SHOCKING video shows a cyclist so focused on his mobile phone that he crashes into a gate and loses his teeth.
The cyclist is seen travelling at speed while looking down at the mobile. The next moment he is seen hitting a metal gate with considerable force.
Later footage shows at least five teeth scattered across the pavement in Coventry as well as spots of blood.
The footage was captured on CCTV at Daz Rollins’ home in the early hours of last Wednesday.
Daz, 38, found the incident on his home security footage and posted it online with the caption: “Footage of that bloke crashing into that gate last night. Not good.
“Dentist for you my son.”
The clip starts with the camera facing along the street to the right of his home. The mystery man comes along in the middle of the road past parked cars on either side.
Daz provides an amusing commentary, saying: “Look, my man on his f****** phone, ohhh…”
As it moves to a different camera angle, a gate comes into view.
The forklift driver continues: “Right, so yeah he’s coming down the street on his phone. Loving his life, texting his girlfriend. Know what I mean?”
The cyclist then moves into the shot and still distracted by his device he flies straight into the barrier with a thud. His mouth can be seen painfully clattering into the top pole, while his phone goes flying forward.
Daz adds excitedly: “Whoa, straight round your lips” while sniggering.
He later went outside and discovered that the unfortunate man had left behind several teeth.
In a second video he says “Check this s*** out” before adding: “That looks like one tooth.”
Specks of blood can be seen as he moves over to another he says: “And there’s two teeth” before joking: “I f****** knew it man, toothless.
“He picked up his phone but forgot his teeth.”
The post on Facebook has been viewed over 8,000 times and social media users sent in their replies.
Hayley Rogers said: “Poor kid, toothless.”
Thomas O’Brien said: “Dangers of texting while riding.”
Daz himself was keen to point out that there should be a serious lesson learned.
Speaking today (TUES), he said: “I think no matter what you’re driving or riding you shouldn’t go on your phone. It only takes a split second for something to happen and if you’re busy looking at your phone then obviously bad things can happen.
“As you can see from the footage if he wasn’t looking at his phone he would have saw there was a big metal gate. Looking at his phone has just cost him about six teeth. Let that be a lesson to people.”
A similar point was made by Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research at road safety experts IAM Roadsmart.
He said: “This footage shows that distraction from smartphones causes exactly the same problems for cyclists as it does for drivers. You simply can’t multitask if you are concentrating on a call.
“Cycling offences are a grey area which are currently being reviewed by the Westminster government. We may also soon see a re-education course being made available for careless cycling. Given the vulnerability of cyclists however using a phone is more likely to lead to a very painful reminder.”
