Even though they’re not in a car, cyclists must follow the rules of the road.
Denver commuter and Redditor /u/MySafeWordIsYeet shared surprising dashcam footage from earlier in March (March 29, 2025) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a cyclist following too close and ending up slamming into the back of OP’s truck.
Check out OP’s rear dashcam footage embedded below with the original Reddit thread linked here.
The incident happened at the intersection of Speer Blvd. and W 11th Ave in Denver, CO (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As OP’s dashcam footage shows, he’s driving along Speer Blvd. and turns left onto 11th Ave.
Keen eyes will notice he doesn’t turn into the same lane he started from, a driving error he acknowledges.
“I vehemently agree that you need to turn into the first available lane when there are multiple turn lanes, but here, where there is only one lane to turn from, it doesn’t really matter. When it gets busy, the left lane will back up, and you literally can only turn into the right lane….”
Halfway through the 11th Ave overpass and before the intersection with the other side of Speer Blvd OP notices an emergency vehicle approaching side intersection.
“I had a green light, however, I saw an emergency vehicle rapidly approaching from the cross street (you can hear it in the video) so I stopped to let it proceed,” OP’s description reads.
At the same time, a cyclist who had been following OP puts his head down to peddle and, not seeing OP brake and with nowhere to go, slams into the back of OP’s truck.
“You good?” we can hear the cyclist ask OP after collecting himself.
“Yeah, I’m good….You want to go over there,”OP responds, finding a safe place to check each other and their respective vehicles out.
Thankfully, the cyclist and his bike were uninjured and not seriously damaged in the crash.
The same goes for OP’s truck, too.
“No damage to my vehicle and the bicyclist was fine so we just shook hands and carried on.”
While cyclists must follow the same rules of the road and right-of-way laws as cars, there are important best practices that cyclists must keep in mind.
In this case, since cars can stop much quickly and within shorter distances than bikes, cyclists should maintain a safe following distance from cars at all times.
And yeah, paying attention is a good idea, too.
“Cyclists generally need to follow the same rules as cars. This guy was trying to catch a nice draft, but it’s no different than getting tailgated and rear-ended,” the top comment from /u/Reasomable-Two-9872 reads.
“Even ignoring the fact that the cyclist ran the red light, he had plenty of time to stop if he were paying attention,” /u/jimkbeesley commented.
“Biker is at fault. You were stopped. He should’ve had buffer room to stop safely,” /u/Dull_wrongdoer_3017 added.
As the weather warms up, this dashcam video is a stark reminder that we share our roads with cyclists and drivers alike.
Whether you’re behind the wheel or on a bike seat, safe following distances are a universal rule, not to mention common sense.
