The incident occurred early on Thursday morning.
Video footage showing a cyclist accusing a taxi driver of intentionally knocking him over on a Dublin street – which was widely shared online on Thursday night and Friday morning – is under investigation by An Garda Síochána.
The video, shared on YouTube by user José Jiménez, specifically names the taxi driver allegedly involved in the incident and shows the cyclist falling to the ground before subsequently confronting the taxi driver after a number of previous flashpoints before an apparent collision with the taxi driver’s car.
The description of the video on YouTube says that the driver “doesn’t like being told not to tailgate cyclists and deliberately hits me, later claiming it was an accident and leaving me behind”. When confronted by the cyclist, the taxi driver can clearly be heard saying: “It was an accident.”
The incident was described as “shocking” and a “deliberate assault” in comments under the video.
When contacted by JOE on the matter, a spokesperson for the National Transport Authority stated that this “is a matter for An Garda Siochana”.
Gardaí released a statement to JOE, confirming that the incident is currently under investigation.
“Gardaí are aware of a traffic incident that occurred on North Strand Road at approximately 6am on 20/9/18. This incident is under investigation.”
Incidents involving cars and bicycles are a growing problem in Ireland, particularly in Dublin.
I Bike Dublin – a community organisation with the intent of providing safe cycling routes in the capital – recently took to ‘clamping’ vehicles obstructing cycling lanes in the city to highlight the importance of mutual respect on the road.
Members of the group fixed cardboard ‘clamps’ to cars while also issuing fake parking tickets to highlight the issue in the Phibsborough area of Dublin last weekend.
Messages on the clamps read “Clamp Me”, “Where is enforcement?”, “Not a Parking Space”, and “Everyone Else Is Doing It”.
Back in 2017, Dublin dropped out of the top 20 bicycle-friendly cities in the world for the first time ever, due to the city becoming “stagnated”.
15 cyclists were killed in Ireland 2017, 10 in 2016 and seven cyclists have been killed this year so far.
In April of this year, 50 cyclists staged a lie-down protest outside of Leinster House in protest at the number of cyclists who have died on Irish roads and called on the government to increase road safety.
The protest – organised by the Dublin Cycle Campaign and I Bike Dublin – was called following the death of a 19-year-old cyclist the week previous.
The young man was involved in a collision with a truck near UCD at the junction of the Stillorgan Road and Greenfield Park.
JOE has contacted The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport about the incident.
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