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news
Near Miss of the Day 226: "Maybe they just don't like people wearing squirrel suits?"
Here’s a first. We haven’t had a submission to our Near Miss of the Day feature before that left the cyclist wondering whether the motorist concerned had an issue with the squirrel suit he was wearing.
“It happened to road.cc reader Peter last Thursday. He told us: “I had this strange driver try to drive at me the other day. I submitted a video to Avon & Somerset Constabulary via their upload facility (not via YouTube obviously):
“Here's a longer version that has 2 minutes before and 2 minutes after (as required by the police portal).
“I've just got a response stating:
On viewing the footage I agree that the standard of driving falls below the required standard and I shall be sending an advisory letter to the registered keeper of the vehicle.
Peter continued: “This happened at Hutton Moor Roundabout in sunny Weston-super-Mare as I was starting my commute home (unfortunately, I had the wrong time on my Cycliq, so it's an hour fast).
“I have no idea why the car suddenly turned towards/at me and I hadn't heard any shouting or beeping of horns etc.
“Maybe they just don't like people wearing squirrel suits?”
Sadly, we don’t have a picture of Peter in said attire, but we’ll take his word for it.
> 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).
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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13 comments
Looks like the typical comments. Wittering on about cyclists running red lights, as if that absolves drivers of this behavior, and stuff about lights, when it is blatently clear your have a front light.
Looks like the BristolPost have found the video: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/motorist-warned-police-a...
Did you notice that they've reported at face value that you were wearing a squirrel suit? Something of an in-joke which would only make sense if they'd stolen the story from here...
Yes - it was the mention of "squirrel" in the headline that caught my eye until I realised "that's me!".
They do reference road.cc so either they happened across it or someone pointed them at it. I didn't have any contact with them.
Red or grey squirrel suit? If grey, then might have had a thing about immigrants coming here and stealing our nuts.
Probably closer to brown now.
The local hunt trying to claim the bounty on a gigantic squirrel tail?
Hmm, it looked like an intentional act of intimidation to me. They swerved in very sharply, whilst slowing, but had already gone past the point where they could have made the first exit.
If this is a regular commute, I would watch out for them again. On the long video I noticed the AA van pulls out to overtake you, which causes the dodgy Mondeo driver to brake. It could have been this that got him riled. Probably another “get on the cycle path” nutter, who's trying to frighten you off the road.
I tend to agree - it seems the most likely reason. There is a cycle path by the side of the A370 leading up to that roundabout and it does annoy some motorists that I'm using the road instead (the exit from the cycle path is just past the roundabout, so I'd have to exit and then cross at least two lanes of traffic to join the roundabout; it's also a bit too bumpy for my liking).
No harm done, though my heart rate did shoot up somewhat.
It looked like they wanted to get off the roundabout at the previous exit, then got embarrassed into taking the next one! But, who knows what went through their mind at that particular time. I'm guessing, nothing.
I hope you're all OK, Peter.
Meanwhile...
Police taking out moped - in simialr sort of manoeuvre (but, defintely pre-meditated), looking at ABH or GBH! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46440172
Absolutely superb. Finally
.
I wouldn't take it personally, I'm sure they had no idea it was you inside the squirel suit, could have been anyone, I mean you see people cycling in squirel suits pretty much every day, or at least I did until the Doc upped my medication and advised me to spend less time on this website. In fact I would say that you were probably lucky that you were wearing the squirel suit, undoubtedly saved you from a nasty head injury.
As to motive, well apart from the novelty of flattening a 6ft tall squirel, I'm going to propose a last second confusion over which exit to take, and only seeing you (or possibly the exit they did want) at the last moment.
Above all, I'm glad you are not novelty roadkill (...on this occassion).
M
Thanks (I think).
However there are two lanes from that roundabout that you can use to exit the roundabout to go up the bridge, so there was no need for them (didn't see who the driver was) to change lane at all.