Jason Kenny opens up on ‘scary’ near-miss with van
The six-time Olympic champion and his son were 'almost run over by a van driver' last month
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Your support makes all the difference.Six-time Olympic champion Jason Kenny has urged motorists to think about the potential consequences of their actions towards cyclists following a “scary” incident he and his one-year-old son Albie were involved in last month.
On 17 February Kenny posted a message on Twitter in which he described the incident he said saw him “almost run over by a van driver.”
Kenny wrote: “On a nice Sunday afternoon I go for a ride with our 18 months old son on quiet country lanes only to be almost run over by a van driver who drove at us, then proceeded to angrily inform me it was my fault we nearly died.
“In his dense skull he believes he has right of way so he’s willing to kill someone? What’s wrong with people?! Seriously do we think that little of cyclists in this country? It’s embarrassing, I’m ashamed to breath the same air as this man.”
Talking about that “angry tweet” on Monday on BBC One, Kenny said: “Someone felt they had right of way and decided that gave them the right to kind of jump on the throttle and drive at us, which was a scary experience.
“I’m a bit annoyed at myself because I lost my temper at the time. We had a heated debate about the incident and then the person drove away.
“I think there seems to be a bad feeling against cyclists and it’s really strange because they’re only people.
“We met a young boy and young girl who recently lost their mum, and it’s really sad when you see that side of it. She got hit by a car and that’s someone’s mum, not just a cyclist. It is really sad when you see the consequences of that.
“This person has obviously just seen red, ‘I’ve got right of way, I’m going to go’, and you might have right of way technically – whether you do or don’t is often debatable – but it doesn’t give you the right to smash someone and potentially kill someone, which is what is going to happen if you run someone off their bike.
“I think it’s just taking a breath and think about the consequences.”
The 31-year-old’s wife Laura Kenny, the four-time Olympic champion, gave birth to Albie in August 2017.
As the couple target the Tokyo 2020 Games – where further success for Jason would see him eclipse Sir Chris Hoy as Britain’s most decorated Olympian – they have been discussing the prospect of Albie making the trip with them, as he has done for the last two track world championships in Apeldoorn and Pruszkow.
“We want to take him for sure,” Kenny said.”
PA
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