A cyclist who is wanted by the police for assaulting a bus driver has anonymously told his side of the story, contacting a news agency to explain how he was defending his girlfriend who had been driven at.
According to the man, the incident, which happened on October 11 on Rozengracht, Amsterdam, saw a bus brake suddenly behind him and his group of friends before honking. Shortly afterwards on another street the bus passed them again, and swerved towards the man’s girlfriend.
The group had just been out to celebrate the woman’s pregnancy, and the cyclist said that he was not in a “diplomatic mood”, NL Times reported.
He confronted the driver saying that he had almost run over his girlfriend and they ended up in a fight with the man shouting “If you want to kill people with your buss, I’ll kill you”.
The police report stated that the bus driver stopped on Leidseplein around 04:15 a.m. A few people were waiting to buy a ticket. Suddenly a man squeezed between these passengers and into the bus. According to the police, the man shouted “I’ll kill you” and grabbed the driver by his clothes. The bus driver was startled and pulled back, which tore his shirt. The man continued shouting at the driver in English and punched him in the face.
The report states that bystanders eventually pulled the man out of the bus when he then rode away on a bicycle.
The incident is still under investigation and the police say they are aware of the man’s statement.
After an unpromising start, having to be bribed by her parents to learn to ride without stabilisers, Sarah became rather keener on cycling in her university years, and was eventually persuaded to upgrade to proper road cycling by the prospect of a shiny red Italian bike, which she promptly destroyed by trapping a pair of knickers in the rear derailleur. Sarah writes about about cycling every weekend on road.cc.