Near Miss of the Day 419: Driver reverses on blind bend, plus close pass ahead of narrow bridge (includes swearing)

A two-for-one for you today in our Near Miss of the Day feature with two incidents on one ride in Warwickshire. In the first, the cyclist comes round a blind bend to encounter a van driver reversing, while in the second, he is given a pointless close pass by a van driver immediately before a narrow bridge.

The footage was recorded by road.cc reader Mick, who said: “I was just coming along the B439 towards Bidford-on-Avon in Warwickshire and was going to cross the Avon so took the slip road left after descending Tower Hill.

“That was when I got the surprise … Father Christmas parked across the road in his white pick-up truck reversing into a side road on a BLIND Bend.

“You can hear my brakes grip and the rear wheel slipped out sideways as it skidded.

“Got no recognition or apology from Father Christmas …  I must be in his bad books.

“But if I had not feathered the brakes knowing how blind that bend was, then there could almost certainly been a collision as there was nowhere to go.”

The second incident happened as Mick rode through Welford Upon Avon.

“As you pass the pub on the right the road narrows to single file with a give way each end as it crosses the bridge to the river,” he said.

“I was travelling at about 18 mph towards the bridge and saw the first blue SUV pass me alright … I saw his brake lights come on as there was a cyclist coming over the bridge towards him followed by several vehicles.

“The gap between us was rapidly closing and that’s when Mr White Van decided that he had to PASS me as he was so important and in such as rush.

“He cut between me and immediately slammed on the brakes as the blue SUV was now stationary. I stuck on the brakes hard and stopped just before I went into his rear end, there was no trouble reading his number plate – it filled my vision.

“We crossed over the bridge and he then turned left towards Bidford after 100 metres or so … what a jerk ... those precious seconds he must have wasted.”

“It was then peaceful after that on the way home,” Mick added.    

“Oh, I didn’t mention the deer that jumped out of the hedge just in front of earlier. Great big fallow deer. Lovely.”

> 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.