“I’ll knock your f***ing teeth in!” Road rage motorist who got out of car to threaten cyclists after pulling recklessly into bike box was driving whilst disqualified and without insurance

A motorist who angrily warned a cyclist to move closer to the kerb before pulling diagonally into a bike box at a set of traffic lights and almost hitting an adjacent car, emerging from his vehicle to berate and threaten the rider and another person on a bike who pointed out his mistake, was driving whilst disqualified and without insurance, it has emerged.

The heated confrontation, which took place in January in Belfast, was partially filmed by a passenger on a bus that was also waiting at the lights, with the footage – later posted on social media – proving critical to the police arresting the driver later that evening.

Along with driving whilst disqualified and without insurance, the motorist has pleaded guilty to assaulting the cyclist and will be sentenced in May.

The incident took place on 12 January 2024 at the junction of Albert Bridge, Albertbridge Road, and Ravenhill Road, a key and busy commuting route out of Belfast city centre.

Cyclist Peter, one of the two men threatened by the motorist after pointing out that he shouldn’t have stopped in the advanced stop box at the lights, was cycling home from work when he first heard the blast of a car horn after crossing the Albert Bridge.

“I was stopped in the green advanced stop box and probably sitting about 1.5 to 2m from the kerb,” he tells road.cc.

“I tend to stay well out of the gutter due to the bad potholes that have appeared due to the Gliders [Belfast’s bus rapid transit system] driving over gullies and manholes.”

> HGV driver given community sentence for running over and killing 22-year-old cyclist waiting at red light

He continued: “I was waiting for the lights to change when I heard a blast of a horn from behind me. I looked around to see an individual in his car gesturing to me in a fairly animated fashion to move over closer to the kerb. I ignored him and faced forward to wait for the lights to change.

“Within seconds I became aware of a car close to my right side. At this stage I had been joined by another cyclist who had started shouting at the driver that he shouldn’t be in the green advanced stop box.

“I turned round and started pointing at the driver – the same one who’d blasted his horn – and pointing down at the green box. The next thing the driver got out of his car and started shouting at me, ‘Don’t point at me! My son’s in the car so don’t point at me!’

“He started to move towards me and then told me that if I pointed at him he’d ‘knock my f***ing teeth in!’ He repeated this as he got into the car.

“Throughout this I did not make any gestures with my hands other than to point at him. I didn’t even swear at him, I was so stunned by his attitude. There was me clipped into the pedal, rucksack on my back, and my bike between my legs, it wouldn’t have taken much to push me over.”

.@PSNIBelfast driver of CMZ 3116 pulled diagonally into the bike box, getting unnecessarily close to both the cyclists and the white car, then decided to get out, nearly hitting the other car and scream at the cyclists for having the audacity to point out the bike box. pic.twitter.com/zWBX8K244f

— The Belfast Urbanist🔻🚋 (@BelfastUrbanist) January 12, 2024

In the footage filmed by the bus passenger, which captured the end of the confrontation, the motorist can be seen heading back to his car – which was stopped extremely close to another vehicle stopped at the lights – after the lights have turned green, prompting car horn blasts from other motorists.

The two cyclists continued to ride on in the bus lane, before the motorist drove on in the adjacent lane, “glaring” at the riders as he passed, according to Peter.

“On at least two occasions between the lights and Connswater [Shopping Centre] he passed me and glared at me as I cycled along in the bus lane and cycle lane,” Peter tells road.cc.

“I am 6’2” and not slightly built, but to be honest I was genuinely scared of this guy. I turned into Connswater and watched him disappear down the Newtownards Road.

“At this stage I stopped and noted his car registration in my phone. When I got home I reported the driver immediately and made an appeal through X for witnesses.

“The guy on the bus who recorded the tail end of the incident saved the day as he confirmed the time and number of the bus that he was on. We were then able to get complete footage from Translink of the entire incident.”

> “I love it when drivers harass me for breaking rules they made up in their head”: Motorist tells cyclist he’ll “get a ticket for being in the bus lane”… while driving an untaxed car

The PSNI, who Peter says “took the whole thing very seriously”, arrested the driver that evening and questioned him under caution, before charging him with assault and driving whilst disqualified and without insurance, to which he has pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced in early May.

“The video from Translink was the vital piece of information, although both the guy on the bus and the other cyclist both offered to make statements,” Peter says.

At the time the clip was originally posted to X, formerly Twitter, in January, several cyclists noted their shock at the motorist’s reckless driving and bizarre behaviour.

“Multiple traffic offences! I use that same route to commute by bike, we shouldn’t have to put up with this abuse for using a cycling box,” wrote Ben.

“People forget driving is a privilege. This driver should have it revoked,” Holywood Cyclist added.

> “Looks like the cyclist deliberately made contact with the car”: Driver pulls across three lanes and hits cyclist – and motorists claim cyclist was at fault

Ironically, in late January we reported on another social media furore following a crash on the very same stretch of road – albeit in the opposite direction – where Peter was confronted by the bike box-ignoring motorist.

The rush hour collision between a cyclist and a motorist, who pulled across three lanes before hitting the rider on the Albert Bridge, sparked yet another heated debate on social media, where motorists claimed that the female cyclist was at fault for failing to avoid the collision – with some drivers even arguing that the rider deliberately steered into the vehicle.

The clip, captured by the dash cam of cyclist Gary’s Transit van, showed a hi-vis-clad female cyclist riding in a bus lane just outside Lanyon Place railway station, in the direction of Belfast city centre at around 7.45am in the morning, when a motorist, travelling in the opposite direction, pulled across three lanes and hit the rider, who emerged relatively unscathed from the collision.

Describing the collision, Gary said: “I did not let the car across, I was leaving the gap for the car on the left emerging. But the driver indicated and pulled across so quickly, assuming it was clear to go, he didn’t check.

“He didn’t see the cyclist because he plain didn’t look for it. His reactions were good when he did to be fair. He had stopped (just about) but the cyclist was on the brakes and slowing down.

“We all have a duty of care on the roads but no you can’t rely on anyone these days. Some take that duty of care more seriously than others.”

> “There's safety in numbers”: Parents of cyclist killed by lorry driver call for “more people to get on bikes” and safer infrastructure, branding crash junction “an accident waiting to happen”

However, other drivers on social media weren’t as keen as Gary to offer a similarly balanced perspective on the collision.

“If the cyclist was paying attention, he/she could have avoided that,” wrote Kesh. “Also, the car clearly hasn’t seen the cyclist coming due to visibility being blocked by cam car.”

“It might just be the camera angle, but if you slow the video down just as the cyclist comes into frame, it looks like he changed angle to make sure he made contact with the car,” wrote Kevin. “Also he could have narrowly avoided the car by pulley slightly to the left.”