An Auckland cyclist was lucky to walk away unharmed after a courier driver came within inches of hitting her with their van.
On Tuesday at 5pm, Auckland resident Kristen was riding along Khyber Pass Rd near a bus lane commonly used by cyclists and motorcyclists when a Deadline Express van suddenly swerved in front of her.
Swerving in and out of lanes, the van's driver, who did not indicate, forced Kristen to slam on her brakes.
Kristen told the Herald she thought that was going to going to be seriously hurt.
"I really thought that was it. I braced myself and thought I'd be hit.
"I was going downhill so had generated up enough speed to safely keep up with the flow of traffic.
"The van was stopping and didn't have any signals or indicators on. All of a sudden it pulled left right in front of me and I really thought I was going to get hit.
"He was less than 10cm away from my handlebars. It was really close. I yelled at him but he just pulled back to the right and kept swerving between lanes.
"I don't even know if he knew I was next to him."
Video shows the van driver in the bus lane - which is not permitted - and making no attempt to indicate before changing lanes.
Following her near-miss, Kristen (31) rode home and made a complaint to the courier company, which has apologised.
Deadline Express Couriers general manager Andrew Merrill told the Herald they have shown the driver the footage and are thankful no-one was injured.
"We've spoken to the driver who was shown the footage the morning after the incident.
"I was a pushbike courier myself for 14 years so I'm aware of what it's like to be a cyclist in Auckland. With the congestion, it's not getting any easier despite the introduction of cycle lanes.
"Our drivers are driving for 10 hours a day. In the environment they're in, incidents are inevitable, but we want all our drivers to respect all road users.
"We want people to report incidents to us and when they do we always follow it up and make sure it is an educational lesson for our drivers to make sure they can be as safe as possible.
"I'm glad nobody was hurt and we'll do what we can to educate our drivers more in the future."
Kristen, who has been riding on the roads for more than a year, says Tuesday's near-miss isn't the only trouble she's found on the roads.
She said there had been a number of close calls where cars got too close.
But she hopes her near-miss will help road users to become more aware of their surroundings and show patience while driving.
