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news
Near Miss of the Day 88: White van driver makes very close pass
Today's video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows a white van driver in Nottingham making a very close pass at speed on a cyclist.
However, road.cc reader Gary McMahon, who submitted the footage, told us that Nottinghamshire Police had decided to take no action against the driver.
He told us that the officers informed him that reasons behind that decision included that he had not himself taken evasive action in the incident, which happened last month on Porchester Road.
Any cyclist who has ever been subject to a close pass of this nature by someone driving fast will know that there is no time to react, and from the footage it is difficult to see how the cyclist might be expected to take evasive action in the first place.
The two drivers who overtook Gary immediately before the motorist who made the close pass gave him plenty of room.
Another reason he was told that police weren't interested in taking action was that the driver had to pull in because of a car coming towards him.
Close examination of the video shows that the driver of that vehicle had moved out to the diagonal stripes in the middle of the road to overtake a van parked partly on the footway and partly on the road - a common enough problem in the area that one local resident launched a petition last year to try and force the authorities to take action.
Police also said that the incident was not worth following up because the motorist didn't hit the cyclist.
Gary added: "You could not make it up!"
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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22 comments
Crazy decision by the police. I hope it's challenged.
I would think that a complaint should be made to Nottinghamshire Police for an independent review of this footage, and if that doesn't get a response a complaint to the IPCC.
There is no excuse for the close pass made by that driver. They demonstrated a complete disregard for the safety of another road user.
If the driver had overtaken another vehicle in the face of an oncoming police car and caused either the vehicle they were overtaking or the police car to take avoiding action you could bet your life that the driver would have been stopped and prosecuted for some offence. But because it is a cyclist no action was taken.
Or if a cyclist was to walk up to a police officer and threaten to hit them with a D-Lock would they not prosecute the cyclist because no one was injured?
This is an example of a police force simply taking the easy way out. Don't let them... make sure that you make them jump through all of the hoops because they failed to do anything on an incident that could have been life changing for the cyclist on another day.
That's awful, so close Must have been millimeters!!
No prosecution!! SHOCKING!! The police need telling.
That's horrendous. He gets another close pass about 3:30 in but nothing like as bad as the white van.
Can’t believe the police won’t prosecute for this.
The company logo looks like this:
https://www.rfresh.co.uk/
https://www.whois.com/whois/rfresh.co.uk
The police offer that declared "no further action" to be taken for that needs to lose their job! They are clearly failing in their duty to protect the public. Hope this one gets re-opened.
With the quality of that cycle lane, the pinch points in crossing points and that standard of driving, you'd really have to be beyond primary to stop passes like this. If you were to do so, you'd probably feel a greater resentment and some slower close passes. As you say CQ almost definitely over the maximum limit and certainly not suitable for the conditions...
Totally wrong for the police to say the cyclist could have anticipated this.
It was the responsbility of the van driver to read the road ahead and he didn't.
Maybe the driver of the other car could have anticipated the van driver's actions and stopped before the parked car, but I'm pretty sure he would have pulled out before the van got close to the cyclist.
Also the van driver definitely appears to be driving far too fast.
I think he's probably got the mindset of many drivers, that you don't have to apply the usual rules when overtaking cyclists as they aren't really legitimate road and you should never ever be delayed by them even by seconds.
Unbelievable!
'No evasive action' what do they mean 'no evasive action'? how in the arse are you supposed to evade something that's already happened? What utter bollocks.
That was a shockingly close pass. The police should at least issue the driver with a warning, clear examples of dangerous driving simply cannot effectively be ignored. There is ZERO excuse for such a pass of a vulnerable road user.
I don't think that's a mitigating circumstance: I think its actually further proof of the driver's incompetence...
Sorry, but this is just plain hideous. I’m not sure what’s worse, the lack of action or the pathetic excuses the police gave.
It would appear that Notts Plod will indeed procecute dangerous drivers where there hasn't been an accident or injury. While not totally clear, this document https://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/sites/default/files/documents/file... does differentiate between dangerous driving where there is a collision and where there is not, otherwise they would be able to provide a more conclusive answer.
I would ask Notts Plod to explain this apparent anomoly.
It's not extenuating circumstances at all - why would you overtake the cyclist if there is a double parked van and appoaching car on the other side? There's patently not enough room, so a sane driver would just hold back for 7 seconds. The police are utter morons.
It's not extenuating circumstances at all - why would you overtake the cyclist if there is a double parked van and appoaching car on the other side? There's patently not enough room, so a sane driver would just hold back for 7 seconds. The police are utter morons.
To borrow an analogy used by others, if I were to swing a baseball bat at a police officer from behind and come within millimetres of making contact, would they take no further action on the basis the officer took no evasive action?
No, absolutely not. They'd do nothing because no one got hurt!
Shame on plod.
Again.
Isn't a favourite argument that plod use when fining the one that cleary states what might happen.
Using a phone? Here's a fine because you might have an accident.
Bald tyres? here's a fine because you might have a crash.
No seatbelt? Here's a fine, sir, because you might smash up your own face.
Wankers!
Whilst that is shocking do we really need 5 mins of video for an incident that doesn't happen until after 1:40. There be more at the end of the video 3mins later but I've switched off
I suspect the footage was uploaded to YouTube for the police to view as it is unlisted. The police usually request footage from both before and after the incident and cameras will often record in 5-minute segments.
Having said that, something in the article mentioning when the incident happened would have been a great help.
Probably because otherwise they get accused of angering the driver before the crap overtake happens, in a poor yet effective way to justify it and blame the cyclist
The initial shots show the cyclist stopping at a zebra for a pedestrian, demonstrating that they are a legitimate road user, not a lycra lout, and deserving of some consideration by the justice system.