(Not so) Near Miss of the Day 380: Driver deliberately clips cyclist (includes swearing)

The latest video in our Near Miss of the Day series is a shocker, and not so much of a near miss, with a West Yorkshire motorist deliberately clipping a cyclist, who fortunately had enough riding skills to stay upright, but has been left unimpressed by the police's response.

The road.cc reader who filmed the incident just before Christmas, who asked to remain anonynmous, had already been subjected to one close pass seconds beforehand on the ​B6265 Bradford Road in Cottingley when a motorist deliberately targeted him.

He told us: "In the first incident, we have a classic close overtake. In the second, a typical Bradford driver decides to intimidate me at a roundabout. They deliberately drove close to me, clipping my leg with their mirror as they passed, which explains the wobble and the swearing.

"The actual contact was not captured on camera. I managed to stay upright because I'm quite experienced and was moving relatively slowly, but I think 90 per cent of cyclists would have toppled over.

"I reported these to the police. As the second incident involved physical contact with me, and then not stopping, it was recorded as a hit and run (failing to stop at the scene of an incident).

"However, even though the registration is clearly visible, the police are not pursuing it with any enthusiasm, only recording a section 59 notice against the car, the same outcome as for the first driver. This is the lowest punishment available, intended for anti-social behaviour like having an overly-loud car stereo rather than dangerous behaviour, and is only acted on if there are further incidents recorded within a year.

"I'm very disappointed at this outcome," he said. "Frankly, it seems like the police in Yorkshire don't really care about cyclists' lives or safety. A piece of deliberate intimidation and a hit and run is treated as anti-social driving.

"As with previous incidents where cyclists were told to use cycle lanes that were blocked by park cars, it makes you wonder if there is a institutionally anti-cyclist mindset in West Yorkshire Police?"

> 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