Bus driver acquitted after punching cyclist

A bus driver who punched a cyclist in the face after he called him fat and stupid in a peak hour road rage incident has been acquitted in a Brisbane court.

Leon James Zahnow, 36, admitted punching 57-year-old Gregory Ralph Jardine, snapping his glasses in two and leaving him bleeding, in the inner-city suburb Paddington on December 10, 2009, the Brisbane Times reports.

But Mr Zahnow pleaded not guilty to one charge of assault occasioning bodily harm on the grounds he was provoked.

He told the Brisbane District Court yesterday that he only hit the cyclist after he was called "fat and stupid".

The court heard the men became involved in a "heated argument" after the bus nearly collided with the cyclist on Caxton Street.

Mr Jardine admitted banging repeatedly on the bus's front door and also interfering with the side mirror and windscreen wipers once it stopped after the incident.

He said the pair got into a struggle after Mr Zahnow got out of the bus and approached him while he was trying to write down the vehicle's registration number.