Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Near Miss of the Day 422: Close pass by driver towing horse box (includes swearing)

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Staffordshire...

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.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

10 comments

Avatar
S13SFC | 4 years ago
2 likes

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.

Avatar
spen | 4 years ago
2 likes

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

Avatar
Seventyone replied to spen | 4 years ago
2 likes

Only for big trailers and only if you got you liscence after 1999 (approx)

Avatar
Da_Burb | 4 years ago
3 likes

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!

Avatar
Awavey | 4 years ago
3 likes

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

Avatar
Eton Rifle | 4 years ago
3 likes

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.

Avatar
Hirsute | 4 years ago
2 likes

I had one like that - the police site said they would prosecute.

No sound on this end, but I did my own sound effects.

Avatar
Biggus-Dickkus | 4 years ago
3 likes

That was a bad one alright!

Avatar
Sevenfold | 4 years ago
4 likes

Appalling driving - I hope you have reported this.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Sevenfold | 4 years ago
5 likes

Goes double if they have the footage of the horses being scared too.

Latest Comments