This is an interesting video and raises a couple of points for me.

A cyclist calls out a driver who is using a phone whilst driving. The driver responds by saying he can drive safely whilst using his phone. Sadly, for the driver, the cyclist later catches up with the car in time to see him rear end another car. It’s all caught on the cyclists head cam.

Point 1

Using mobile phones whilst driving is dangerous. It is distracted driving and it kills. This driver clearly has no idea what he is talking about and the evidence is there for all to see. Here he rear ended a car. It could have been a cyclist knocked off a child running out in front of him.

This learner driver and instructor were both focusing on driving and still a crash happened. Imagine if the driver was on the phone. Especially the one in the outside lane.

Point 2

In my recent blog for road safety week I discussed some of the issues around some (please read that again… “some” not “all”) cyclists who have become vigilantes to road safety and seem to almost go out of their way to highlight bad driving. Especially if they are catching all of this on video.

I accept that cyclists are vulnerable road users and will be angered when they see drivers taking unnecessary risks. I get angry when I see the same, or kids not strapped in, or misuse of fog lights or running on DRL’s in poor weather .. the list goes on. The question is how far do you go in bringing this to the attention of the other driver?

Road rage is an ever increasing problem, and from my experience as a roads policing officer, people don’t take too kindly to being told they are in the wrong… speeding, no seatbelt, using a phone etc. This is when a cop is telling them. The situation between fellow road users is only likely to be worse and, as in this case, things can escalate massively out of control.

So whilst the driver has no excuse for using a phone and is completely wrong in his statement about his safety, what we have here is the start of a road rage incident.

Can you envisage the driver getting out and arguing with the cyclist? Can you envisage the driver getting ahead, pulling over and getting out to have a go at the approaching cyclist? Can you envisage the cyclist continually goading the driver at every set of lights/junction/stop?

I can and this raises a question. Did the cyclist play any part in increasing the distraction of the driver in this case? I think they probably did. Yes the driver was using a phone earlier but was he using it at the time of the crash? Would the driver have crashed anyway? Maybe they would have done. Statistics say this is much more likely if using a phone. But was the driver angry at being challenged? Was the driver even more annoyed that the cyclist was goading him the second time? Was the adrenaline flowing? Was the driver in fight or flight mode? Was the driver so consumed in what the cyclist was doing that he crashed into the other car?

We will never know. But two things are certain.

Phone use by drivers significantly increases the risk of being in a collision.

Directly challenging other road users is confrontational and often escalates an issue rather than negating it.

The full article can be found here.