A court case that has pitted a bus driver against a cycling advocate in a case of alleged road rage has almost reached its final stop in North Vancouver provincial court.
A judge will then decide if a TransLink bus driver was driving dangerously during a near miss with a cyclist – and whether a monologue captured by the bus’s recording system has any bearing on that decision.
Christopher Charles Heward, 49, of North Vancouver, faces a charge of dangerous driving stemming from the incident on March 31, 2015, in which his bus passed a cyclist on the left-hand side as it headed down Third Street in North Vancouver towards Second Street, ending up in a turning lane for oncoming traffic.
In court, prosecutor Joe Marin suggested Heward decided to cut off the cyclist in a moment of road rage because he was angry at seeing the cyclist in his lane of traffic rather than on a nearby cycling path.
“I will suggest you wanted to scare that cyclist. That cyclist had pissed you off from the moment you saw him and you wanted to send a message,” Marin said to Heward during cross-examination before Judge John Milne in North Vancouver provincial court Jan. 4.
Marin suggested during the cross-examination that the move was dangerous and motivated by “animosity toward cyclists.”
A key piece of evidence presented during the trial has been a video and audio recording taken inside the bus in the moments leading up to the move by the bus driver.
“Isn’t it nice how they built you that bike path that you don’t f***ing use?” Heward can be heard saying on the tape, apparently commenting about the cyclist. “You are not making any f***ing friends,” Heward can be heard saying, before adding, “Oh here you go. F*** you then,” and concluding, “Dude, you’re mistaken. You don’t understand the rules of the road.”
Under questioning by Marin, Heward testified he was “a little irritated” to see the cyclist not using the bike path but maintained he acted out of concern for safety, not anger.
Heward said he was surprised to see a cyclist suddenly move into his lane, in front of the bus, and had to make a “split-second decision” about the safest course of action to avoid hitting him.
The incident came to the attention of authorities after cyclist Greg Robinson called North Vancouver RCMP to report it. Police then seized the bus’s internal video and audiotape from the Coast Mountain Bus Company.
Robinson, who testified in court in December, said he was “dazed,” “aghast” and “shaken” after the near miss with the bus.
Under cross-examination, however, Heward’s defence lawyer Mark Slay suggested Robinson had exaggerated his fear over the incident because as a cycling advocate, he wanted to see the bus driver punished.
“You’ve held strong views about cycling and cyclists for a long time now, haven’t you?” Slay asked, pointing to a letter Robinson wrote to the Georgia Straight six years ago in which he described motorists as perpetuating “hate crimes” and acts of “terrorism” on cyclists.
“Your hope is a conviction in this matter will put you into the limelight of cycling advocacy,” Slay suggested, adding Robinson wanted the conviction to perpetuate a “political agenda.”
Slay summed that up as “cyclists good, motorists bad.”
“I don’t know that the concept of justice equates to a political agenda,” Robinson replied.
Other witnesses who testified in the trial have included a police officer and a local contractor who was driving a truck ahead of the bus and told the judge he saw the cyclist swerve to avoid the bus in his rear-view mirror.
Heward testified in court that Coast Mountain Bus later gave him a three-day suspension for his actions.
Outside the court, a spokesman for TransLink said in an emailed statement Heward no longer works for the company.
Final arguments in the case are expected at the end of March.
