BMW driver and courier in fisticuffs

CTV reports on a fight between a bike courier and a BMW driver.

Driver pleads innocence. No one interviews the courier. Driver has a name: Azid Hamid. The courier has none.

Azid Hamid was driving his silver BMW on Queen near Church Street when a bicycle courier began yelling at him through his open window.

"He called me name and boom! Hit me without no reason," Hamid alleged.

But maybe it's not that simple; it rarely is.

Detectives told CTV Toronto that Hamid became stuck behind the courier at Queen Street East and Church Street, which is in the middle of a construction zone.

"The cyclist went out into the middle of the lane, which is the passing lane -- which he has a right to do because he is a vehicle on the roadway," said Const. Mike Wong of the Toronto Police Service.

"And the driver of the vehicle thought he was slowing him down or whatever reason. As a result, there was a dispute. And it just escalated from that point on."

It's nice that the cop understood the right of the cyclist to be in the middle and to suggest that perhaps that the driver was angered that the cyclist was slowing him down. What did the driver do next? Rev his engine? Honk? Bump the back wheel of the cyclist? All of these can be quite intimidating and aggressive.

Hamid said the bicyclist came up beside him and hit him in the face repeatedly. "So I hit him back."

The motorist kept driving for several blocks before parking his car and getting out through the passenger's side. That's when he started hitting the cyclist back. The bike courier fell to the ground, witnesses said.

Paramedics treated the cyclist for minor injuries.

Police were called but neither man wanted to press charges.

Funny that the cyclist needed to be treated for injuries but not the driver. Funny that even the driver didn't want to press charges. Maybe he didn't feel so innocent.