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A HULL driver whose road rage row has been seen by more than 500,000 people across the world on YouTube has apologised for his foul-mouthed outburst.

Grandfather-of-five Ronnie Pickering, 54, dubbed "road rage Ronnie", was caught on a GoPro camera shouting at a man on a moped in Bransholme.



The showdown, which has been uploaded to YouTube by user Steve Midz and picked up by media outlets as far away as Australia, was sparked when the moped overtook Mr Pickering's ten-year-old Citroën Xsara and sat at the front of a queue of traffic waiting to turn right.

Last night, the Mail tracked down Mr Pickering, who was seen on the clip shouting four-letter expletives and challenging the motorcyclist to take his helmet off for a "bare-knuckle fight", to The Ship Inn in Sutton, where he apologised.



He said: "I'd like to apologise for my outburst.

"He really got to me. I am not an aggressive guy.

"He was baiting me so I thought I would give him a few of my thoughts."

In the video, Mr Pickering says to the motorcyclist: "Do you know who I am?"

The bemused motorcyclist replies: "What?"

"Do you know who I am?" the driver repeats.

"Do I care?" retorts the motorcyclist, before adding, "Come on, who are you then?"



"Ronnie Pickering," the man replies.

"Who?"

"Ronnie Pickering!" the driver shouts.

"Who the **** is that?" says the motorcyclist.

"Yeah, me," says Mr Pickering.

"Oh, well. Brilliant!" says the motorcyclist, before adding: "You someone famous, are you?"

No violence took place during the confrontation, which happened close to Bransholme Fire Station in Noddle Hill Way shortly after 4pm on September 21.



Mr Pickering, above, who used to own a windows company, gave his version of events.

"I was on my way home from Asda in Bilton," he said. "I heard a tap, which I thought was the driver using his boot to hit my car. I don't know why he did this.

"He overtook a load of cars that was queuing. He encroached into my safety gap. I was wanting to turn right, but he wouldn't go. "I felt as though he was baiting me."

Mr Pickering, who has lived in Bransholme since he was 12 and is well known on the estate, says he accepts his reaction was wrong.

"To be really honest, I was out of order," he said. "It was an over-reaction. If you look at the video, there's no doubting that it looks bad. But you have to understand that this was extreme provocation."

Mr Pickering was shocked to find the video clip has gone viral and sparked a series of parody videos.

He said: "Because of this muppet I have been painted out to be some kind of a monster all over the world.

"But that just is not me. I am an easy-going guy who does not go around bothering people."

Challenged on what he had hoped to achieve by using expletives, Mr Pickering replied: "I wanted to give him a severe b********* for the manner I believed he was riding."

Mr Pickering said he would now like to meet the rider.

"I would like to talk to him and just ask him what it was all about," he said. "This isn't the first video this rider has posted to the internet."

Peter Jackson, 60, a neighbour of Mr Pickering, said: "Ronnie is a sound bloke. You won't find anyone around here saying a bad word about him."

Last night, a number of Ronnie Pickering comedy videos had also appeared on YouTube.