The January 31 road rage incident.
Camera IconThe January 31 road rage incident. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Land Rover reverses at cyclists in road rage incident in Perth Hills (video)

Lynn GriersonHills Avon Valley Gazette

Footage of the latest cyclist-motorist clash on Sunday provoked an outcry on social media this week.

A Perth cyclist publicly posted a video of a Land Rover reversing at speed on to the wrong side of the road towards the last rider in a group.

The three cyclists appear shaken after the incident in Glen Forrest.

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“It was close,” posted the owner of the camera.

“The police made contact (on Sunday) and a full version of the video was handed over with my witness statement,” he told the Gazette.

Midland Cycling Club rider Amanda O’Connor said she had experienced road rage in the Hills and believed most incidents were unwarranted.

“We train kids on the road and because of what we have experienced ourselves, trainers routinely film what happens on the road,” she said.

“We don’t want to inflame the situation, but this is a safety issue and we recognise there is right and wrong on both sides.”

She said two teenage cyclists from the club were hospitalised after a serious accident in Upper Swan in August last year.

Ms O’Connor is head development coach for the National Cycling Centre (WA) and said in recent years she had noticed a significant growth in cycling outside the sporting arena.

She said cycling was popular with children and more adults were getting on their bikes to cycle to work for fitness and at weekends for leisure.

The Royal Safety Commission shares her view.

Its website says there are more bicycles on the road in WA than the Australian average and bicycle counters in Perth show steady growth in cycling numbers.

While Ms O’Connor supports the Commission’s Share the Road safety campaign, she said more safety training and awareness was needed.

She said children were on the road without training because there was no cycling proficiency testing in WA.

“Police in the eastern states run a road safety campaign every year that includes cycling, but this doesn’t happen in WA,” she said.

“Everyone needs to learn how to share the tarmac.”

Ms O’Connor said she would like to see cycling introduced as a school sport, with cycling safety on the curriculum.

She said there were two types of incidents on the road: accidents and malicious behaviour.

“Many of the accidents can be addressed by initiatives for both drivers and cyclists.”

Ms O’Connor said some drivers underestimated the potential speed of a sports cyclist.

“I’m aware of an accident where a driver saw a cyclist descending a hill and still pulled out; the cyclist was going at 50km/h,” she said.

Chief executive of riders group WestCycle Matt Fulton said Share the Road was about drivers and cyclists showing respect for one another on the road.

“These sorts of incidents (road rage) are isolated,” he said.