A bizarre and scary incident at a Richmond bus stop last Friday was caught on dashcam video.
The video, posted on Reddit by Richmond resident Mark Simon, shows him driving near Cambie and Shell roads around 4 p.m. when a man suddenly walked out in front of his Honda SUV.
Simon, who had his wife and two kids in the vehicle at the time, said he was travelling the speed limit and had just went through a yellow light approaching a bus stop.
Slamming on the brakes
For no apparent reason, the man strode abruptly into the path of his car, causing him to slam on the brakes at the last second.
The man then glares at or past Simon for a second or two, before walking calmly back onto the sidewalk.
Ice-cream went flying
Thankfully, the only casualty was the ice-cream on top of his kids’ cones in the back seat, which came flying off as a result of the abrupt stop.
“I used to be a paramedic, so I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff, but never this,” Simon told the Richmond News.
“I don’t think I’d have been able to stop that quickly if I wasn’t doing the speed limit.
“I saw him coming to edge of the sidewalk, as if he was looking for the bus. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw him on the edge of the road.
“The next thing I knew, He was right in front of me. I managed to slam on the brakes. It was quite a shock.”
Anger all around
Simon said the man was cursing loudly when he retreated to the sidewalk, but without making any eye contact with him or his wife.
“It was all very strange. My wife and I were so angry. I wanted to get out but wife said the guy didn’t look too well, so we decided just to drive off,” added Simon.
Simon said he called the police non-emergency line, but they said there wasn’t much they could do.
“I called ICBC, as I was concerned, but they said, without a claim, there was nothing they could do,” said Simon.
“So I posted it on Reddit, as I wanted to find out if he had maybe done this before, or if it was a scam, to get injured and then demand money or something.”
The News has reached out to ICBC to enquire if there have been such claims in the past.
