When you’re having a bad week, it can sometimes seem that it never rains but it pours. Alleycat film maker Lucas Brunelle’s week didn’t get off to the best of starts when on Monday the taxi driver he claims punched him, then drove his cab at him last week was released on $1,000 bail.
Still sporting a belter of a black eye as he spoke to the media following that arraignment hearing in his home city of Boston on Monday, things almost went from bad to worse for Brunelle this morning when he narrowly avoided being right-hooked by a van.
Amid heavy rain, Brunelle came off his bike but pulled off an impressive recovery to somehow land on his feet, wishing the driver of the liveried vehicle a “Happy Wednesday” as he resumed his journey.
Posting the footage to YouTube, the 43-year-old, an ex-racing cyclist, revealed: “I was taught how to crash at the Olympic Training center and it paid off, here I actually ended up on my feet.”
Friday’s incident involving Brunelle began when he went through a red light by his own admission and struck a pedestrian, leaving her in hospital with head injuries. He flagged down a taxi for assistance, and witnesses described how the driver then assaulted him.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
45 thoughts on “Video: Lucas Brunelle’s week almost takes turn for worse as van right-hooks him”
This is why we slow down when
This is why we slow down when presented with multiple hazards.
The man is an idiot.
Can i postulate that whilst
Can i postulate that whilst this fella’s bike handling skills may be very good his road awareness needs work.?
He was coming up very fast on the inside of traffic and as far as i can see the van was indicating.
Add to this his red light jumping i may also postulate that this fella is a bit of an arrogant prick and is getting his due comeuppance
Some Fella wrote:Can i
Oh, he’s very aware of other traffic, he’s just a bellend that somehow hasn’t been killed by his idiocy
What a tool.
What a tool.
darrenleroy wrote:What a
A spanner… and imperial when you need metric too.
Looks like this bloke needs
Looks like this bloke needs banning from cycling! By the look of it he doesn’t have any lights on the bike where as all the cars have their lights on in bad darkening weather. I see ‘people who ride bikes’ doing crazy road manoeuvres with a lack of spacial awareness and being very selfish all the time as well and as a regular cyclist in all forms of weather it drives me insane! No wonder some drivers get irate with ‘cyclists’ in general as the don’t differentiate between the uneducated riders and the courteous common sense riders.
I always see loads of people
I always see loads of people diving up the inside when cars are trying to turn.
I always make an effort to to slow down and go round the outside on the right if I can, but I can tell drivers are expecting cyclists to bomb past in front of them.
Before this week, I wouldn’t
Before this week, I wouldn’t have known his name. I’ve seen alleycat racing, and I’m sure I would have seen his videos, but the culture has zero appeal to me.
Anyway, these stories made me curious. After watching this, I’m amazed he hasn’t picked up a Darwin award.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnipQKX2i6k#t=380
Street racing combined with drinking games, it gets interesting from around six minutes on.
Oh christ, just drove across
Oh christ, just drove across the usa, wished I had seen this guy, would have run him over for the sake of humanity.
tazo101 wrote:Oh christ, just
This, on a cycling website? Good grief.
Tanking it along in miserable
Tanking it along in miserable conditions. Can tell for sure but from the video it did look like the van was indicating. Tool indeed.
The van was clearly
The van was clearly indictating. This guy needs to slow down and pay attention to his surroundings a bit more. On the flip side, how impressive was that landing!? He’s clearly an arrogant bell end but has some skills.
I think Brunelle is more
I think Brunelle is more devisive than a helmet debate!
I like that he is a character out of the norm. To be fair to him he freely admits that what he does is very dangerous, there is some kind of quote where he basically says he is taking risks in places like the door zone. Plus he seems to take a refreshing attitude of not getting enraged on behalf of cyclists, crashes are just one of those things that happen when you ride like that.
I think he had it coming with the being punched incident though, it was bound to happen sooner or later!
I’ve had vehicles overtake me
I’ve had vehicles overtake me then turn left directly in front of me, not a lot you can do about ignorant motor users, except, maybe give them some verbal. 😕
However, going down the inside of a line of traffic, in the rain, at a fair old lick, with the vehicle indicating to turn in, I don’t think you’ve got anyone one else to blame but yourself. :O
tourdelound wrote:I’ve had
Yes, I had that yesterday near my work. The guy then parked up in a trading estate, so I went back and gave him some more verbals! He didn’t really seem interested though, despite nearly killing me. Perhaps he is biding his time and hoping to get me properly later in the week?
My 2¢:
Never pass by cars at
My 2¢:
Never pass by cars at high speed, especially when they are moving.
Isn’t there a continuous white line the car should not cross?
In this weather the bike needs a tail and front light.
Never run away. Check out your body, your ride, the car, speak to the driver and have him park his car…
An interesting perspective on
An interesting perspective on it is that it shows that his absurdly reckless behaviour on a bicycle, when done regularly in a busy city, still isn’t killing people. Death caused by bicycle rider’s recklessness in general is quite rare.
Do what he’s doing on a car, and watch the death toll rise.
If anything good can be taken from his videos – it should be this point.
Anyway, yes, he is technically a solid rider. Definitely highly confident with reactions and skills to match.
Someone said earlier that he has poor awareness. I think that’s terribly myopic. He’s clearly very aware – he’s just prepared to meet the risks head on and try and react, scraping by on narrow misses. That’s what makes good footage in this genre.
What an idiot. If he were a
What an idiot. If he were a car driver going through red lights hospitalising pedestrians and undercutting indicating vehicles we’d be calling for a lengthy ban and even a bit of incarceration. Perhaps the courts should trash all his bikes and ceremonially burn his cycling kit X(
But he’s *not* a car driver,
But he’s *not* a car driver, and so the risk is almost entirely on him. How people keep missing this point is baffling to me. If he were a bird, he could have avoided this unpleasantness entirely by flapping his wings.
Meanwhile, people who actually are car drivers kill and hospitalize pedestrians and escape prosecution and sometimes even tickets.
I’ll join you in pearl-clutching about hypothetical pedestrian hospitalizations after we’ve dealt with all the actual pedestrian hospitalizations.
Vitriol for driver right
Vitriol for driver right hooking cyclist: Zero so far.
Vitriol for cyclist who gets right hooked whilst in a bike lane: A lot.
Yes he may be a fool for having missed the turn signal, but the driver should have checked his mirror. The cyclist was in a lane free of traffic.
A bit of balance would be nice, all I see here is victim blaming.
kie7077 wrote:Vitriol for
Yep, the solidarity thing goes out the window as soon as the cyclists is “one of those we don’t like, you know, those…”. And all of a sudden the bad driving is excused, as a sub out group has been identified and vilified, and it must be their fault.
F*ck this, the comments here are of the exact same nature as on cyclist hater threads. Check the other one were Brunelle got attacked by a taxi driver, same pattern.
Brunelle is a massive douche, no question, but the conflation between issue and person is disappointing.
kie7077 wrote:Vitriol for
I think I agree. People are so quick to emphasise how much more defensively they cycle and how careful they are they tend to forget that the bottom line is that the driver got it wrong.
After all, in the other incident (where this guy was clearly in the wrong – injuring a pedestrian while jumping a red is inexcusable) I didn’t see anyone rushing to declare how the pedestrian crossing the road should have ‘anticipated’ a cyclist jumping the red lights.
OMG, i’ve just googled his
OMG, i’ve just googled his antics on youtube…the ‘line of sight’ video is really rather disturbing! I only managed to get 5 minutes in…
It’s a shame that people will tarnish all cyclists with the same brush after they see what he gets up to!
kie7077 wrote:Vitriol for
To some extent you’re right, the driver is responsible for checking that it is safe to turn. However, at the speed the cyclist was going, and the weather conditions, the driver would be less likely to see the cyclist in the door mirror.
Whether the driver actually checked their mirror we don’t know. Maybe if the cyclist was riding at 15mph it still would’ve happened.
The guy is a dick, and gives us a bad name. The reactions, whilst not necessarily balanced, are understandable.
BikeBud wrote:kie7077
To some extent you’re right, the driver is responsible for checking that it is safe to turn. However, at the speed the cyclist was going, and the weather conditions, the driver would be less likely to see the cyclist in the door mirror.
Whether the driver actually checked their mirror we don’t know. Maybe if the cyclist was riding at 15mph it still would’ve happened.
The guy is a dick, and gives us a bad name. The reactions, whilst not necessarily balanced, are understandable.— kie7077
Given the speed and conditions, the driver may not even have seen him if they had used mirrors (not saying they didn’t). Lights really would have helped.
BikeBud wrote:The guy is a
Do you think London black cab drivers all have a bad name because one of them, John Worboys, raped or sexually assaulted in excess of a hundred women in his cab?
No?
Then quit with perpetuating this shitty fucking tribalist collective responsibility nonsense.
And stop lumping me in the likes of you. You dont speak for me, nor any of my friends who cycle so quit thinking you have any kind of authority to speak on our behalves.
zanf wrote:BikeBud wrote:The
Though I entirely agree that the “bad name” stuff around cyclists is irrational and needs to die, I actually think the Worboys case is a bad analogy.
That case _did_ damage black cabs’ reputation, and with valid reason – black can driving is heavily regulated and depends quite a lot on potential passengers seeing cabbies as trustworthy with respect to how they will treat passengers – otherwise you might as well accept a lift from a random motorist.
(Their livelihood _doesn’t_ depend on cyclists or any other non-passengers thinking taxi-drivers are considerate drivers – so they can be as obnoxious as they like in that regard without it doing them any harm).
It’s a bit like doctors or lawyers, its a sort of ‘profession’, with barriers to entry, and the Warboys case, like Harold Shipton for doctors, was damaging for trust.
Cyclists are not an equivalent group, they have no control whatsoever over who can get on a bike, and they aren’t reliant on a reputation to attract custom, its just not the same situation.
zanf wrote:BikeBud wrote:The
That’s the point of the whole ‘out group’ thing though isn’t it? People don’t heap all the sins of a few individuals onto all drivers, doctors, lawyers or whatever because they are an accepted, normal, group. They do it for minorities and groups they don’t really get- see immigrants, minority religions, LGBT, and so on and so on. You might not like it, and yes it’s stupid, but I don’t see how you can deny that it occurs- it’s pretty much everywhere.
It’s not cyclists deciding they’re a tribe and claiming responsibility for what everyone on a bike does.
Chuck wrote:You might not
Where in my comment did I deny it was happening? If anything I was calling for (have a re-read of your other statement in the above quote), *a cyclist* to stop spouting this bullshit and helping to perpetuate it.
zanf wrote:BikeBud wrote:The
This x1000
Can we stop giving this idiot
Can we stop giving this idiot the oxygen of publicity? He’s clearly a danger to himself, and our sport/transport method of choice. Highlighting his idiocy does nothing but futher the voices of cyclists out of control.
The sooner he gets his Darwin award the better
I’m with kie7077 – he was in
I’m with kie7077 – he was in a clear lane and the vehicle was crossing that lane to turn left. An indicator does not give right of way. Every driver should check that their way is clear before every manoeuvre. He was going faster than I would, but notice that he’s not moaning about the collision; the driver is still in the wrong.
@dughs: do you get angry at all drivers because one cut me up this morning? No? Then there’s no reasonable defense for folk getting angry at all cyclists because of the actions of one. Most people I know are reasonable enough not to get angry at a group because of the actions of one person who is nominally in that group.
@andybwhite: “If he were a car driver going through red lights hospitalising pedestrians and undercutting indicating vehicles we’d be calling for a lengthy ban and even a bit of incarceration.” – yes, because that is a significantly more dangerous thing to do than the same actions on a bicycle. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but cyclists aren’t killing thousands of people every year…?
A lot of stupid for one thread.
adamthekiwi
So that makes it OK then?
Just because the vehicle is smaller? at what point does your arbitrary cutoff point kick in? A motor bike, a moped, a 250lb guy doing 30mph on an MTB?
Cycling through red lights and hitting pedestrians is wrong as is cycling fast with limited visibility through stationary traffic – a child could have stepped into his path from between those vehicles. No adamthekiwi, this guy is stupid and if you don’t see it then you’re stupid too.
He’s good for entertainment
He’s good for entertainment if nothing else.
Watch this guys film “Line Of
Watch this guys film “Line Of Sight” and you’ll realise this is just a walk in the park to him!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0npCFw9TEnA#t=2810
This guy is too stupid to
This guy is too stupid to live. A Darwin Awards candidate…
While I’m totally fine with
While I’m totally fine with being generally critical of this guy because the alleycats and “skitching” he advocates are pretty stupid things (dare I say “douchebag thing”), I feel like he should be defended against the criticism specifically levied against him for these two recent incidents.
First, red light/pedestrian/cabbie incident- Foremost, the alleged assault by the cabbie is something that almost no one should have to face, particularly the part where the vehicle was reportedly used as a weapon. Second, the specifics around when and how Brunelle went through the red light are unknown (which is why he wasn’t ticketed for the admittance). For all we know, it could have been red everywhere with a walk signal for pedestrians, wherein he could have been legally allowed to proceed through the red light. Third, as a former Boston resident, cyclist, and driver, I feel like I have the right to be very critical about pedestrians in Boston. Yes, this might amount to “victim blaming.” Boston pedestrians are some of the most careless pedestrians, generally speaking, that I have ever encountered. We don’t know the specifics of this incident, but I can tell you that the occurrence of pedestrians strolling straight out into a street without even glancing in the direction of potentially oncoming bikes or cars is NON-STOP. In my old 3 mile commute to the financial district from Cambridge, I could expect a half dozen such incidents every day. Right now, we don’t know where the victim was or how she was crossing the street, but knowing Boston pedestrians, I’m not willing to declare her faultless, yet.
Second, this incident with the right hook. All that I’m ready to say from the video is that I can’t see anything that Brunelle is doing that is illegal. It also looks like the van only activated its turn signal as they were making the turn. I’m not even willing to say that Brunelle’s speed was too fast considering the conditions, but maybe it was. He did have time to react to the turn, but not enough to keep him from getting hit. I don’t see a front light, but maybe there is one that I can’t see (like on his body). Either way, I don’t think he would be required to have a light under the law at that time of day. Would a light be a good idea in those conditions? Yes. Part of the joy (for me, at least) of commuting by bike is blasting past all of the suckers stuck in their cars in a traffic jam. I would imagine that, like me, Brunelle balances speed and safety factors in getting where he is going. It would seem that he may tip the balance more to speed and less towards safety than I choose to do, but in many cases, the cyclist is the one who lives and dies with those choices, which is pretty unfortunate.
The Van driver had his
The Van driver had his indicator on.
Is this twat blind as well as stupid. When ridding YOU OPEN YOUR EYES what a DICK this guy is NO SYPMAPHY HERE.
:)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :))
Aussie Col wrote:The Van
I dislike this attitude.
(rest of comment deleted, can’t be arsed picking an argument)
Until seeing Line of Sight
Until seeing Line of Sight and a few other Fixie & Singlespeed films a year or so ago, I never realised how mental the way they ride in traffic in the big cities is. Get an idea of a risky cyclist in your head and then times it by ten. Insane. They take even more more risk in the Alleycats.
They do look pretty damn cool though.
I hadn’t actually heard of
I hadn’t actually heard of this bloke until this week. If he is so experienced etc etc, why was he riding so fast down the side of the traffic like that? I saw the van indicating (on the video clip, in hindsight) – why didn’t he?
At 1st impressed crashed, got
At 1st impressed crashed, got up, no claim form, arguing swearing. But looked at other videos of his.
Shame he didnt get crippled, and as a cyclist thats hard to say of another. The reason being he will cripple someone who is innocent.
Why the hell are Road putting his stuff up?
Remember this is road.cc,
Remember this is road.cc, keep it classy fellas.
Very disappointed with the
Very disappointed with the attitude at THIS particular incident. Without reading all the comments above, let me just ask.
How far in advance should you indicate before turning? Did the van driver indicate on time? Was the speed of the cyclist suitable to the nature of the road and conditions?
Its 30metres in urban areas, or right after the last turn before your turn comes. Van didn’t indicate on time. Even in traffic, allowing at least 4-5sec should be the norm before turning the vehicle. No idea what the speed of the cyclist is from the vid, but as long as its under 30mph he is on the safe side of the law. And is cycling on a ‘cycling’ lane. It is not raining hard, but wet enough to double check if his brakes can stop him.
At this particular incident I can’t see what is he doing wrong. Personally, this kind of incident happens daily on my work/home London commute and have to take ‘extra’ safety measures to avid being hit by morons turning and not indicating on time.
gr3g0ree wrote:Very
Pretty much agree with you on this. If, instead of being a bike in a cycle lane, we were talking about a bus in a bus lane I can’t imagine anyone taking the view that the bus driver was in the wrong (OK, maybe if they really had their foot down but I don’t see excessive speed as an issue here).
I think that there is a bit too much hate for this guy. I see allycat racers and the like as the boy racers of the cycling world but I don’t see anything like the level of hate for boy racers amoung the motoring fraternity despite them posing much more risk to the public than even the most deranged loony on a push-bike.