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news
Near Miss of the Day 102: Trailer-towing tractor driver in close pass
Today's video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows a tractor driver, towing a trailer, overtaking a cyclist - and giving him very little room as he passed.
It's not the first time we've featured a tractor in the series - remember this one from July last year?
As in that video, the first thought of the cyclist in the latest one was to get out of the way - only there was nowhere for him to go.
It was submitted by road.cc reader Jon Tonkinson, who told us: "I could hear the tractor behind me for some distance.
"I couldn't move to let him pass as there was not a footpath.
"It happened in Teddesley Road, Penkridge, Staffordshire
"I haven't reported the incident to the police as without a vehicle registration number they will not be able to take any action," he added.
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.
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25 comments
Smart move if a tractor is going to slightly faster is to let it past and then sit in the hole in the air. Amaze your friends with your sudden leap up the Strava tables on that section.
If there had been a gate I would have pulled into it. I couldn't pull onto the grass verge due to the kerb and the risk of skidding . I couldn't stop to let him pass because he was so close behind. My concern as he passed me was that the trailer may have been wider than the tractor
Bloody farmers and their untaxed vehicles ,tearing up our roads.
"Get off the road you dont pay road tax !"
lol
Crappy video but the cyclist said he heard the tractor behind him for quite a while.
Personal I'd have pulled over and let him past. Doesn't harm to be considerate.
And where should he have pulled into, o wise one? A fucking hedge?
"I couldn't move to let him pass"
Presumably 2 U turns to end up behind the tractor !
Just look at the capture from the video. Grass verge. I'd have pulled over and hoiked the bike up. It's not rocket science.
The name of the science of skidding onto some mud while an impatient twat in a 6.5 tonne vehicle drives up your arse temporarily escapes me, but I believe it's largely discredited.
sterculinolapsology.
which is why the science bit is easy and its the rocket engineering bit thats difficult, because it might sound like a great idea just to use the verge, till you realise the tractor might be carrying around a heavy plough or a disc harrow, which can often be slightly wider than the tractor anyway and usually angled towards the left side to avoid hitting & fouling oncoming traffic on the road, which tend to bounce around uncontrollably because tractors dont have solid suspension and have very sharp steel pointy sticky out bits on it that will make short work of any human getting slightly in the way.
you carry on till you find the bit furthest away from the road as possible you can get away from it, and hope the driver is sensible enough not to put you at risk by overtaking like in the video
I think I tend to take a more balanced view of the motorist versus bike blame game than many on here, but frankly, the idea that we should ever have to leave the road and "hoik" our bike up onto a muddy verge when a vehicle approaches us from behind, is quite frankly, ludicrous.
Os alternatively, since an untaxed farm vehicle shouldn't be going more than 1.5km on road, that's only a few minutes of inconvenience, and only half that saved taking into account the speed differential.
I'm assuming it's untaxed (a very fair assumption!)
I've got to be honest that I couldn't really tell what was going on: too much mud and spray obscuring the camera view.
I've found the most dangerous tractors to be the ones driven by 13 year-old boys helping out on their Dad's farm.
How fast was the cyclist going?
It was a double white line, so an illegal overtake unless the cyclist was going <= 10mph.
Reminds me of the movie Duel.
Tractors seem a law unto themselves. I'd guess most of them are breaking the law as they seem to take much longer journeys than they are allowed without road tax and half the time they seem to be driven by dimwits on mobile phones. They also seems to take over half the road up and almost never comply with this one....
Rule 169 of the Highway Code states that motorists should not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if they are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle.
I don't trust tractors. I was on the farm path I ride on regularly a couple of summers ago and got stuck behind a tractor kicking up loads of dust. I woke up with laryngitus the next day and lost my voice for about 4 days
.
Not to take away from the fact it was a crappy impatient pass, but I have to say that sometimes on days like that the sound of a tractor behind me is music to my ears. Please overtake, then drag me most of the way home!
They usually have power moreso than speed and as you say, loaded up they struggle which is why I think he felt the need not to lose momentum. The hanging on the back wheel was potentially worse than the closeness of the manouevere. Either way, it's putting someones life at risk for sweet FA.
The mud though, I mean that's even more of a reason not to do it!
As for pulling in, it's a short video so we don't get the context, but yes I do sometimes too if I'm on a long climb 'on their patch' I will quite often pull into a gate, and then they'll try and go through it
Around Cheshire, I'll be fair, most of the farm vehicles are pretty good and we'll often give them a wave by - keeps it all sweet innit!
+1. Tractors rule the countryside. I always let them past, they always acknowledge and when coming in the opposite direction they usually stop for me. How many other vehicles do that? It's their workspace and they belong there, the farmers work bloody hard, they maintain what most of us think is a 'natural' environment while motorists race through chucking out coffee cups.
Was a close pass though, but I don't beleive for a second that in 'some distance' there wasn't a gate to pull in at.
All very ironic on the same day that we hear of two farmers being charged after last September's tour o the borders!
The driver knows he's not got much more speed than the cyclist so has to be on full throttle and right up his arse. Stupidity born out of his mother and father being from a small gene pool...
Difficult to see with all the mud spray, but it does seems like a very poor overtake. I'm pretty sure that those huge tractors are capable of decent speeds, but would have fairly sluggish acceleration especially if loaded. In rural areas there are some 'working' vehicles like this, I will, if possible pull over for, if for no other reason than a 'quiet life'.
The Police are like fat people who don't want to exercise; full of excuses.