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news
Near Miss of the Day 126: Driver close passes while braking
Here’s a particularly nasty close pass in our Near Miss of the Day series, with the driver involved braking and pulling in as he overtook, and what’s more at a point in the road where the cyclist risked getting pushed into the railings on the left.
It happened at the junction of the A65 and A6120 in Horsforth, Leeds and was submitted by road.cc reader Rob The Commuter, who described it as “another joyous moment on my commute to work.”
He said: “This chap started braking and pulling in even before he had got past. He braked so hard, that he outbraked me and I couldn’t avoid running up the inside, while he pushed me in to the left.
“He gave me quite a fright. I started from the ASL line at the roundabout and left plenty of room for him to get past.
“Driving at its worst. The traffic queues solidly form here in to Leeds, there is a bike lane just ahead and I was soon clear of him and never saw him again.
“So, what was the point of the push past brake check?” he added.
The car involved is an Audi, and we know from previous posts in this series involving that make of vehicle that drivers of them are not held in particularly high esteem by many of our readers.
But we’ll just leave this tweet from Chris Boardman here.
Just FYI folks, I have an Audi
Let’s avoid stereotyping and instead judge behaviour.
That said, you are free to judge @nedboulting for his vehicle choice https://t.co/D58acCLFLj
— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) April 22, 2018
> 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’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.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
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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15 comments
^^^^^^^^^^ Now that is a posh Audi^^^^^^^^^^
Beat me with the Boardman tweet!
Who you are behind the wheel can be a very different beast from who you are in the day to day.
How about informing the police? Insurance companies aren't going to put anyone's insurance up because random people complain about them. They would do if they have a conviction.
I don’t think the police have the resources or indeed the inclination to deal with most non-injury occurrences. There can also be evidential requirements that preclude prosecutions. We will only know if insurance companies will help if they are actually asked.
If I was insuring someone and I saw them as a reckless risk I would put limits on their cover. After all if your postcode claims a lot for break-ins everyone has to pay more.
What harm would it do.
The police don't necessarily have a huge amount of choice if there is evidence of laws being broken, although it may not be considered worthwhile prosecuting.
Insurance companies already have a good measure of which people are bad risks - it's the ones that cost them money with claims. If an insurance company gets just a few reports (i.e. a very small dataset), it's going to cost them more to investigate and assign blame than it would save them in future claims, so they're not likely going to be interested.
Are quotes based in any way on anything concrete? I assumed they could just pick a number and tell you that's it, and if you want to move, go ahead.
If I was running such a company, I would be scanning YouTube for registration numbers, watching those videos, and scoring drivers on them. Getting rid of obviously terrible drivers, or charging them accordingly would make a great deal of sense.
If the insurance companies which cover these drivers were to view this type of footage the ‘close pass’ issue could be massively reduced.
As far as I can see there is no system to inform the insurance companies unless the cyclist was to make a claim for a punctured tyre, or a buckled wheel, or emotional impact (ok, stretching this one).
Motorists can of course claim under the current set up after inputting number plate details into Www.askmid.com.
If the database was amended to allow cyclists to complain directly to insurers then drivers could have an unwelcome letter from their insurers asking them to explain their driving. The risk of increased premium would be most unwelcome.
All we need is a campaigning body to approach the government and the insurance industry.
Any volunteers?
Well by complete coincidence, over the weekend I emailed the Motor Insurers Bureau complaining about the manner of driving of a car which overtook me (I was in my own car) last week on a blind bend. Anything coming the other way and it was all over. Unfortunately I do not have dash cam.
I could provide the reg, make and model and a description of the driver and obviously of the the incident. I also threw in a 'is this why my motor insurance premiums are so high?' rant for good measure
When I get a reply I'll update on here.
And the update is.... disappointing
The MIB stated that it doesn't fall within their remit (they only deal with uninsured and 'fail to stop'/untraced claims).
I then asked if they knew of an appropriate organisation to report it to and they could only suggest the police. I really can't see the police seeing it as their job.
Which sadly brings me on to the police response. After emailing the 'problem solver' for the appropriate area and stating that I was the only witness and no dash cam etc and that I was reporting it for their 'awareness' and 'FYI'; their problem solving was to suggest reporting the incident to '101'.
Pathetic.
Yet another example of staggeringly bad driving, and well done Rob for avoiding a collision, and the language was pretty much what I'd have said too. Overtaking on what appears to be the exit of a signal controlled junction and then braking sharply; sheer stupidity.
No mention of whether this was reported to the police?
Even when I was knocked clean off by someone who swerved into a cycle lane, the Police took no action. I burned a copy of the video to a disk and presented with an accident report at a police station, but the officer at the desk refused to accept the video. The Police did trace the driver and gave me his details, but they took no action because of "lack of evidence". (I had also e-mailed the video to their website). I don't think the Police have the time to worry about the safety of cyclists.
So no, reporting this kind of thing is a waste of time.
'No evidence'? you should have put a complaint in. Did they actually interview them? How did you get on with the insurance claim?
Did the motorist involved not stop and give you their details? If they didn't, there's 2 or 3 offences which sort of don't need evidence for the police to investigate.
Still think it's worth a shot if they have an on-line facility, they may have changed their approach. Several forces (and associated CPS) are adopting a better outlook as regards cycle safety, North Wales police have been very active in this for a while and have recently combined resources with the rest of Wales.
Now if I could just get Cheshire CPS to move into the 21st century, my entire commute would be covered.