Watch CBS News

Helmet Camera Captures Car/Bike Confrontation In Boston

BOSTON (CBS) - One Boston bicyclist's brush with an angry driver has Boston Police trying to track the car down. Eoin O'Carroll has a tiny camera mounted on his bike helmet, and uses it to record his commute every day.

O'Carroll was biking to work on Massachusetts Avenue at Boylston Street, when he says a driver behind him honked. When O'Carroll didn't move out of his lane, he says the car then brushed past him dangerously close.

"He comes within six inches from my left handlebar…It's absolutely terrifying. I thought of my ten-month-old daughter and my wife." The video from his helmet camera shows the driver stopping his car, getting out, and telling O'Carroll he shouldn't have been in the street. He even challenges O'Carroll to get off his bike and "handle this".

WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports

The head of Mass Bike Coalition, David Watson, says O'Carroll did everything a cyclist is supposed to do. He says bikes have the right to use the same travel lanes as cars, and are subject to the same rules of the road. "If the bicyclist had moved over…He would have been moving too close to the parked cars, putting himself in danger of being doored."

Watson says he's had his own similar brushes with drivers. He's concerned about what appears to be a pattern of hostility, at a time when the number of cyclists on Boston roads has quadrupled in three years.

As for O'Carroll's case, he says Boston Police dismissed his complaint when he first approached them. But after his video of the confrontation made rounds on YouTube, police contacted him. A spokesperson tells us police are investigating and, "actively pursuing the driver."

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.