A courier van pulls out suddenly in front of the cyclist, almost hitting her. The van fails to stop and check if the cyclist is ok. / Supplied by Jeff Lim
An Auckland cyclist is lucky to walk away unharmed after a courier driver came inches away from running her over.
On Tuesday at 5pm Auckland resident Kristen was riding along Khyber Pass Road near a bus lane commonly used by cyclists and motorcyclists when a Deadline Express courier driver suddenly swerved in front of her.
Swerving in and out of lanes the courier driver, who did not indicate, forced Kristen to slam on her brakes.
Kristen told the Herald she thought that was going to going to be seriously hurt.
An Auckland cyclist is lucky to walk away unharmed after a courier driver came inches away from running her over.
"I really thought that was it. I braced myself and thought I'd be hit.
"I was going downhill so had generated up enough speed to safely keep up with the flow of traffic.
"The van was stopping and didn't have any signals or indicators on. All of a sudden it pulled left right in front of me and I really thought I was going to get hit.
"He was less than 10cm away from my handlebars. It was really close. I yelled at him but he just pulled back to the right and kept swerving between lanes.
Video obtained by the Herald shows the Deadline Express courier driver wrongly driving in the bus lane, making no attempt to indicate before changing lanes.
Following her near miss, the 31-year-old cyclist rode home and made a complaint to the courier company, which has since apologised for the incident.
Deadline Express Couriers general manager Andrew Merrill told the Herald they have since shown the driver the footage and are thankful no one was injured.
"I really thought that was it. I braced myself and thought I'd be hit." Photo / Supplied
"We've spoken to the driver who was shown the footage the morning after the incident.
"I was push bike courier myself for 14 years so I'm aware of what it's like to be a cyclist in Auckland. With the congestion, it's not getting any easier despite the introduction of cycle lanes.
"Our drivers are driving for 10 hours a day. In the environment they're in incidents are inevitable, but we want all our drivers to respect all road users.
"We want people to report incidents to us and when they do we always follow it up and make sure it is an educational lesson for our drivers to make sure they can be as safe as possible.
"We don't want anyone getting hurt. With the number of bikes increasing across the city it's something that's going to be even more important for our drivers to be aware of.
"I'm glad nobody was hurt and we'll do what we can to educate our drivers more in the future."
Kristen, who has been riding on the roads for more than year, says Tuesday's near-miss isn't the only trouble she's found on the roads.
The 31-year-old said there had been a number of close calls where cars got too close.
But she hopes her near-miss will serve as an educational tool for road users to become more aware of their surroundings and show patience while on the roads.
"It's more about awareness. It could have been anyone not just a cyclist.
"This is the closest near-miss I've had but I'd have a lot of other near misses where the car comes extremely close to you which makes you wobble and nearly lose balance.
"Cyclists are quick to be blamed for going too fast. We try to keep up with the speed of traffic where possible to ensure the safety of other road users."
