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news
Near Miss of the Day 110: Unbelievably close pass by Ocado driver
Today’s near miss involves a spectacularly ill-judged overtake by an Ocado driver who only narrowly misses a cyclist and an oncoming car thanks largely to the actions of the other two parties.
The incident took place at around 7am on March 14 as Andrew was cycling to work through Surrey.
“While on a quiet country road, I heard a van approaching behind me. Simultaneously I spotted a car coming in the other direction. I had considered myself to have ‘taken the lane,’ but to my dismay heard the pitch of engine behind me change. I knew at that point, given the closing speeds involved, this was not going to end well.
“An Ocado van then passed very close by and swerved into the kerb in front of me, in order to avoid a head-on collision with the car approaching in the opposite direction.
“I would estimate the back of the van came within about 10cm of my handlebars, and that was after I had swerved in towards the kerb. Had I not taken avoiding action, my handlebars would have been clipped and I would probably have gone under the back wheels of the van.
“I conclude that the only reason I am typing this now is down to the diligence and care of the car driver approaching in the other direction, who must have anticipated the situation developing and slowed down very quickly.
“I have been in touch with Ocado via Twitter, who have indicated the incident will be taken seriously. However at this point I have no idea whether this will amount to any more than a verbal reprimand.
“I am at a loss to explain how someone who drives for a living can treat the lives of other road users with such callous disregard.”
An Ocado spokesperson said an investigation was underway: "Road safety is a top priority of ours so we do take issues like this seriously. We recruit drivers with high driving standards and then take time to train them extensively on road safety and awareness."
Surrey Police’s Roads Policing Unit has said that it will be “pushing for a conviction.”
This is NOT an acceptable overtake by the van.
Incredibly poor planning resulting in the cyclist being squeezed into the kerb. Very lucky not have caused a significant collision.
Sent in from a follower, we’ll be pushing for a prosecution on the driver.
You can send dash or… pic.twitter.com/4HCxywCO0L
— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) March 15, 2018
Andrew also makes the point that many fleet drivers are under pressure due to a “rush mentality” that often comes with the job and asks whether this could have played a part.
Last week, following a near-miss with a bus, Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine drew attention to the time pressures faced by bus drivers and implied that this is likely to have an impact on how the vehicles are driven.
The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has also warned of dangers accompanying the rise in van traffic, describing the situation as a ‘ticking accident time bomb’.
IAM RoadSmart director of policy and research, Neil Greig pointed out that van drivers face additional challenges that car drivers rarely will.
“As more and more orders are made online, it is very likely that the increased growth in the number of van drivers will continue,” he said.
“But whether your fleet is made up of vans or HGVs, the same corporate manslaughter laws apply and as an employer it is not enough to assume that just holding a driving licence will keep your drivers safe. With additional pressures on them, including often overly optimistic delivery schedules, van drivers face challenges car drivers rarely will.”
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
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 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 (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.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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My email to Ocado got a reply
====================
Dear Mr Brangwyn,
Thank you so much for your email. The incident referred to is distressing to read and watch and of course has been reported to the appropriate department.
I can assure you we take driving standards very seriously as indeed the safety of members of the public. Our drivers are our ambassadors and they need to and are trained to behave accordingly.
I will like to confirm that investigation into this incident is currently ongoing and thank you so much for your concern and feedback. Kind regards,
Debo Akiode, Ocado Customer Service Team
And no doubt the driver will get some sort of punishment. Might even get sacked. And the scheduling software will carry on churning out delivery schedules that require drivers to average close to the speed limit to meet them. And so more crap passes will happen. And the blame still won't be put in the right place.
This is why I ride early in the morning.
You aren't safe early in the morning especially if taxi and Uber drivers are around. I've seen many near misses by them over the years. Though I conclude most Uber drivers simply cannot drive properly regardless of time of day.
It's OK, it's the cyclist's fault for not reading the cyclist beware sticker. I think they're a get out of jail free card that lets drivers do what they want.
I have a suspicion that the time pressures are worst on rural backlanes, because the software knows the speed limit is unrestricited, but knows nothing of real road conditions. The pressure needs to be applied at the corporate level. To do that we'd need an insider to expose the way this is managed.
The particular regret for me is that it means Sunday morning rides 'down the lanes' are no longer commerial traffic free. The one time in the week when I used to be comfortable outside town is pretty much gone; even though most of the drivers are sane, you have the feeling you might be about to encounter this guy.
Horrendous overtake - the driver is accountable whether under pressure or not. Very regularly close overtakes are also by those who just turn in to the convenience store or off to walk their dogs.. they’re in no hurry.
Conversely had a good experience from a Morrison’s van the other day - dark narrow lane going up hill with muddy verges. The driver waited 15seconds til straighter & wider road then gave a good gap overtake. When passed flashed the hazards as a thanks!
Just two weeks a go I saw an Ocado van go through red lights two seconds after turning from amber.
That was awful. Won't be using this firm.
There is no excuse for this. There is a difference between driving briskly and being reckless. This was reckless.
I had a close pass like this from a bus in Ilkley. It did not end well. The bus was about halfway past when it pulled in. I bounced between the bus and the kerb at least twice and as the bus cleared me I lost control and came off, into the path of the following traffic. The reason I came off was all that the impacts with the kerb had buckled the front wheel and jammed it in the fork.
Luckily the car behind stopped just before it ran me over.
Despite having a witness, who also reported the accident and the exact time from my GPS computer, the police could not trace the bus. (Hint: it was big, green single decker and always goes back to the same bus garage at night). Unaccountably I had omitted to make a note of the registration as I was sliding down the road. It was this incident that persuaded be to buy a head camera
That was seriouly bad.
I wonder companies putting drivers on hard to reach schedules will ever get held partly responsible for accidents?
Well if (possibly a big if, don’t know) it can be shown that there is an insistence on work practices that put the public at risk, even if that insistence is implied by unrealistic scheduling, would there not be a Health and Safety at Work Act question?
Amazing bike skills by the poster
Wow!!!
I would be reluctant to ride again had I been passed like that. And most close passes posted here seem safe enough to me.
This guy is dangerous and has to be punished
We had an Ocado van out to us during the beast from the east. Driver looked more than a little stressed as no allowance or change to the schedule had been made, despite the hideous road conditions, road closures, etc...
Is working pressure an excuse for driving like this? absolutely not.
Does it contribute to a MGIF attitude for those drivers? probably.
If this recent article is still true then they may not be too keen to do anything about the driver's actions: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ocado-revenue-latest-upd...
Also the Chief Executive was on the Guestlist for the President's Club dinner recently.
interesting. Might explain but not excuse some of the drivers behaviour.
That's really bad! Given how wide angle lenses on these Go-Pro type cameras make things look further away than they really are.
I have never shopped with Ocado. And I won't be changing my shopping habits in the future! I suggest others who are offended by this driving do the same?
FUCKIN IDIOT!!
Shocking. I've written to Ocado. Will never use them, ever.
ocado [at] ocado.com if you feel the urge. Turn this into a pr disaster and other firms may take note.
A shocking pass, but is there any evidence that Ocado, are not handling this as they should? In my experience, due to 'company confidentiality policy' one rarely gets to find out what happened in the end.
"Handling as they should" would almost certainly include revising delivery schedules. It's easy enough for a company to blame the driver alone, but, although he must bear responsibility, their often unrealistic scheduling is probably also at fault.
"Handling as they should" would almost certainly include revising delivery schedules. It's easy enough for a company to blame the driver alone, but, although he must bear responsibility, their often unrealistic scheduling is probably also at fault.
That's usually in cases where the company feels they might be liable. The sticker on the back of the van says it all. If their van hits a cyclist, it had to be the cyclist's fault. It's not evidence, but it shows that the company has a one-sided view of road safety, one that doesn't involve them or their drivers.
As of today, and in contrast to most operators who seem to have gone for a softer approach in the past few years, I can confirm that small Virgin Media vans - smaller than many private saloons/4x4s etc - are still sporting “cyclists stay back” stickers” : as they have been doing for years - I was following one in my car. This may be the reason:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4328211/virgin-media-can-of-cider-behind-t...
Think I’ll be sticking with Sky for my TV media. I mean, was the 20th century VM logic: Sky are keen sponsors of cycling - maybe we should do the opposite?
PS The chest-mounted camera position used in the video looks to provide a better depiction of how close passes can be than the usual helmet, handlebar or rear mounts. So some of the others in this series might have looked very similar if the camera had been in this position. Crap for recording scenic rides, obviously, unless you like the sight of your own arms and nostrils, but worth thinking about as a “protective” camera.
hi there, I'm the cyclist in the video. Believed me, the camera, if anything underplays this vs first hand experience. I don't know how it compares with other mounting options, it was just the most cost effective for quickly transferring between bikes.
its not too bad for scenic rides - checkout some of my other videos on YouTube from the Lake District & Pennines.
Wow, that was atrocious. Goes to prove that dressing yourself up like a Christmas tree is still no defence against someone with one brain cell and four wheels.
Totally unacceptable driving, and I don't buy this "under pressure" argument for one minute. It is the nature of modern day working, that people in most jobs are measured against challenging performance targets. Deal with it! Most of us manage it without threatening the lives of others, and even manage to show some respect for colleagues, customers and members of the public we come into contact with. This idiot should be off the road, and I certainly wouldn't want himn driving a moving advert for my company.
Shockingly bad overtake and increasingly common, so much so that I'm beginning to think I need a new hobby.
As for the excuse that these drives are undepressure, it may be true but it doesn't wash with me.
Overtaking in the face of ongoing traffic and expecting them to slow is becoming increasingly common.
Incentivisation and performance management of professional drivers ( I use that term reluctantly) should be regulated.
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