Near Miss of the Day 381: Overtaking van driver almost hits cyclist head-on

There's a deep ditch on the left, bailing could have produced a pretty bad result.

Going through it frame by frame, I don't think the driver ever saw the cyclist. Horrific.

I'm often a bit sceptical about whether some of the NMOTDs are as bad as made out (possibly as a London cyclist one becomes immune through repeated exposure) but that one actually made me shout "fuck" out loud. Good to see the driver got fined - if he's a tradesman in the electrical, plumbing etc trade that'll be what, three hours' work? That'll learn him.

I'm normally more relaxed than most about close passes but that was horrific.

Terrifying driving, and a feeble punishment for endangering poor Dan so recklessly.

Re the penalty. Don't forget that, certainly in E&W, nominated police officers (usually traffic officers) can issue Fixed Penalty Notices for more serious offences eg no insurance or careless driving. These can carry more points (6 for no ins.) and a heavier fine. Just wondering if this this is what has happened here? The nominated officer is supposed to 'witness' the incident, but I believe viewing a video will suffice.

Saves on a lot of paperwork…

That is utterly shocking driving.  Kudos to Dan for staying upright and on the road, faced with that I would have seriously been contemplating binning the bike into the grass verge.

But not as shocking as the "Penalty" handed down to the driver.  Another instance of someone in charge of deadly weapon, only avoiding killing them by the narrowest of margins and the police saying you have been a very naughty boy don't do it again.

The driver would have received a similar punishiment, albeit with a lesser fine, for a simple speeding offence.  Why was this not taken to court with a much higher penatly being issued?

Oooosh.. that's a scary one. Echoing others on here.. I've also experienced a couple of these.

Bloody hell. Is Dan still cycling?
Driver should be subjected to that multiple times before being allowed to drive.

Dan tells us what punishment the driver received, but not what he was found guilty of, so I'm assuming it was careless driving.  That isn't careless, it is clearly, undeniably dangerous and the fact that he wasn't prosecuted for it demonstrates perfectly what is wrong with our legal system.

Still, the government review of road crimes will be along any day now, or any year anyway.  Or more likely, never.

Another one that ought to meet the criteria for dangerous driving...

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/road-traffic-charging#_Toc778019

I know the CPS are unwilling to press for DD unless it was intentionally malicious or multiple instances over a sustained period of time.

That doesn't seem right to me, but it's due to the hesitancy of courts to find guilty, as the minimum penalty is a 12 month driving ban and level 5 fine. We all know how reluctant jury's are to impose driving bans and the CPS need to be confident of getting a conviction.

Terrifying. I've been through a couple of these. Most memorably when I was pacelining behind a friend and he just said "don't look up."

Seems to me that the driver overtaking must have seen the cyclist in advance but decided to 'risk it' anyway, and be appallingly reckless.  Don't know if the cyclist was daylight flashing a front light, but even if yes it may well have made no difference.

That was pretty bad.

Weird jump in the middle of the video. I'm assuming the red car was overtaking and the Van decided to follow with the red car blocking the view. However as both were probably "speeding" past the "at the speed limit" van still no excuse. 

That is fucking terrifying....

I've experienced a few like that, in fact it was an incident quite similar (not as close) that set me reporting pretty much every close pass or bit of dangerous driving I get useable footage of.

O. M. F. G.