https://www.buzz.ie/news/taxi-driver-centre-viral-video-claims-cyclist-smashed-wing-mirror-302007A taxi driver at the centre of a shocking video showing him driving through a red light and swerving across the road after a cyclist has defended his bizarre actions.
The Irish Daily Star tracked down Dublin taxi driver Felix Ukachukwu, who drove his silver Toyota Prius through a red light as he chased a cyclist — before swerving across to the wrong side of the road and onto a footpath in an attempt to stop him on Wednesday afternoon.
The incredible video, which went viral yesterday, shows the cyclist and taxi driver go through a busy junction and through a red light before the taxi driver makes the dangerous move across Belvedere Road in Drumcondra, north Dublin.
But speaking exclusively to The Star, the driver, Felix Ukachukwu, claimed he was trying to stop the cyclist after he struck his wing-mirror.
“I was at a taxi rank in Stephens Green. I was coming to Talbot Street. So I came to Talbot Street, pulled on the side to drop off the girl and then a cyclist that was passing, stretched out his hand, and smashed my side mirror,” claimed Mr Ukachukwu, who lives in Clonee, west Dublin.
“I dropped the girl and followed him. He didn’t stop,” he said.
“So I followed him, I tried to get his attention and there was no police. So he went through a red light, (and so did I) hoping that the police would see me and say what’s going on here.
Mr Ukachukwu showed The Star the damage to his wing mirror — which he claims was caused in a collision with the cyclist.
He says he chased after the cyclist, even dangerously crossing the other side of the road, in a desperate attempt to apprehend him.
“I was really infuriated. I was willing to go any length to get him,” he said.
“When I passed him on the North Circular Road I got him on the next street and he said ‘you think you can catch me, you can’t catch me.’
And when asked what he would have done had he actually caught the cyclist, Mr Ukachukwu said: “I would have called the police.”
He claims the cyclist swerved around him on purpose in an attempt to taunt him — with the footage showing him manovering around his taxi as he drives at him and continuing to cycle off.
“If that cyclist didn’t do anything wrong, when I was stopping him, he would have stopped and challenged me,” Mr Ukachukwu alleged.
“You saw how the cyclist was maneuvering around me. If you’re a cyclist and a taxi man comes to you and blocks you in the road you would stop and say sorry.
“But you wouldn’t say ‘you think you could stop me’. No.”
The Garda Press Office stated that it was aware of the incident from media enquiries but the matter had not been reported to officers.
It stated that if the matter was reported it would then possibly be the subject of an investigation.
Mr Ukachukwu said he wants to contact gardai and hopes that maybe CCTV will exonerate his actions.
