"Fearful and in tears" cyclist filmed riding on Glasgow's M8 motorway

A car passenger has told of how a cyclist looked "fearful and in tears" after straying onto a busy motorway in Glasgow.

Euan Paul filmed the bike rider on the five-lane M8 motorway as he crossed the River Clyde on the city's Kingston Bridge.

Mr Paul, who was in a car being driven by a work colleague, said that motorists swerved out of the way to avoid the cyclist,  reports the Mirror.

The newspaper's report includes footage of the episode filmed by Mr Paul, a security engineer.

"My initial reaction was shock, but the situation got funnier the longer it went on," he said.

"We believe he may have taken a wrong turn on to the motorway at Charing Cross. He looked fearful and in tears.

"He didn't have safety gear. We assumed he really wasn't out for a big stroll and possibly lived locally."

He said that the presence of the rider on the motorway, from which cyclists are banned, appeared to anger other motorists.

"Other car drivers were really annoyed," Mr Paul revealed. "That area of Glasgow at that time is a nightmare as it is.

"Drivers were angry - overtaking at speed, horns going, you name it."

But he added: "If I could say anything to the cyclist, it would probably be 'thanks for the laugh.'"

Cyclists are banned from motorways under Rule 253 of the Highway Code, but many somehow end up on them, possibly because they are unaware of the law.

In 2015, we reported how Surrey Police said a cyclist had "scared himself silly" after he found himself on the M25 after taking a wrong turning down a slip road onto the busy London orbital route.

> M25 cyclist “scared himself silly,” say Surrey Police

​And in 2014, when Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games, triathlete Jonathan Brownlee tweeted a picture of the Sri Lankan cycling team training on the M74.

​> Commonwealth Games cyclists go training ... on a motorway

​While Mr Paul may have found the presence of the cyclist on the M8 humorous, sometimes the presence of a cyclist on a motorway can end up in tragedy.

Last August, a coroner's inquest heard how 52-year-old cyclist Simon Wagner was killed by a car being driven at 70mph as he rode in the middle lane of the M3 near Fleet in Hampshire on the evening of 5 May 2016.

The driver of the vehicle involved in the fatal collision, David Earl, said that he only spotted Mr Wagner in the beam of his headlights when he was about 50 feet away from the cyclist, and therefore had no time to avoid hitting him.

> Cyclist killed on M3 was victim of "unavoidable collision," inquest  hears