Near Miss of the Day 430: Close pass ... from a police officer

"Even the police don’t seem to understand how to pass," says road.cc reader Adrian, who sent us this clip from a recent ride for our Near Miss of the Day series.

He filmed it on the A40 in Gloucestershire at Over, a village on the west bank of the River Severn two miles to the west of Gloucester.

Gloucestershire Police have in the past run close pass operations targeting drivers who overtake cyclists without leaving enough room.

One such operation took place in 2017, when PC Charlie McMaster took to his bike in normal clothes to catch motorists who made close passes on him.

At the time , he said: "People do get too close. It happens quite regularly.“Main roads tend to be a bit better. On country roads, with blind bends and poor views, people overtake too quickly and not safely enough.”

In this part of the world, other than a motorway the A40 is as main as main roads get, and in our book that's definitely a far too quick and far too close overtake.

Last year, an officer from Gloucestershire Police told a cyclist reporting a close pass from a coach driver: "Maybe you should consider trading in your bike for a Hummer." 

> Close pass case where police told cyclist "maybe you should trade your bike in for a Hummer" ends with conviction

The force subsequently apologised for the comments and the coach driver was fined and had six penalty points put on his licence.

> 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