We've featured horse boxes before in our Near Miss of the Day series, and here's another example, this one coming from Staffordshire, with the driver not only making a close pass on a cyclist, but also pulling in way too soon.
It was sent in by road.cc reader Damon, who said he was "descending Gun Hill in Staffordshire Moorlands and came really close to being hit by a trailer towed by a car!"
It was almost as though the motorist had forgotten that they were towing a trailer, which presumably had a horse inside it, with Damon saying: "Shortly afterwards the driver came close to four horse riders making one horse almost lose its rider."
He added: "I’m sorry about the swearing by the way" - although we reckon in the cicrcumstances, it's perfectly understandable.
> 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.
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10 comments
That is a typical Staffordshire farmers trailer and typical Staffordshire farmers driving.
He'll have had sheep in the back if he was on the Moorlands
They really do give no shits about anybody else.
I had a similar one about 18 months ago with a landscape Gardner driving a transit towing a trailer with a ride on Ower. I thought it was deliberate but 100 metres further up the road he almost took the front off a parked car, seems he was incompetent rather than malicious although the outcome would be the same.
I thought you had to do training before towing a trailer nowadays
Only for big trailers and only if you got you liscence after 1999 (approx)
Looks like a stock trailer rather than a horse box, although large enough for a horse - minor point, but don't want the horse riding community to complain they are being unfairly blamed!
Starts off alright and then omg if the side of that box looks that close,how close were the damn wheels.
The oncoming cyclist didnt look so chuffed with that overtake either
Jesus!
I'm convinced that people towing trailers etc have no idea of how to do so safely.
That twat clearly had no idea of how the horse box effectively doubled the length of his vehicle, meaning that he had to make a longer overtake.
I had one like that - the police site said they would prosecute.
No sound on this end, but I did my own sound effects.
That was a bad one alright!
Appalling driving - I hope you have reported this.
Goes double if they have the footage of the horses being scared too.