Update: As of December 25, both lorry driver and cyclist have been arrested for rash driving and rash riding, respectively. The driver has also confirmed that he didn’t intend to knock off the cyclist and only jerked left because he thought the sound of a breaking side mirror was him hitting a taxi on his right.
Singapore – The term “road rage” is real for the encounter between cyclist and lorry driver along Pasir Ris that was caught on tape. The video ends with a broken side mirror and a cyclist being pushed to the ground by a truck.
It was a regular Saturday morning along Pasir Ris on December 22. There were two cyclists riding on the leftmost side and taking up the whole lane. A blue lorry was seen trying to overtake the cyclists from behind. According to the post, the driver tried to make his presence known by giving his horn two short honks from which the cyclist notices and looks behind.
The cyclist was angry at being honked at and eventually hits the side mirror of the truck and succeeds in breaking it. Either shocked at his side mirror being broken or equally annoyed at the obnoxious cyclist, the lorry was seen abruptly swerving to the left thus hitting the cyclist which left him tumbling on the sidewalk.
An ambulance was said to have been notified but the cyclist refused any medical attention because he was not hurt and only suffered a very mild redness on the arms.
Y Lim, the original poster has asked the following question: “Do you think the cyclist is right? How can one just smash the mirror and get rowdy just because he think he SHOULDNT GET HONKED. Is keeping to the side of the roads so hard?”
Leave it to social media to obtain very definite answers. With over 2,000,000 views, 8,000 comments and 26,000 shares, this post has gone viral with most netizens taking the side of the lorry driver.
Those that know both sides firsthand agree that the cyclist was wrong for reacting that way.
Netizen Jaydan Lim has mentioned a common trend within the comments wherein the aura of the cyclist was arrogant to begin with.
Facebook user Alex Se made a point that the cyclist was planning a hit and run with no intention of stopping even after breaking the side mirror.
According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the actions of the cyclists driving side by side is permitted. However, it is common sense and courtesy to ride as far left as possible to allow better traffic flow. The arrogant cyclist could be clearly seen disobeying this precaution.
The video was posted on ROADS.sg’s Facebook page. Link to the video below:
An update was given by ROADS.sg showing another video of the lorry driver who stays calm at the close encounter with the cyclists while one of the latter rudely grabs the phone of the driver who was trying to take a recording of the scenario. This garnered even more angry reactions from netizens. The page has also informed the public that this event is now under police investigations.
