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news
Near Miss of the Day 305: Land Rover driver in very close pass
Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows yet another example of a driver putting a cyclist in danger by overtaking them without giving sufficient space.
It was submitted by road.cc user Mike, who described it as “a totally pointless pass from a Land Rover at the bottom of Bowden Hill in Lacock.”
The Wiltshire village is known as the birthplace of photography, although what William Fox Talbot, who produced the world’s first negative in 1835, would have made of someone almost two centuries later capturing moving images nearby on a tiny camera mounted on his velocipede is anyone’s guess.
Mike also sent us a second video which shows the moment he rounded a left-hand bend near Melksham and had to swerve to avoid a pedestrian. Fortunately for both, there was no motorist coming round the bend at the same time.
Besides highlighting that typically there is little-to-no provision for vulnerable road users on country lanes, it also demonstrates the advice given to pedestrians in Rule 2 of the Highway Code, which says, among other things: “If there is no pavement, keep to the right-hand side of the road so that you can see oncoming traffic.”
> What to do next if you’ve been involved in a road traffic collision
> 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.
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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17 comments
And if you are walking in a group, you should keep left and use PPE to protect from impacts.
Organised walks. Large groups of people walking together should use a pavement if available; if one is not, they should keep to the left. Look-outs should be positioned at the front and back of the group, and they should wear fluorescent clothes in daylight and reflective clothes in the dark. At night, the look-out in front should show a white light and the one at the back a red light. People on the outside of large groups should also carry lights and wear reflective clothing.
The landrover was no closer to you than you chose to be from the renault. He passed you when he had a chance but then as he slowed you chose to close the gap and practically undertake him and then to remain in that position instead of backing off like any sensible person would. Can't have it both ways.
Given how close the OP was to the Renault, then why did the Land Rover driver choose to overtake only to have to immediately brake? Surely any sensible person would have simply held back??
The Land Rover pass is just one of those every ride occurrence.
The ped is lucky tbh. Bloody mindless walking on a country lane and not facing oncoming traffic.
Can't help feeling that is what car drivers think about cyclists on a road - shouldn't be there, for their own good, too dangerous.
Yes, then the pedestrian could have jumped in the hedge to avoid the cyclist who was going too fast and on the wrong line
Hi all, my vids.
Pointless reporting to Wiltshire police, they washed their hands of dealing with camera footage toward the end of last year, can't find the original article stating this but this one repeats it, https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/17280245.police-staff-shortages-...
A quote from the article...
"Unfortunately, this has meant we have had to make the difficult decision to temporarily halt our work processing dash cam footage for traffic offences where there is no victim or injuries."
This applies to bike footage too, I asked.
The land rover caught me off guard, would normally have defended against it but as I was keeping up I didn't think anyone would attempt a pass.
As for the ped, it's such an unusual place for someone to be walking hence why I was caught out a little, the footage makes it look closer than it was, I certainly didn't make any accusations about where they should be when submitting the video, roadcc apply the spin, just thought it was a twist on the usual NMOTD participants mode of transport.
Thanks for clarifying - I think it's useful to sometimes step back and think about near misses from another's perspective, and what we could do differently. Road.cc - didn't like your spin about pedestrian positioning. Yes, the Highway Code may have something to say about it, but remember that the HC will often have another relevant provision for the other road user, e.g. in this case Rule 67 (advice for cyclists) - you should look well ahead for obstructions in the road, such as drains, pot-holes and parked vehicles so that you do not have to swerve suddenly to avoid them.
This sort of OT happens to you once, you never let it happen again!
I often cycle in slow moving traffic like this.
To prevent clowns like this OTing, I cycle on the far side of the traffic, where you might find a motorcyclist. I then move over to the left when the traffic speeds up again.
The pass was dreadful, only thought on the drivers mind was to get ahead of the "slower" cyclist. The fact that the cyclist was already keep up with, or being held up by, the other cars was irrelevent to them.
In terms of the pedestrian, I'd have been further out on the bend to (1) try and block a pass from any vehicles from behind, and (2) to improve my own view of what is happening ahead (oncoming vehicles, horses, etc).
Whilst I have sympathy for another Mike involved with the close-passer-tosser, his incident with the pedestrian was entirely self-inflicted. If you can't stop within the distance you can see to be clear, you are travelling too fast.
That the pedestrian should have been on the other side of the road is irrelevant; it might have been an animal, a child or indeed, a walker travelling in the opposite direction.
While I agree that the rider was going too fast round the blind bend, if I was a walker coming the other way I'd have been on the other side of the road. I was taught (walking country lanes on holiday in Finland many times) to walk towards oncoming traffic except when that puts you on the inside of a bend. If that means crossing a road many times on a wiggly road, so be it.
Any operator needs to be able to stop their vehicle in the distance they can see to be clear. Can't see round a bend? cut your speed and manage your risk.....
I always walk on the outside of bends, however when driving /riding I don't expect to have the luxury to assume that the way is clear - animals, broken down vehicles, kids, slower riders, peds, collisions, fallen trees....
I think I remember a year or so ago, that clown from TG running his porsche into some geezer who (unwisely) was turning his 4x4 round after the corner. Staggeringly the rozzers cleared the clown, and threw the book at the unwise.
Awful pass by the Land Rover but the cyclist was hardly riding like an angel. If that Renault had had to brake for something, he'd have had a big dental bill on his hands. Not to mention that way he seemed to try to undertake the Land Rover after the pass. If someone passes you like that just let it go, better alive and angry than dead and squashed
I can only agree that the overtake was abysmal, but I can certainly disagree with the rest of your comment. It was daylight, the cyclist had good vision ahead and I'm assuming that they were both alert and had good brakes, so quite able to avoid a collision. I don't think he tried to undertake the Landie after either. The problem was entirely of the driver's actions, but you seem to want to distract from them.
I hope this was reported to the police.
I won't disagree with much of that
The Landrover driver made one of those classic "why" passes, why did they do it, there was nowhere to go, the rider was up the back of the car and keeping up with the motorised traffic.
As for the pedestrian, the highway code is right of course, and I sometimes ignore it to get to the outside of a bend and open up the field of view so in this case the worst of both worlds. BUT the swerve would not have been required with a bit of forward observation and the basic rule of operating any vehicle safely, you should always be able to stop in the distance you can see is clear. In this case that could be easily achieved with better road positioning on the approach to the corner or riding a little slower. Not all rides are races or training, they take place on roads with other users and you have a responsibility to look out for vulnerable road users, in this case the pedestrian.
By no way exusing terrible driving, the road might be narrower and twistier downline so muppets take their opportunity. Ive seen some terrible OT's as muppets try to grab their 'last chance' for 30 or 40s