to where he was hit to retrieve a backpack. Two witnesses, pictured in the video, later told police that the driver was "looking straight at Amiryar" when the car hit him.
"Guy runs me over on purpose because I shook my head at him when he was blocking an entire sidewalk with his car," reads the description of Amiryar's YouTube video.
"The driver then made a 3-point turn and quickly left the scene as I called the police," he continued. "I was on edge when I saw him sitting there and braced myself at the last second. Somehow I managed to stay on my feet instead of eating concrete, I just have a sore back right now."
@JohnTory @marksaunderstps As long as our leaders (you) do not step up and enforce laws drivers will continue to act like this and get away with it.
— Debbi Ragogna (@DebRagogna) August 30, 2018
Cyclist says he was intentionally hit by a driver, and he caught the whole thing on video https://t.co/9r8b2S4gT2
Amiryar wrote on Reddit that police caught up with the driver on Wednesday.
Toronto police Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu confirmed to CBC News that he is facing three charges under the Highway Traffic Act: fail to remain, fail to report incident and fail to yield to traffic.
"He apparently told police he was looking for a parking spot, yet in the video he's leaving an empty lot," wrote the cyclist. "I firmly believe he knew exactly what he was doing and did not consider the consequences whatsoever."
"Either way, I have a sore back, a scratched $1700 bike, and a sense that people like this can use their vehicles as a weapon and get away with a traffic infraction," he continued.
"I no longer want to ride my bike in this city. It sucks."
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
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