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Frightening video shows driver hitting and dragging Toronto cyclist

The clip came on the same day police were ticketing cyclists for minor infractions

Toronto driver runs over cyclist Photo by: Alex Duarte @AlexchaeAlex
July 20, 2023
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On Wednesday, a video was posted on Twitter of a driver mowing down a cyclist and it is raising all sorts of concerns and questions.

Motorist ran over rider

The clip, recorded at 7:30 a.m., shows a motorist in a sedan heading north when they come up behind a cyclist, slightly swerve then barrel into them. If you look closely at the terrifying video, it almost seems like the driver went within centimetres of his head.

I was almost killed today by a motorist driving in a cycle track and it was terrifying


The cyclist thankfully gets up, but definitely roughed up. The driver inspects his car–then the cyclist, and pulls over.

Vulernable road users face situations like this daily

David Shellnutt, a.k.a. The Biking Lawyer, said it’s just more example of the scary situations cyclists find themselves in as vulnerable road users. The collision came on the same day as police giving tickets to cyclists for going through pedestrian signals.

Toronto Police fine cyclists $325 for riding through pedestrian walk signal

“Today we were tweeting about ongoing incidents of police ticketing cyclists for minor infractions. The underlying point being that it is a hugely ineffective and misguided use of resources. To horrifically buttress our point, a community member shared a video with us of a motorist seemingly intentionally ramming into a cyclist from behind and driving over them. This is the road violence that cyclists deal with every single day in cities like Toronto. It’s not an aberration, it’s endemic,” he said.

Shellnutt added that there needs to be greater change to protect cyclists from further incidents.

“It’s why we cringe and protest when the cycling community is targeted by police while motorists run rampage across the city putting all vulnerable road users at risk, daily,” he said. “We need a societal shift in thinking and laws that immediately revoke someone’s ability to drive when they are caught doing such horrific acts as what this driver has perpetrated here.”