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Hanna, who has faced criticism in online comments for both approaching the woman and passing her in the lane she occupied, defended his decision.

“I pulled ahead because in my mind it was the safest thing to do,” he said Monday. “I’d rather not be behind her when someone else doesn’t notice that she’s not going through the green.

“But then I guess she decided to use my lane to pass by me, to prove some sort of point. She came within about three inches of hitting my side-view mirror. It was a scary moment, and just gut instinct that kicked in to go follow her.”

Hanna managed to get the woman to pull over and roll down her window. When he informed her that he had recorded the incident on camera and intended to follow up with the police, she replied: “Don’t you have something better to do?”

“No,” he said. “That’s dangerous to my life. It’s dangerous to other people’s lives. This is the best thing I can do right now.”

Hanna asked the woman to accompany him in finding a police officer, but she ignored him and drove onto Highway 417, where Hanna followed her briefly before giving up the chase. “She started weaving in and out of traffic, and I’m not doing that,” said Hanna.

He filed a police report online Friday night. According to Ottawa police, the matter has been sent to traffic investigators.

Hanna notes he regularly motions distracted drivers to put down their phones. In this instance, he’d like to see the woman charged with distracted driving. “I don’t want this woman to come under any harassment. I really don’t want to see anything like that happen, but I do want to see charges laid. What she did endangered my life and the lives of others.

“I’d like to bring awareness to motorcycle safety and why something like that is not OK to do. If I’m stuck behind her and she decides not to go on a green light … and I get rear-ended, that’s my life, gone.”