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news
Near Miss of the Day 213: Close pass driver gets police letter
Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series resulted in the driver concerned being warned by Avon & Somerset Constabulary about his driving after he made a close pass on a cyclist.
It was sent in by road.cc reader Stuart, who told us: “This happened on the A38 towards Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset on 1st September 2018.
“You'll notice my hand in the top right of the video and that shows you how close it was.
“I sent the video to the police and they reviewed it and sent the driver a letter regarding the poor standard of his driving.”
> 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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20 comments
Good that the police did something. I prefer not cycling in larger groups because it brings out the idiot in many drivers, and this doesn't seem like it will change. If I am at the back of a small group I tend to cycle in a strong secondary to deter the 'squeezers by'...
I get drivers trying to overtake me when I’ve got my arm out to turn right at the next junction. Idiots.
A lot of newbie cyclists would benefit from learning how to ride tight 2-abreast and not allow situations like this to arise. Problem is most now start cycling outwith the traditional club system and take great exception when advised how to ride together properly.
Why should riders learn to ride "tight" two abreast, we aren't all racers and neither do we want to be and riding tight is more dangerous as it means increased chances of touching whels and handlebars etc. Being able to ride two or three abreast taking up less than the space of even a small motorvehicle is fine, asking some people to get out the way as you are doing by suggesting they need to learn to ride in less space as opposed to forcing those posing the harm in the first instance is wrong and never has improved safety.
Not allowing the situation to arise would require focus on those doing the harm, npt attributing blame and saying the vulnerable need to change their actions when that action in itself is not harming others!
Typical wrongheaded thinking again that never solves anything ecept push the onus away from the killers.
Bollocks.
That kind of advice is inappropriate and unhelpful and has nothing to do with the overtaking manoeuvre in this video. If you give that kind of advice on a club ride then I'd certainly not want ride with you.
Also, and I'm going to make a bit of a guess here, the majority of trips are made by individuals. And, while on occasion I might ride 2-abreast with another random cyclist to have a bit of a chat, I reckon I'd more usually get a bit of an odd look and a "erm, what are you doing?" from my 'companion'...
I'm taking the video to be a group out riding together, not random individuals.
looks to me that the cyclists do have a part to play in this
as a group it is good practice to ride in a compact 2 up formation which requires more deliberate overtaking thinking on the part of the driver - as a singled out group you have try to be in each others wheels - if like it seems here you are strung out then you are in effect making it hard for drivers to get past unnecessarily - imo
this is not to condone the actions of this driver - only to suggest that there is something we can do as cyclists to make our occupation of the road more sympathetic to other users
being strung out in a long broken line is not sympathetic
The problem with this is that many drivers are not even aware this is considered acceptable for cyclists and in my experience you get more anger from drivers shouting "you're not on the f***ing Tour de France".
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
This is true...
I think however shouting and hooting is better than passing too close - in a sense our taking a more deliberate occupation of the road as a tight 2 up group is safer but we have to accept that some drivers don't have the capacity to share the road - at least this group shape means they can't get past without the required space - singled out we invite the more selfish, entrepreneurial drivers taking marginal chances as in this video.
Probably right here. The more we move into the side and try to accomodate other road users the more dangerous the over-taking move. The give some space campaign did nothing to educate drivers, maybe some Bodecea-type wheels are the solution...
Well done for reporting that, and to the A&S police for taking action, no matter how limited. My local force, so I have a vested interest, but they do seem to be upping their game about close passing over the last few years; perhaps more police are riding bikes?
Round London that would be classified as a good overtake...
Typical idiot overtaking without looking what’s ahead.
Well done on reporting the incident. A warning letter is about the best you can hope for for a pass like this. Hopefully the cops keep a record and can escalate accordingly for repeat offenders.
Given the chronic lack of police resources now, the mass use of cameras is about all we can do to at least alert shit drivers to their shit driving.
Yes, pulling together as a community with hours of footage might actually push forward some real changes or work to improve our cycle network.
Probably won't happen though. Our government seems to hate anyone who does not fully contribute to the tax system by buying their weekly quota of petrol/diesel.
I don’t know, I pay a fair old amount of tax on the extra pies I eat when I cycle in to work. That and how much petrol has to be sold to make up for the air quality fines?
Honestly, I don’t think tax has anything to do with it. It’s all about what gets votes, and the gutter press make sure keeping fuel tax down is a big vote winter and road policing is “stopping the police tackling real criminals”.
That would be the heavily subsidised weekly quota of petrol/diesel? How many years is it since fuel duty was last increased?
8. The IFS estimates that has 'cost' £9bn per year, which presumably keeps falling off the back of the Magic Money Wagon, driven by The Hard-Pressed Motorist.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/03/theresa-may-pledges-to-...
It takes a special type of madness to describe not increasing a tax as a subsidy.