Near Miss of the Day 360: White van driver at pinch point

Most of us will have experienced a motorist attempting to overtake ahead of a pinch-point caused by a traffic island on the road at some point – and as the road.cc reader on the receiving end of this one from a white van driver observes, sometimes it’s the road furniture itself that seems to invite motorists to put cyclists in danger.

George, who shot the footage, told us: “One such crossing island on Ember Lane between Esher and East Molesey seems to draw them like magnets – this one in particular, out of around four or five along this stretch, seem more than any of the others, to tempt drivers into risking a pass and going into the slight bend, it exaggerates the consequences of their efforts.

“So, not so much a near miss for me, but i reckon the street cleaner ahead might have dropped a little of his load as that van passed!

“Bear in mind this stretch is a 30mph and I was at around 28mph when he passed me. I think it’s fair to say he was pushing it – not only his speed, but his luck.”

> 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