Cyclist and Wellington local body election candidate James Sullivan had a near miss with a Countdown delivery truck on Sunday.
Sullivan, who is a candidate for Wellington City Council’s Takapū/Northern ward, says he was riding along Adelaide Rd in Wellington when the truck flew past him, brushing up against him.
He says the driver saw him but didn't stop. "Before I knew what was happening it was all over."
Countdown has apologised and is conducting an investigation, Sullivan added.
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"I do believe they [Countdown] shoulder some of the responsibility as a lot of these drivers do have routes that are just far too busy, so that incentivises and encourages aggressive driving needlessly," Sullivan said.
"It really wasn't until I reviewed the footage later that I saw precisely how close they got, after I saw that it was pretty terrifying."
Sullivan says near misses like Sunday are "depressingly common" for cyclists in New Zealand.
He also said two weeks he drove past a taxi on Wellington's Lambton Quay and the driver wound down the window and allegedly hit him.
"I was riding along, the light went green and he drove up beside me, both of us moving, touched me with his car, reached out and punched me."
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Sullivan says Aotearoa is not a safe place for cyclists and he can think of "half a dozen" similar incidents.
"I think it's a combination of road speed, road design, the culture we have around cars, the pressures that people are under at work."
He also said councils should lower the speed limit from 50km/h to 30km/h. He says this would be difficult politically but the alternative is cyclist and pedestrians will continue to be injured and killed.
In a statement, Countdown told 1News: "Safety is our absolute priority and yesterday’s incident is certainly not what we would expect of our delivery drivers.
"We're incredibly sorry for what Mr Sullivan experienced and are looking into what happened with urgency."
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