Near Miss of the Day 403: Close pass by ambulance driver (includes swearing)

The rider who submitted today's video in our Near Miss of the Day feature says that while he has seen far fewer cars on the roads during lockdown, he still experiences a near miss once a day - in trhis case, being on the receiving end of a close pass from the driver of an ambulance (the patient transport type rather than emergency variety).

Adrian, the road.cc reader who filmed the footage, told us: "So I’ve not been on my regular commute into London for 6 weeks or so. Instead, my daily ride to work has been a rather more rural circular route. 

"There’s virtually no traffic but near misses are a daily occurrence. There’re running at about 10 per cent - I’ll be passed by 10 cars at the most and at least one will be a close pass. 

"This morning’s effort, on top of Epsom Downs, was made all the worse by the exemplary pass that preceded it and got the driver a literal thumbs-up from me."

He added: "There’s lots to be said about this one - I expect a full spectrum. For the avoidance of doubt I was braking hard, but so was the driver, so the net visual effect is not a lot.

> 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