Cyclist flips off driver who almost hit him, gets chased down — VIDEO

Cyclist Alan Crocker regrets flipping off the driver of the blue pickup truck that buzzed past him on a recent Saturday morning in Rome, Georgia.

He’s not proud of it, and he’ll never do it again — especially now that he knows how unpredictable the response might be.

Crocker was wearing a helmet camera that recorded the driver getting out of his vehicle and knocking him over on his bike. He showed the footage to the Floyd County Police officer who responded to his 911 call. According to a police report, the footage convinced the officer that the driver was “the aggressor,” refuting his claim that Crocker provoked him by kicking his car.

The driver, who did not return CNN’s requests for comment, was arrested on charges of assault and battery and released on bond. He is awaiting a court date.

Meanwhile, Crocker wonders if things would have turned out differently if he wasn’t wearing his helmet camera that day.

“I was able to show the officer the video right there on the side of road,” he said. “It’s not every day that there’s clear evidence showing a cyclist was mistreated.”

Crocker said drivers in his community are “almost uniformly courteous,” and that he has ridden tens of thousands of miles with his helmet camera without incident. But, it was worth it to have evidence for the time he needed it, he said.

He hopes cyclists learn a lesson in etiquette, too.

“Flipping people off isn’t the best course,” he said. “You never know who’s in that car.”